[Bill Crawford]

Thanks Walter, this problem has come and gone in the time I’ve owned the array. It’s been on my list to troubleshoot for a while.

I’m cutting a pretty straight forward corporate piece. It’s 10 bit SD 4×3 video. The audio is mono narrator on one track, and nat sound on the second. Some stereo music on 3 and 4 from time to time. Again, nothing too extensive. The array is not very full – about 50%.

The bugger is that I have a LaCie 500GB FW 800 drive that I use to take projects out to do homework on, and it in the past has played the sequences just fine that the S2S hiccups on sometimes.

When I installed the unit I did do a format and erase. It’s striped as 4 drives. I checked the LaCie site suspecting it might be a SATA driver issue, but I didn’t see a file for that – just a general update for the array. I installed that, but I still have the issue. I was thinking next that I would need to re-format it again, but before I did I wanted to check around to see if there were any more ideas.

Thanks again – good to hear you have a working system. That means I’m likely just missing some small detail. Any thoughts – I’m open

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

No problem, glad to help.

One thing you will have as an advantage to us in the US, your 750P (PAL) will do both interlace and progressive. Something the NTSC version does not have. I would have loved to have been able to offer 30P. Especially now that many of the new home displays are choosing 30P as the native display format.

I think the best part of the 750 is that at it’s price point it’s just above what we spent on our Beta SP stuff a decade ago. It helps the move to HD as an affordable acquisition source that plays well in both the SD and HD world. It has a great look – very close to the 900. I like the ability to shoot in HD, and then be able to decide whether to downcovert to 4×3, or 16×9 without resolution penalty. If I had stayed in the SD world, I woudl have had to choose between a widescreen or 4×3 model. The switchable d-beta models had lower vertical resolution in 16×9 which would have been a negative for the effects work I shoot.

Also this works well for delivering projects in PAL. I recently had to provide PAL versions of a program series. Normally in NTSC you have to upconvert to PAL because of PAL’s larger frame size. I addressed the problem by doing the edit in HD and donwconverted to PAL. A very clean image when finished.

While I had an extensive library of beta and dbeta tapes, I chose to avoid the M2000 because of the potential head replacement issues. I also felt that upconverting SD tapes was against the idea of shooting in HD. I wanted the clients to jump on board for new material acquisition rather than get in a situation of using existing SD material upconverted for HD use. Not to mention the quality was a bit thin.

I just kept the A500 Dbeta in the rack and use it for SD mastering and downconverts.

Good luck with the changeover. If you have any other questions feel free to drop a note back.

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

|No issues with it?

None to speak of.

|Robust hard wearing construction.

Yes, with one caveat. Sony replaced the optical block for me under warranty as I had some CCD issues about 2 years into ownership. They were excellent about the repair and I’ve not had any issues since.

|Do you have a HD lens on it? If so, what do you use?

Yes – even though it is a B4 mount,and SD lenses will work. Don’t. You will not be happy with the quality. I’m a bit surprised that the 350 owners are suggesting that they are using SD lenses on it. I’m very picky about my glass and any zoom lens is a compromise to begin with. Chromatic aberrations are the most common artifact, and an SD lens will show a lot more of those than a comparable HD lens on an HD camera. Especially near the edges.

I’m using a Canon HJ16x8. I’m a little mixed on it. It has had some alignment issues that have been somewhat addressed in service, but for now I’m thinking it’s a bit delicate in the field. That, or my eyes need to get worse soon, or Canon will stop returning my calls 😉

|What type of hard drive system do you have set up with FCP and the HDCAM?

I’m using a Lacie Biggest S2S Sata array.

|What is your main HD program monitor you use to view the editing with?

Sony BVM 14

|What VTR do you use?

Sony HDW-2000

|I am loking at upgrading from DVCAM to HDCAM. The 750 sounds just right as does a D2000 (the M2000 is just a little too pricey).

I’m not familiar with the D2000. I like my 2000 and would recommend it. I thought it was a bargain after buying Beta, and Dbeta studio decks in the past. It has performed well and without problem. I get some outside material sometimes and it is helpful to have all the formats be playable. I got some 30P stuff from Germany and it worked great. Not at all like the PAL / NTSC format issues before.

The best advice I can pass on is to get the gear that makes the best sense for your client’s projects. I was an early adopter of HD in my market. I was replacing an aging Beta SP system. It did not make any sense to stay in SD since HD was on the near horizon so I went with the flexibility the shooting in HD offers. In 4 years my clients have benefited from the quality, but only a few jobs came to me just because I have HD. In addition, almost all my work still finishes in SD. HD edits are still a bit rare in my market. It has been much more common for me to work in 16×9 SD.

Before you drop the bucks, be sure you have client support for HD. Gear is nothing but getting cheaper and better. If you do not have direct client support for a format, the longer you wait, the better off you will be. You can always rent until you have enough work to justify ownership.

Hope that helps,

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

Hi David,

I’ve owned a 750 for 4 years now. Can’t say enough good things about it. Overall It was a smooth transition from SD to HD. There were the usual odd issue here and there that normally comes with a new kit, but on the whole it was painless. It was also relatively easy to change my post over. I was using an Avid in the SD world – but used FCP to switch to HD post. It works very well.

What in particular are you interested in knowing?

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

I don’t know about the other cards.

I’d be interested in hearing what BM has to say about it. There might be something they could do.

BM Support?

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

Not really – most days it doesn’t work. When it does work, it doesn’t seem to be repeatable. Could be something in the BMD drivers, but when the card reliably outputs audio for FCP and the general system, I find it hard to pin on them.

I’ve tried trashing the preferences for both FCP and Soundtrack, but again, nothing relable.

I recall seeing some notes on the next OSX update, and they talk about working on the reliability for multiple programs using core audio. Maybe this update will help us.

Good luck,

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

Hi Adam,

I have Decklink set in the System Preferences. I also have it set in Soundtrack Pro as well.

Strange – I just checked it again, and it did not work, then I went to double check, and it did. Must be the tech gremlins with a sense of humor.

Thanks for the reply – you must have made them listen! 😉

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

One thing to consider, is to contract with a local facility to capture the material for you in HD and place it on your drive of choice to edit on your system locally. Then when done, you can take the drive back and have them output to tape. This is something pretty easy to do as many more full up edit facilities are using FCP, and BM cards. If you are worried about competitors, you can look to a nearby city and go with a non-competive facility.

All in all it can be cheaper than renting a deck.

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

Hi Luke,

I went through the signal path some more this morning. I verified that the sync going to the HDW-2000, DVW-A500 and Decklink HD Plus are all correct from the cables.

It appears that the Decklink HD Plus is not locking to the reference given to it. I checked it’s HD output on a scope set for external reference on house sync. It drifts, and the HDW-2000 is locked to reference correctly. Reviewing the signal, it drifts the same if the house sync is attached or not.

Looking over the system preference panel, I see that the genlock slider is greyed out. Shouldn’t this be available for timing?

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Crawford]

Hi Luke,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes the sync signal matches the formats I have in place. I’m using a DVW-A500 Digibeta and a HDW-2000 HDCAM deck with the card. Both are tied into the same core sync path, a path that has been working for three years. This same setup worked well with a Decklink Pro SD card that the new card replaced. The HDCAM format I’m using is 1080 60i, so regular NTSC sync works great.

I see in the archives that Matt Geller had this problem on Nov. 3 and reported it in the forum here. Matt Dowling pointed him to a new driver 5.1.2e – but nothing else was reported following the driver suggestion. Does this driver resolve the issue?

Thanks,

Bill