[Bob Zelin]

Both products are excellent, and I also have a preference towards AJA, but let me ask you a question. You are going to purchase a $3000 MAC G5, more in RAM, one or two Cinema displays at $2000 each, lots of storage for HD, which doesn’t include a host controller, an HD monitoring setup which will cost you several thousand dollars, a sync generator, and an HD VTR that will cost you at least $27,000. Why are you basing your decision on a $500 difference for the HD capture card?

bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

This is certainly a big question for me. The REAL answer is that they are being put into a beta site tomorrow, and we will see what happens when they start to get full. It’s one thing to run AJA System Test on an empty drive array, it’s another thing to have hours of 1080i HD uncompressed footage on the array, and see what really happens.

I will keep you up to date. If it actually works, I will give you all the details. I don’t want to make a complete fool of myself yet (unless I already have !).

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

David –
This is another one of my offensive posts. Are you trying to say that you would have the money to buy ($70,000) or rent ($1100 per day) a VTR like the
Sony HDW-F500, specifically so you can RECORD BACK AT 23.98, and you are trying to figure out how to get around getting a $3000 Ensemble Designs tri level sync generator? Are you kidding me?

As I stated before, if you are doing normal 59.94 work, the HD VTR’s will do the pulldown for you, so you can keep using your cheap Horita (for example) black generator, and still do your 24p work. But when you record back to tape, it’s at a TV frame rate. But now, you are shooting a FEATURE FILM, that will match back to 24p,and you need to be able to record your EXPENSIVE
footage back to a $70,000 VTR, and you can’t buy or rent a tri level sync gen?

Come on.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I strongly suggest that you buy a cheap Horita Black generator, and set your BVW75 to INTERNAL TC, and PRESET (under the front panel), and everything will work just fine.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

A tri level sync generator is used for working in 23.98 or 24 p modes. It allows the VTR and the Blackmagic card to lock to a 23.98 reference.

This is no different than a regular black generator that you use to lock your normal system to 29.97 (in the US). Except standard black generators cost about $300 – $400 , and tri level sync generators cost between $3000 – $10000.

If you are not recording back to a 24p VTR (you shoot in 23.98, but you finish at 59.94), then you don’t need to buy a tri level sync generator.

Bob Zelin