[Bob Zelin]

“I want to do everything, including uncompressed video, but I don’t want to pay anything for it”. If you have a dual buss computer (most people use a HP 8200, even though the Dell 650 is certified), you should be using 4 SCSI drives, across a dual buss SCSI card (ATTO UL4D). If you want SATA to work (and I can only answer this for a HP 8200), stick TWO 2 port SATA cards in slots 4 and 5, and run FOUR SATA drives stripped RAID 0, and you will get reliable 1:1. The G-Tech drives are FW800, and are MUCH more reliable than the horrible Lacie drives, but will not allow you to do 1:1 with an AVID.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Dear Mr. X2 –
everything is an old card. Until you mentioned this, I never heard of the Decklink HD Plus – but sure enough, it’s on Blackmagic’s site, yet EVERY DEALER that I just checked for on different web sites, sells only the Blackmagic HD Link (for $595). You want super simple – this is it. Don’t worry though – if you wait 2 weeks to 2 months to get the Blackmagic HD Link Plus – it will be outdated (along with everything else, including your MAC) by December 2006. The DR Group is a GREAT company to deal with.

So, what does X2 mean, Charlie ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Take the analog HD Y Pb Pr out of the XBox 360, and go into a AJA HD10A.
Take the HD-SDI Out of the HD10A, and go right into your Kona 2 or Kona 3 (or HD input of LHe). This will work.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

The DSR-45 has no flying erase heads. It is a player that can record, but cannot edit. Same with the Panasonid AJ-SD93, and the $25,000 Panasonic AJ-HD1200A HD VTR. Same with the Sony HDV-S280 HDV VTR for $40,000.

Want to edit – buy the DSR1500 or DSR-1800. Yes, they are more money.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

contact AJA tech support –
trust me, just do it.

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

you will suffer with a Highpoint card. The highpoint card at one time was used by both ProMax and The DR Group, and I believe that both have stopped using it (I could be wrong about this). I have tried the Highpoint card in the past, and have had nothing but problems with it. Cards from both Firmtek and Sonnet have been terrific. The Highpoint has INTERNAL PORTS on it, and you have to snake the lines out the back of the MAC – it’s a mess, and if you look at http://www.barefeats.com, you will see the recent problem both they and ProMax had with the card.

With that said, I use SATA with uncompressed STANDARD DEF and DVCProHD (you only need 2 SATA drives to get great results), but you need EIGHT SATA DRIVES stripped at RAID 0 (which means the Sonnet Tempo 8 card) to get uncompressed HD to work, and in MY EXPERIENCE, you will not have the stability that you get from a HUGE 4201 or Apple XServe RAID. So proceed at your own risk. If you have the money, buy the HUGE.

Sonnet is about to release the new Tempo E4P with the Fusion Port multiplier chassis, and these products may be much more reliable for doing SATA uncompressed HD. But they ain’t out yet. That’s like asking opinions on Blackmagic hardware that is not released yet. Only a fool would speculate on it (but with that said, Blackmagic, rarely disappoints anyone in the long run).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

Jason – your mixer is too small, but replies below –

Question 1. When coming out of the I/O I should connect directly to the IN’s on the 2800 or do I need to go back through the board and have the board out on a patch bay? (out 1 I/O, out 2 2800)

REPLY – you have a small system. You certainly can purchase a patch bay, but what you really need is custom cabling. All the outputs of your VTR’s and AJA I/O need to go into the mixer, and the Main Out of your Mackie 1202VLZ need to be split, so you can feed the input of your AJA I/O and input of your PVW2800. The DSR can be fed with embedded audio, but without wiring the input of the DSR, you won’t be able to dub from Beta to DSR. Notice that your Mackie 1202VLZ has XLR MAIN outputs on the rear of the mixer, and 1/4″ TRS MAIN outputs on the top of the mixer. You can use one set to feed the AJA I/O, and one set to feed the input of the PVW2800. Remember to take all the outputs of everything, and feed the inputs (the 1/4″ TRS line inputs – NOT THE XLR’s !) of the Mackie 1202.

Next I will need to monitor audio from the two decks and maybe the aja. the drs2000 has four audio outs so I will connect them to the board (chan 3,4,5,6) the 2800(chan 1,2) I/O (chan 7,8)

REPLY –
Once all your sources (the DSR, the I/O and the PVW2800) are plugged into the inputs of your Mackie 1202, you simply connect your speakers to the Control Room Output of your Mackie 1202. Increase the “fader knobs” of your Mackie, turn up Control Room volume knob, and you will hear your sources.

Question 2. If I was trying to make a dub from 2000-2800 does the io have a direct pass through (2000 to board to I/O in, then I/O out to 2800 or again do I need to set up a patchbay

REPLY – for video and time code alone, you really need patch bays here, but for audio, if you wire it the way I said, you simply raise the “knob faders” on the DSR2000, and it will come out of the MAIN OUT L-R of the Mackie mixer, and feed the input to the PVW2800.

Additional REPLY –
You will find that you can jury rig anything, and make it work, and certainly small installs don’t necessarily need patch bays, but as time goes on, and you say “I want to go from machine X to machine Y, how come it does not work” – you will find that the cheapest way to get around this is with patch bays. I have recently started using the EXCELLENT Behringer PX-3000 aduio patch bay ($49.95) that has all balanced 1/4″ TRS jacks. As long as you cable tie off the cables (so they don’t get yanked out of the back of the bay), it is very reliable, and very quiet (no scratchy noisy jacks). I have been using ADC professional audio bays my entire career, and I am shocked how good and reliable this 50 dollar audio bay is (if you tie off your cables, so they don’t fall off the back of the bay).

Video patch bays are not inexpensive. If you find the need to go “from here to there”, and don’t want to route everything thru your AJA I/O, a Canare 242U-DVJAW from Markertek is $519, and is excellent, and can handle everything including HD. If you get advice on small routers (like Laird, Kramer, Knox, Tecnec, etc.),, you will find that these routers are usually too small, and are not MULTI FORMAT to handle SDI, Composite, Component, AES audio, Analog Audio, time Code, etc. Patch bays work better and cheaper.

With that said, you can certainly get away with buying NOTHING other than the correct cabling – or hire a freelance tech to wire up an audio mixer
harness for you to do this job. Most people just have custom cabling, and do not rely on patch bays or routers.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

This is the answer to your question. Uncompressed HD is the most demanding of all current hard drive applications. There is currently (and this is changing quickly) only one way to do uncompressed HD to SATA. That is with a Sonnet Tempo 8 (or Highpoint Rocket Raid) 8 port SATA card, and eight
SATA drives, all stripped together RAID 0 (no redundancy). Some will tell you that the Highpoint can do RAID 5, but you will have issues – believe me.
Good companies to buy stuff like this from are http://www.maxxdigital.com, and promax.com.

For a much more solid solution, fibre or SCSI solutions will better suit your need. For uncompressed HD, I have used the fantastic HUGE U320RX-4.0
for SCSI, and the HUGE 4210 Fibre Channel Array. Both offer RAID 3, and both work wonderfully with Blackmagic products and the ATTO cards. Of course, the Apple XServe RAID is a fibre channel solution that will work as well, but you won’t get the support that you get from HUGE Systems. There are other companies that offer turnkey solutions that work well too for SCSI and Fibre – like Medea and ADTX.

If you want to spend as little money as possible, stick with SATA, but don’t expect the reliability that you will get with Fibre or SCSI. To be clear, SATA drives are VERY STABLE, but stripping 8 drives RAID 0 on cards with “weak” connectors is a little nerve racking. Again, this will change soon, as the port multiplier boxes for SATA are released very soon.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

AJA makes a product superior to the Hotronics called the D10CE
https://www.aja.com/d10ce.htm

The AJA I/O LA gives you all of this flexibility, plus control right from your MAC and within FCP, all for under $1000. I don’t see how a $560 Hotronics D/A converter is a better value.

The problem with owning the “one two punch” (by TecNec or Laird – this is the same product line from the same company – Markertek house brand) – or a small 4×4 router is that you RUN OUT OF INPUTS AND OUTPUTS. Having a large router is terrific, but they cost a lot of money. Again, nothing will beat the flexibility and relatively inexpensive price of patch panels.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I never said this. There is a BIG DIFFERENCE between 24, 25, and 23.98. 23.98 and 24 are NOT THE SAME FRAME RATE. In the US, when you shoot 24p for television, you are actually shooting at 23.98 Hz framerate. (You can set the camera for 24 frames, but then you get into trouble when you try to output to video). 23.98 can be converted to 59.94 for US framerate. I have no idea of what happens when you want to go back to 25 frames per second for PAL if you shoot in 23.98, and what the actual frame rate is in PAL.

Bob Zelin