[Bob Zelin]

As Walter pointed out, the Sony PVM-20L5/1, 14L5/1 are probably the best choices – if you can find them. The Panasonic BT-LH2600W, and BT-LH1700W are excellent if you need both SD and HD displays, as the Panasonic is one of the only monitors that looks good with interlaced SD video – AND they have a build in waveform monitor (that is so so, but it works).

For straight LCD monitors, the Dell 2405FPW and HP 2335 are very good, and both have Y Pb Pr inputs, that can display HD via the K-Box or K3-Box analog HD outputs. The Sony SDM-P234b is one of the few monitors (other than the panasonic) that can show a true 23.98 signal without scaling. Both the SDM-P234b and the Apple 23″ Cinema require an AJA HDP or Blackmagic HDLink HDSDI to DVI adaptor. You don’t need this with the Dell or the HP. AVID recommends the HP2335 for the Nitris.

If you have no money, go to Best Buy, etc. and buy anything – they all work.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
3) Why HDMI and not DVI-D?

REPLY
Because people that want to spend LESS MONEY for the Multibridge Pro probably want to spend less money on their display monitor – so they will go to a consumer store to buy a consumer HD TV, which will have HDMI. Professionals will buy the Multibridge Extreme, which has DVI-D that can drive a PROFESSIONAL monitor, including the 30″ Apple Cinema display. The Multibridge Pro is for people on a budget – but it’s a very nice unit, especially if you only need to do 4:2:2 HD. If you can afford a Sony SR series HD VTR, then you can afford the Multibridge Extreme. //

4) If I have an LCD or plasma HDTV connected to the HDMI output of Multibridge, will it display a signal when the Multibridge is in SD mode or will it only be active in HD mode?

REPLY – yes, the HDMI display will show any signal coming thru the Multibridge – SD or HD.

Bob Zelin

ps – what is a LUT ? (you obviously are not referring to LUTs as refered to in disk drives).

[Bob Zelin]

I don’t think that the HDWS280 does insert and assemble edits, and I KNOW FOR SURE that the 280 DOES NOT offer 2:3 pulldown (which comes standard with the JH-3 player). The 2:3 pulldown option for the SR5500 and the old HDW-F500 was VERY EXPENSIVE, which makes the JH-3 player a great value.

If you look at the Sony website, Sony like selling these VTR’s in “PAC’s”, where they “bundle” the JH-3 player with a recorder, like the HDW-M2000/10 recorder (which also does not offer 2:3 pulldown).

I know some of you are stuck with using Sony, but you can see why Panasonic is killing them with products like the 1200 and 1400 VTR’s that offer everything for half the price of the 280.

I find it amusing that Discovery has announced that they will be requiring SR delivery of HD next year. I know that they pay NOTHING for their shows, and I can’t wait to see who is going to spend over $100,000 for a loaded SR5500 with options, just to deliver a “discount” production to Discovery.

What a wacky business we live in.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you write –
What do people think of this approach (if applicable) for location editing, uncompressed capturing, documentary work, van applications etc., as opposed to the less compact Powermac G5 approach? Notice should be taken that the cost wouldn’t be reduced, since the differnce in price between a Powermac and a Powerbook is worth the Magma expansion.

REPLY – I think you are crazy. Even if it works, there is this fantasy that becuase you are on a notebook, everything else is small. You STILL need ALL KINDS OF STUFF, that will be hanging off the computer – drives, monitors, keyboards, USB hubs, black gen, the Magma – it WONT be portable – you will have ALL THIS STUFF – just get a rack on wheels, stick the damn G5 in the rack, and be done with it. And have room in a rack draw for your mouse, cables, etc, etc. I see people all the time with laptop AVID systems, but they are using a Mojo, and have all this crap hanging off the system, with millions of wires – it’s just crazy. You ain’t running a word processor here – our business requires all kinds of STUFF – and all those outboard pieces of equipment (including the Magma) don’t make it “portable”.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The JH3 puts out embedded audio, and the Kona 2 and Kona 3, and Kona LH all capture embedded audio. Simply go into the Kona control panel, select INPUT tab, and on the audio portion, select Embedded 1-8, instead of AES.
No need to change your easy setup or Capture Preset.

The person on the HD Hi End forum is a dope. I will have to look for his post.

bob Zelin

ps – embedded is refered to as SDI A/V

[Bob Zelin]

I have GOT to be missing something here. You want to downconvert on ingest, and you are using a JH-3. The JH-3 has DOWNCONVERTERS built into the VTR. Simply take the SDI out, or the Analog component out, or the analog composite out, and go into your AJA product (for Kona 3, take the SDI out, not the HD-SDI out from the VTR). Select the correct easy setup for SDI 525, and away you go – no control panel stuff !!!!!

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you can use Sony’s cheapest VTR – the Sony JH-3 player – to get 23.98 uncompressed HD 1080i playback, with no problems. This VTR will also do the 23.98PD 2:3 pulldown for you, if you are finishing for TV, so your project can be in 59.94. You will NOT GET BETTER RESULTS if you use the expensive HDW-F500, instead of this “cheap” JH-3.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

everyone is waiting for the new Firmtek 2 port card to come out for the MAC Book Pro –
https://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2sm2-e/

this product will allow you to get your 2 port SATA array into the MAC Book Pro, and do 8 and 10 bit uncompressed SDI as well as DVCProHD on two Seagate or Hitachi SATA drives, on your laptop. This is the same drive enclosure that Firmtek currently sells, that works great on the current G5’s (both PCI-X and PCI-E). You MUST stripe both SATA drives together RAID 0 to get reliable playback of 8 and 10 bit uncomressed SDI and DVCProHD, using nothing other than Apple Disk Utility. The ability to have a terabyte of storage for about $1000 is pretty amazing.

I hear that the new Firmtek will be out in about a month – but who knows (for the MacBookPro). I believe the Firmtek card will be cheap – about 80 bucks.

Maxx Digital (Ron Amborn) sells all this stuff.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Joe writes –

I have a similar config with 8 Seagate drives, and double the speed results….it’s no fluke…

REPLY –
what are you saying Joe – that you are getting over 500mb/sec from 8 Seagate SCSI drives ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you need the Addenda RS-USB4. It costs $68, and works perfectly.
You have the wrong adaptor.

Bob Zelin