Alex Alexzander
Forum Replies Created
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You don’t need a Mojo. In fact, I don’t think the mojo would be teh go between to ingest DVCPro 100 HD. I think you have to go direct via firewire for that codec.
I can’t imagine why having an QuickTime based DVCPro 100 HD asset wouldn’t work with just a basic import while in a HD project with the propper settings. Should just import without a hitch, though I have not tried it.
-Alex Alexzander
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DVD Studio Pro is not available for the PC. So your choices are Encore DVD amoung others. Encore has had a few problems with DLT drives for some users. It has a solid, polished interface, and the menu creation capability is pretty good. It’s well integrated with Photoshop.
I replicated from it, and it does indeed work. It doesn’t have the ability DVD Studio Pro has for making DDP images to hard disc so that you can make real masters without a DLT drive. I raise this issue because if you can’t get your DLT drive to work with it, you’ll be forced to buy Gear Software’s Gear Pro Mastering Edition, whcih can take a VIDEO_TS folder and turn it into DDP images or DLTs.
DVDit 6 Pro is also a great program. Less templates, and it works a lot more in the traditional sense of authoring. It is due any day now for a bug fix package, and once it arrives at that stage, it will be a great alternative. Both of these two have their strengths and their weeknesses however. I could make a strong case for either one.
I think DVD Studio Pro for the Mac is without a doubt the clostest thing there is to a full blown pro quality authoring application. It’s matured over the years, and it really isn’t missing much. You can do a lot more with that, then just about everything, and its a complete package. But, you need a Mac to run it.
If you have to get started today, then I’d say go for Encore. If you can wait a little while for DVDit 6’s bug fix, then that is a good choice as well. It really depends on a couple features. They are awefully close in some ways.
ReelDVD is an option, and I happen to like it, but many find it hard to use, and it authors DVDs in such a way that you don’t get the timecode readout on your DVD player. Some could care less about that, and others really hate that. Everyone agrees that ReelDVD makes perfect DVDs. It is picky about what DLT drives is supports. You actually need one of two specific SCSI cards to get their support on the DLT side. DVDIt Pro 6 has more features, but we are waiting for a fix to arrive. DVDit seams to work quite well with various SCSI controllers, and I never had an issue geting my DLT to work with it.
Start to consider what is important to you.
Alex Alexzander
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You can indeed use a DVD-R as a master for replication, and you can even use it to store CSS and region information. Even macrovision flags. In fact, it can do ANYTHING a DLT can do, even on a general DVD-R media.
The way a DLT works, is it stores the DVD as a single image file on the tape, called MAIN.DAT This file is huge. The same size as the finished DVD. If you are doing a DVD-9, then two DLT tapes are used, and each one stores one layer of the DVD. Both layers on both tapes are stored as images, again both are called MAIN.DAT.
Now in the case of DDP images on DLT, two other files are also on those DLTs. One is called DDPID, and the other is called CONTROL.DAT.
Now, what about these DVD-Rs?
Well, when you finish your DVD project, depending on the authoring system you are using, you can store the finished DVD, with all these flags set by storing it as a DDP IMAGE.
For example.
In DVD Studio Pro, you can create the DDP image to your hard drive, rather than to a DLT tape. That DDP image is exactly the same image that would normally be recorded to tape. The DVD-R is used as a UDF file system, which is cable of storing files greater than typical ISO9660 CDs. Those store single files no greater than 1 GB. But pure UDF stores files of much larger sizes. For this reason, you can store a finished DDP image onto a DVD-R as long as you do so with a pure UDF format, and store it not as a VIDEO_TS, but as the DDP IMAGE file. When you do this, you use the DVD-R exactly the same way a DLT tape is used. It contains the very same data a DLT contains.
If you are creating a DVD-9, then you would store Layer 0 on one DVD-R as a DATA UDF image, and the other layer, i.e. Layer 1, would be another DVD-R also as UDF DATA, with the second layer’s MAIN.DAT image file.
Now, if you do not use DVD Studio Pro, then you will need an application that can create these images for you. Gear Software’s Gear Pro Mastering Edition for Windows can create these images, but it doesn’t work perfectly with CSS from what I can tell. Right now, your best bet is use an application on the Mac called DVDAfterEdit. That application can convert any VIDEO_TS folder, for DVD-5 or 9, into DDP tape images on the hard drive. Once you have those, you will burn the layer 0 folder to a DVD-R using Toast’s Pure UDF DVD data format option. You do this for both layers, and ask your replicator if they can accept them this way. Many can, and will know all about it.
-Alex Alexzander
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Perhaps an OMFI issues. Avid that use the OMFI standard limit to 2 GBs. Even in that case, it should break the file up upon import. So I am little confused about why they have that spec. MXF creates datafiles much larger than OMF.
Also, as I create Data Description Protocol files on a daily basis which are up 4.7 GBs in a single file, I can also say without a doubt, that XP has zero problem with files greater than 2 GBs. That is of course saying that the system is using NTFS.
The method of transfer may have something to do with this. A universal way to transport data files should be kept under 2 GBs so others can read them. That might be the issue.
-Alex Alexzander
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I believe the Avid 1 in 1989 was used in broadcast, but in 1993, the film “Lost in Yonkers” by Neil Simon was cut using the Avid Film Composer. Unless someone has better information, I believe this is the first feature film ever cut on an Avid.
-Alex Alexzander
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First of all let me say that when you buy a machine that is on Avid approved hardware list, and you later need their support, you will get it. Building a machine of your own design negates that option for you. No matter what, it’s a good amount of effort to do it yourself, but if you’re anything like me, and won’t take no for answer, I’ll tell you how I did it and what my results are.
One of things I pay a lot of attention to, is what Avid has on the approved list. I also spend a lot of time in the Avid forums, and I trade information there about this very topic with several others that already did what I was about to do when I wanted to build my own Avid with Mojo.
Supermicro makes a motherboard that everyone building their own machine agreed was almost exactly the same board HP uses in their HP xw8200 workstation. Of special note is that this motherboard supports twin XEON processors, and as all such motherboards, it has multiple bus segments. You’ll need this if you ever want to add a Mojo, and use any kind of external Raid array. Before you say you won’t need to do that, keep in mind a 40 tape shoot in DV resolution will consume close to 600 Gbs of storage just to ingest the footage. Personally, I think everyone needs RAID. Not just for storage, but for speed as well. 1:1 resolution requires it. And a Mojo is also needed to do 1:1. So I consider this to be the minimum Avid system unless you are going to be in a pure DV environment with not too many tapes per project.
The Supermicro motherboard I chose is the X6DAE-G2. This sells for $419 at Newegg at the time I purchased it. It offers several slots, and I’ll describe how to populate them and so forth.
First the CPUs. I use twin XEON Nocona 2.8 Ghz Processors. Both of these cost less then a single 3.6 Ghz XEON. They are a good buy, and offer a lot of performance. The Supermicro board is picky about XEONs, so get the Nocona Active Cooling CPUs. These are about $249 each.
Now the Supermicro motherboard CPUs require special cases. They can’t fit into any ol case you buy for $40. I went straight to Supermicro and bought their own case rated for their own motherboard. I found this an easy way to remove all the guess work, and ensure cooling is perfect. The case I purchased is model CHASSIS S-MICRO|CSE-733i-450B BLK R. Truthfully, it comes with a 450 watt power supply, which is the minimum for a twin XEON. You should get a 550. The chassis will cost you about $175 to $224 depending on where you buy it.
Next is memory. Again, these higher end systems don’t take just any ol memory. And especially not this board. Best thing to do is go to Crucial and use their ram picking application. You tell it what motherboard you have, and they tell you what memory is approved for that specific board. Supermicro also publishes a small list of recommended memory. Believe me. Follow it, or you will be staring a machine that wont even boot.. I purchased kit # 2GB kit (1GBx2), 240-pin DIMM Upgrade for a Supermicro SUPER X6DAE-G2 System. This kit costs about $369 is will provide 2 Gbs of 240 pin Registered ECC memory, which is a requirement.
A good mid-range Avid approved video card is the PNY nVidia Quadro FX 1300. These sell for just $349. Get that card, and ONLY USE the Avid supplied video driver. Do not just go grab the latest and greatest driver from either the install CD or the web. Us Avid’s driver 67.22. You’ll find it is in the Avid folder in program files.
The Supermicro’s built in AC’97 audio has been problematic for many users. The collective group I am with agree the best card is the Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. Disable the AC’97 and use the Augidy 2 ZS only. The Audigy 2 ZS is $99.The Supermicro has a built-in RAID controller which is limited to 2 SATA1 hard drives. In my experience, it’s a buggy, worthless controller. I use the Highpoint Rocket RAID 2224 8-Port SATAII controller. It sells for about $254.
You can buy lose SATA II drives with 16 MB cache from Newegg for $130 each. I use a single 160 GB ATA100 EIDE drive for the OS Boot, and the SATA II drives are off the Rocket as my Media drive. Avid recomends you partition your RAID drive into multiple volumes no larger than 200 Gbs each for maximum performance if you use OMFI. As I understand it, if you use MXF this is not an issue.
If you are going to attach a Mojo, you must use the Avid approved FireWire card, which uses a Universal Ti Chip set. The specific card approved by Avid is VIDEODEV ADS|PYRO PCI 64 API-311 RT. It sells for about $29.
Now in order to keep the system running well, you have to pay particular attention to the way you configure the cards. This is so your computer can handle the extreme bandwidth demands going from Mojo to your external array.
Here is my slot configuration:
Slot 6: PCIe
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Perhaps you unselected videoduring capture, and ingested just the audio, and the timecode?
-Alex
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In the timeline, did you turn off sound monitoring?
In the system settings, do you have sound setup properly for your system. Meaning, if using the PC’s sound card, did you set for using Windows sound?
In short, check your settings, and check your monitoring on the timeline.
-Alex
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Many have, and they are doing just fine. BUt if you require Avid’s own support, it could be a big problem. This topic actually gets kicked around teh Avid Xpress Pro PC forum at Avid.com somewhat often, and we have norrowed things down to two good motherboards, and what a good solid system config ought to be.
Here is a link of our recent conversation on this very topic:
https://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/26940/ShowPost.aspx
Hope that helps…
-Alex
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I’ve been wanting to see some benchmarks in this area myself. Perhaps we could get a few to test a common small project. If someone wants to build a small project, and move it to a blank DVD-R, would could do some testing on various machines using the common media DVD-R so that all are using the exact same timeline.
Anyone feel like building a small timeline with some effects that would fit on a DVD-R? It would have to be small, but still contain DVCPro 100 HD, and HDV video on it.
I’ve seen this done for after effects, and it really helps the group out. I’d be happy to distribute the DVD-R to those that want to test it, and report back the numbers. I could even keep a running web page of the hardware and the results each user gets. I could add a way to order the DVD-R to those interested for their own testing. I think I could mail a DVD-R around the US for about a $1.50 a DVD-R which includes the cost of the DVD-R. I’d be willing to do that for free.
-Alex