[Carsten Orlt]

Sorry to be a downer too, but your argument doesn’t stick.

For years I read that you should NEVER trust the waveform/vectorscope in FCP and always should test externally.

Now you’re telling me to 100% trust the audio meters?

Only way to be sure is to have an external,calibrated meter. Full stop.

Secondly if Isobel is delivering her/his (not sure 🙂 to the post-house and they never complained, doesn’t that tell you something?

I’m always for the practical solutions. Why change something that is working.

She/He only ask about why FCP displays the audio incorrectly, NOT what is the correct audio level for broadcast.

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Definitely no operator error involved!
Unfortunately I do not know the answer, but I think your guess is right: FCP is not accurate enough at the top end of the meters.
BUT because you double checked the signal is ok and because you have a post house setting the final levels for you, I think you shouldn’t change anything.
Because if you start to pull the level down, you have to know where to as there are a few different audio standards in the broadcast world. Possible, but might be a can of worms which you don’t want to (unless you like worms) worry about.

Have fun!

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

when you connect the camera directly to the ioHD you are not transcoding anything.
you are encoding the video signal from the camera straight to ProRes. No DVCProHD involved.
Only when you go to P2 you create DVCPro Hd files which, when not transcoded ‘manually’ to ProRes before playback (e.g. convert using Compressor), will need to be transcoded on the fly by the CPU before being send to the ioHD.

I think what you’re really asking is: I want to record a live event. Is it better to record in the camera to P2 or better to feed the camera into the ioHD and capture ProRes this way.

Hm. I haven’t tried that (Jeremy) so not sure if the quality of the signal would be the same? One is handled internally by the camera, the other will need to be converted to a video signal (camera) and then encoded into ProRes (ioHD).

And just thinking: You can’t connect the camera via Firewire and the ioHD via Firewire at the same time…

Sorry wasn’t sure what you were after 🙂

Cheers

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

ok what is the ioHD?
It is basically a mobile capture card with all the analogue-digital converters build in.
Only way for Apple-Aja to make this work in HD (they already did it for SD with the io) was to build the device around ProRes. So the signal send through the firewire is the raw ProRes data that is converted by the chip build of the ioHD into normal video signals.

For you to use the DVCProHD codec from your P2 card the computer has to transcode the DVCProHD data from the timeline in realtime to ProRes data to send to the ioHD. For you to be able to do that you need quite a beefy CPU, speak MacPro or latest MacBookPro’s.

The question you really have to answer is the following:
Do I want to be A. mobile and/or B. do I want a device that I can connect to any future CPU (at least for a few years..io’s are still working!)?
If either or both answers is/are yes, then the ioHD is a good choice, BUT everything HD will basically need to be ProRes for you to really enjoy the box. Yes it can playback DVCProHD with the right CPU, but its not build for that. The better workflow is to capture or transcode to ProRes on ingest.

If you have a MacPro the Kona range might be the better choice if you didn’t answer yes to question A and/or! B.

Beside my funny english, I hope this will give you some food for thought.
Cheers

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Hi Phillipe

Great, many thanks for confirming my results. Specially because I use Seagate 1Gb drives in a noName chassis, ergo very different hardware.

Bob mentioned here before that the MacBookPro can’t be any faster because that’s just how the MacBook works (or the express34 bus)

And yes would be interesting to know how a 2 drive eSata Raid 0 performs on a MacPro. Anybody?

Cheers

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Alan

In Pal/50Hz land as well. MBP 2.33, all latest OS/QT/ioHD.
Works perfectly.

Cheers

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Carson

Bought my ioHD online from Videoguys.com.au. Cheaper and excellent support!!. Check local resellers if you want a demo.
And I couldn’t have a look first as nobody had it at the time. Lots of research…

Can’t answer your question re split video because I do not do on set work.

As with all capture video in FCP you can play the clips straight in the viewer. Or you can use the Aja TV software to play clips through the ioHD without having FCP open.

You might want to study the Aja website as they announced new drivers (I think there was a press release) that will support Red footage. Don’t know the ins and outs as I do not work with Red footage.

Good luck!

Best

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Carson

Nope, no problem re speed of drives. Not sure what you mean with processing but I do not have any drop frame issues. All footage is 1080i50 (1080psf25) ProRes.
Obviously my MacBook lags a bit in the RT department at that resolution, but this is to be expected.

I do have the ioHD as my video in/out interface. I need to capture all sorts of SD/HD analogue and digital. As I don’t have the money for the MacPro right now, I wanted a video hardware that I can keep using no matter what CPU I buy in the future.

And you’re correct: Firewire is completely blocked by the ioHD. But you can import CF cards via USB2 readers too which works just fine (use it for my stills)
As for Red drive: If it is firewire only, you have to disconnect the ioHD, transfer data, reconnect ioHD and restart.

If the only thing you need is monitoring your footage (all acquisition tapeless) you might want to check something like the Matrox MXO. I only have bad experiences with Matrox so I don’t recommend it, but it might work for you…
That said if you go for the ioHD you’ll not be disappointed. Rock solid hardware and as everyone will confirm the Aja support is second to none!!

Cheers

[Carsten Orlt]

Software Raid, just using OSX disk utility to build the Raid.

Yes I can easily capture ProRes(HQ) with either of my 2 drive Raid’s. Both show 100MB/s in the Aja utility for read and write.

I actually only use ProRes wich needs even less MB/s as somebody still has to convince me that (HQ) is better 🙂 (on paper I’m convinced but from all tests I have done I do not see a difference)

Cheers

Carsten

[Carsten Orlt]

Addition:

Of course you can stripe in Raid 1 with the CFI chassis too.

Double the capacity for 1000 less (compared to CalDigit)

Carsten