[Bob Zelin]

you write – We use the codec DVCPRO HD.I am using PAL.

PROBELM 1: DROP FRAMES So far we have captured 28 of 40 tapes.When we try and capture now we get the message in FCP 5.1 – dropped frames. But the SATA drive has 300 GB free. We have moved the kona to the top slot hoping that it will stay cool. We think maybe we are having heat issues.So the card will capture ok for a while.But we try and bring in whole 1 hour tapes and sometimes it will stop and say drop frames. If we wait. Turn eveything off then sometimes we can get the whole tape done.

REPLY – you will never get reliable capture of DVCProHD from a single SATA drive – you should ABSOLUTELY have TWO SATA drives stripped together in RAID 0 for reliable capture at DVCProHD. Also, you should have a reliable
SATA host card, like the Sonnet E4P (if you are using the Quad PCI Express computer).

When we started doing the feature we successfully captured direct to 1TB lacie driveson firewire 800. Now we can’t do this. it won’tlet us.Could this be coz the 1 TB are getting fulland therfore writing too slow? This problem is not always there. However now we can not get our final 12 tapes in.

REPLY – ANY DRIVE that gets full will have poor response – SATA, SCSI, FW, etc. You just said you were using SATA, and now you are saying that you are using a 1TB Lacie FW800 drive . Which is it ?

This saga has involved returning everything to the sellers and sitting with their tech people trying to solve this. Because it is eratic we couldnot replicate the problem. It seems to need to be running for a while before it does the drop frames problem.

REPLY – this is not your dealers problem – you have to have the correct storage to work at DVCProHD (or other higher resolutions). A Sonnet E4P in a Quad with 2 Hitachi or Seagate SATA drives stripped together at RAID 0 will NEVER give you dropped frames – that is, until you get 90% full.

PROBLEM 2: Sometimes the capture window exhibits crazy looking noisy image and then won’t capture. –

REPLY – could be a lot of things.

SIDE QUESTION: On a totally different point . I think should be able to use the lacie drives with firewire800 to edit this feature. I want to be able to use the 2 x 1 TB hard dirves +internal 500 GB SATA.Should this be OK.

REPLY – OK – your SATA is your internal 500 Gig SATA – THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE – DONT DO IT !!!!! Get a SATA host card, and 2 external SATA drives, and your problem will be over.

Just for the record – SATA is not officially supported (even though it works fine), and you “should” be using an Apple XServe RAID, or a large SCSI or Fibre array for your DVCProHD job. Want your aggrivation to end – just listen to me, and get a couple of external SATA drives, and a cheap SATA host card, and your problems will be over.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

the AJA product does the SAME THING if you don’t genlock. Once again, the idea of “no genlock needed” is not accurate information. Pro products (like your DVW-A500) want to be locked to an external source, and are not happy referencing to the incoming sync. You can see this on an AVID Adrenlaine HD as well (if you yank the Reference In to DNA input).

Buy a black generator (or wait for the Multibridge Studio to be released).

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

there is a great misconception that HDV is HD – it ain’t. DVCProHD is dramatically a better codec. And if you have HDV footage you have to work with, get the incredible new AJA HD10AVA to convert your HDV stuff to HD-SDI, to stick it right into the Kona 3, without screwing around.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

the I/O will NOT work with the AVID software – neither will ANY MANUFACTURER’s product – AJA, Blackmagic, Aurora, Convergent Design – NONE WORK. If you want to use a firewire converter (like a Canopus) to go in DV25, that’s another story – but WHY ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

No – for a real monitor, get the new Panasonic BT-LH2600W. But to blow clients away “wow, we never saw a picture so bright” – this is the baby.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
let me repeat
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
it will not work, it never did work, it will never work, anyone that tells you it will work is in dreamland.

So how do you get your AVID Xpress Pro to work with normal VTR’s ?
AVID Mojo, and AVID Mojo SDI. Any other I/O solution ?
NO NO NO NO NO NO

ok?

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

So, my question more pointedly is, if I/O is taken care of via a file-based workflow – say Super-FireWire/8GB Fibre/100G Ethernet or the like, where does that leave the I/O board manufacturers, despite the need to support legacy video connectivity?

REPLY –
When this becomes a reality, my career as a video engineer is over. There won’t be any more video facilities and post rooms, just IT departments. Hopefully, I will be dead by the time this happens.
But by the time 100 Gig ethernet rolls around, AVID, AJA, Blackmagic, and others will be long out of business (and so will you, because the local high school students will be doing shows with their 8megapixel CEL phones, and emailing them to MTV).

Stop being so curious, and get back to work.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I am not going to answer all your questions. Every client will have different delivery requirements. Some want DVCProHD, some want uncompressed HD, some want DV25, some want HDV, some want a Beta master. I have no control of what clients want, and neither do you. Delivering an HD master means NOTHING – what format do they want? Don’t know ? Neither does anyone else (that is why cross convert is the miracle feature from NAB2006).

DVCProHD is perfect for most markets, and is the native format for the Varicam. But if you have CineAlta clients, you may or may not be able to work with DVCProHD. If you need uncompressed HD, you need a big drive array. I usually use HUGE Fibre arrays for this, but the new SATA configurations will probably work – they are new, and I have not tried 10 SATA drives on a Sonnet E4P.

If you are new to HD, you aint’ gonna buy “the right hardware now”, because it’s all gonna change. Buy what you can afford, and make money with. IF you get an Uncompressed HD job, it will pay a LOT of money, and you will be able to afford new storage for this. If I find out that you are “giving away” your system for an uncompressed CineAlta job, I will find you and kill you. Working in uncompressed HD is expensive, and everyone pays – from the production crew, right into post.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Good luck at Costco (and Sams Club, and Wal Mart)

If you want a PROFESSIONAL 50″ Plasma display, do what Blackmagic, AJA, AVID, and almost every professional manufacturer did at NAB2006 –

Panasonic TH50PHD8UK.

Want a killer professional LCD screen (only 46″ though) –
Samsung 460P.

[Bob Zelin]

I can tell you exactly what is next. Every company, from Sony to Blackmagic has one concern. TO SELL YOU NEW EQUIPMENT. Blackmagic is a crazy company, and they provide FREE SOFTWARE UPGRADES for years, even on outdated products. You won’t find that from Sony and Panasonic. Simply observe the recent history of standard def video – Quad, 1″,3/4″, Beta, Beta SP, D2, D1, Dig Beta, Beta SX, IMX – and now HD – and HD has rapidly evolved from HDCam to DVCProHD, HDV, P2 format, Sony SR dual link 4:4:4, and now 2k, and soon 4k.

Do you know what this all means. It means that you CANT FUTURE PROOF your purchases. You will be screwed financially for the rest of your professional career if you stay in the professional audio/video business. If you buy the Multibridge Studio with a MAC G5 Quad, it will be outdated soon (certainly, the MAC G5 Quad will probably go away in December 2006).

You need to JUMP IN NOW. If you were to do nothing other than to buy a Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme, you would be buying an excellent, superior product, that will allow you to do top professional work, at a fraction of the price of most other companies (ok, all other companies). But like everything else in our business, you will look at this product in 4 years, and say “what a piece of crap”. Because Blackmagic will have all the new 8k products out then (I made that up).

It is my stupid opinion that Apple will try to squash Blackmagic, AJA, Aurora, AVID and everyone else, and try to have a “direct connect” method – like Firewire – but faster – to show everyone that “anyone can be a film makers, and do 4K work, while doing their highschool homework”. In the mean time, “the rest of us” need to make a living, so we go out and buy products like the Multibridge Extreme, which lets us do all the SD, and HD work we need to. And if we can’t make our money back from the $2500 investment, many times over, then we should get jobs at Burger King, becuase we have no business being in this business.

When you say “how will they top that” – it’s easy. They went to 2k support in 2006, and you will probably see 4k support by 2008. Does this mean that 90% of this forum will even do any 4:4:4 work – probably not.

If you are going to purchase a Blackmagic Multibridge product, you have made an excellent decision.

Bob Zelin