[Chris Clephane]

Ok…after a re-read that sounds a little snotty/catty/bi__hy. Not the intent.
I am honestly receiving a LOT of regular feedback that people feel BetaSP is dead.
And I am confused by this. It is core to our workflow–which I have always assumed was pretty standard–and I keep hearing people say otherwise.

Can someone please clarify?

Thanks,
-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

Tim after re-reading posts I have to agree…..My coffee was perhaps a bit strong this morning. LOL
-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

QUICK NETWORK OVERVIEW:
FYI- The user machine that creates the files and transfers them to the network share is always the “owner”. (In most networking situations there are 3 sets of permissions to consider OWNER, GROUP, EVERYONE)
By default in OSX only the owner can fully read/edit/modify, etc. the files.
This default set of permissions is set by your machine governed by the associated UID.

Simple explanation:
From our experience, if you are not the OWNER of the files created and the DB, you cannot access them.

There is no hidden DB file we are aware of….everything seems to go into the P2CMS folder when you create the DB during transfer.

Your network setup and UID’s have more to do with this than anything. We still have occasional difficulties “networking” P2 footage. The P2CMS software does not seem to recognize GROUP privileges, it only seems to acknowledge OWNER privs.

We have some workarounds, but they only work in a fully administered Workgroup…and even then we are still having occasional bugs/issues with permissions and flags.

As many have noticed, changing permissions on P2 data is a nightmare due to the locked mxf/xml/etc. files in the multiple P2 subdirectories. It requires command line unix knowledge to unset/reset flags and ripple permissions correctly. Not fun.

I doubt the P2CMs software was designed to be networked. It seems happier in a single-machine single-user scenario. P2 usage (in general) seems happiest in a Single-user single-machine scenario.
Thoughts/replies Jan?

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

Thanks Ron. I assumed that everybody knows (hopefully!) that most pro-video stuff purchased from Ebay (regardless of how it is advertised) needs to be checked out by a tech and ESPECIALLY in the case of monitoring gear…it always should be calibrated.

We purchased 2 older units to carry in the field. (Call me crazy…but simply I refuse to carry a $7+k HD Tek on location where it could be dropped, etc.) Point being — I am not going to lose as much sleep if a sub-$1k unit is damaged/dropped/gaussed on location.
And again, I should have mentioned, when we buy E-bay junk, we do have it/them serviced and calibrated by a local shop.
And yes, this does add significantly to the price.

HD Monitoring question:

We work with 2 combinations of gear. High end and budget.

HIGH END: When we shoot HDCAM (and occasionally DVCPROHd), we use the Panasonic BTLH900A HD display. The built-in WFV monitoring functions rock. Off subject: In my opinion, this monitor can’t be beat.

LOW END: We use 3 HVX200’s for multicam location shoots and low-end commercial shoots. We still shoot HD in most cases. for visual reference we shoot these units we use with lower cost Marshall HD monitors which have no built-in WFV functions. (Always shooting HD allows greater flexibility in post and helps future-proof the client’s footage.)
Back to the point….on these units, if WFV monitoring is needed, we simply hook a waveform to the HVX200’s composite out (always SD). Its great for setting up green screens and a real tube WFV gives you TONS more feedback than camera zebras and most of the SW suites we tried. An added advantage here is that you can also STILL use your firewire out with a firestore or DVCPro Tape backup if you are not recording to P2. This is really useful if you are recording long-form stuff.

Just FYI, we also tried using FCP to record via firewire and use the monitoring suite built into FCP, but again it quickly proved unreliable on-location for critical work.

In Summary, it boiled down to three factors for us:
1) Economy.
Losing/damaging an old sub-$1k tube on location is much more appealing than damaging a $2.5 k laptop.
2) Reliability.
Laptops have failed us on location. More than once. Humidity/travel/age and random fluctuations of the universe cause us more trouble on location with computers than any other piece of gear. For greatest reliability, we try to stick with dedicated hardware as much as possible.
3) Speed.
Power On/Power Off. A dedicated scope is simple to operate. The dedicated SW suites we tried often did not react well to sleep-mode on the computers we used. Firewire activity does not seem to handle sleep-mode well either. In the end we were often forced to reboot several times over the course of a day, especially when we moved shoot locations or changed setups. From our perspective, clients often seem to perceive rebooting the computer on set as a bad thing. (They often ask “Did it crash?). Little things like this do matter when dealing with clients. Perception IS important.

So again, I reiterate, If you need to monitor on location regularly, get a real tube–or drop some serious $$ and check out the Panasonic displays with built-in WFV scope functions.
If you only shoot once or twice a month and have never worked with dedicated HW monitoring in the past….the SW suites will probably suit you just fine.

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

SW-only edit suite people, plugin fans and laptop nuts…please accept my advance apology for this patently sacreligious reply…..

For monitoring signal levels….Stick with a real waveform monitor. (Used on Ebay $100-$600)
For technical reasons too numerous to list here we finally abandoned the “convenience” of a SW scope suite for the real thing.

If you are used to working with a real “tube”, the SW versions really just do not compare.

FYI- The waveform/vector monitoring section of the new Panasonic portable lcds are fabulous.

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

A silly little request….but I bring it up since you are “fiddling” with the code of the timecode output function.

“It would be nice to have a choice of typefaces/fonts for the TC.” Even if it is limited to the OS system fonts.

Thanks.
-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

I offer this at dire risk of receiving hundreds of flaming replies/threats from overly religious FCP zealots….

“Based on our experiences, Media100 IS much easier to learn.”

EXAMPLE:
1) We start all of our High School interns on Media100 and they are working with it within minutes. ((They often request to try FCP…as they have usually heard about it in school. With FCP it takes most of them the better part of a day to figure out the basics.))

EXAMPLE:
2) The last freelancer we hired to help edit a short-term project was an Avid guy. He lived and breathed Avid. His resume read: Avid, Avid, Avid. Needless to say he was visibly disappointed when he found out he had to work the project on a Media100HD system.(Long-form documentary)
When he arrived he (very professionally) asked for the manual so that he could learn the system.
I politely told him that he didn’t need the manual…..and asked him to please get to work (Time is money! right!?). He was again, visibly disturbed at my insistence…yet 10 minutes later he was digitizing and creating timelines/programs. 2 weeks later, project completed on-time…he later joked that I was right…he really didn’t need the manual.

Point being:
Compared to Media100, FCP is NOT intuitive.

Just FYI, we do maintain 2 seats of FCP. We occasionally have clients who (due to workflow) demand we use it for their projects. We simply prefer Media100.
All of our heavy compositing is done in AECS3 and we use the integrated Boris Red for titling in timeline. (Making use of PSD and AI files sometimes as well.)

We also use FCP because it still has a few features (regarding P2 footage) that Media100 doesn’t not quite have yet. But those are relatively trivial. (Shooting Native Mode footage to increase shooting time…we use FCP to import it..then export it to a fully compliant stream that M100 can handle.)

So the further point being we are not casual users of either package. The preference expressed for ease of operability and learning curve–definitely Media100.

—

The producer SW works great in the DV realm. For DV/SD ANY new machine will handle it just fine. (We use it on a G4 1.67 Laptop in the field SD and HD (DVCPRo HD with fast external drives))

Ask the Media100 guys for a demo. That’s the best way to determine if it works for you.

Good Luck.

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

The analog component output on the HVX200 can be configured to output:

1080i HD
720p HD
480i SD

(So, YES the component output is the HD-out.)

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

Just checked out the TV Logic models–they look really nice–and seem to have great features. Very curious to see them in person.

Are they relatively new to the market? (1-2 years?)

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.

[Chris Clephane]

Second part of your question:

The HVX allows you to monitor the output of the camera via itscomponent cable in 480i, 720p and 1080i. (I believe the composite and S-Video out are limited to 480i)

You CAN monitor the camera signal while recording OR view recorded clips while in playback mode. (no strange limitations.)

Plug the component cable into the camera…hook it to the monitor…select a “monitor output resolution” and you are good to go.

-C

I edit video. I post sometimes.
I fix things. I eat marshmallows.
I play drums. I drink scotch.
I like TV.

Done typing now.