[Chris Jones]

Ok thanks for your help! 🙂

[Chris Jones]

I stumbled on what I was doing wrong.

I have not been clicking on the Master Session line in the Timeline Management tab in the conform page before clicking +New.

It seems I should be doing that.

[Chris Jones]

I’m still setting up my “budget” Resolve workstation on my Mac Pro. The one thing I learned is that it expensive. Even on a budget. I kept discovering “now I need this…”

One of the first things I bought was my monitor which is a NEC PA241W. It is 10 bit, 1,920 x 1,200 and is color correct. It cost $1,500. The thing I didn’t know when I bought it was that it is really made for graphic work, not video. It has no HDMI ir SDI inputs. So I had to get a Blackmagic HDLink ($500) to connect it to my Decklink card. For 2,500 I could have bought an HP Dreamcolor monitor for $2,500 – which I think is the cheapest monitor you can buy to get by with for grading.

But if you are really on a budget, have you thought about using Apple Color? If you have FCP 7 you might already own it. And you can connect straight to a grading monitor without having to get a decklink card. When I bought my NEC monitor I connected it to my video card and I was grading (well learning to grade) with Apple Color right away.

Resolve is better… much better… but Color is still really very good.

[Chris Jones]

I do keep hearing to shot in 720p on this camera. I’ll do some test tomorrow in that mode.

[Shane Ross] “That camera only shoots 30fps at 1080”

I am curious about this – do I have this correct?

Is the fact that in 1080 mode is not true 24p because the 24p frames are not spaced equally apart in time?

Meaning there are really 30 progressive frames (recorded twice – unless using 720 PN) but then 6 of those progressive frames are dropped to give you 24p? Which would give you (6) 1/30th of a second spaces of “missing time” during playback?

[Chris Jones]

Thanks, I’ll try it again using 24pA

Then do I just log and transfer the files into FCP using a 23.98 sequence settings?

Just so I can try to understand what is going on: When shooting 24pA are there actually 24 progressive frames being recorded within the 60 fields?

I understand the basics of interlacing in NTSC and how that worked for decades for TV – converting film 24 fps to 29.97 with pulldown, etc.

But I’ve never really understood how something that is recording in fields could ever truly be progressive. It seems to me that the best you could hope for is (2) 1/60 second fields being blended into a “progressive” frame.

But maybe I just fundamentally don’t understand how fields can record. Does 24pA actually record 24 true progressive frames inside 59.94 fields a second?

I’ve never really been able to wrap my head around this concept.

Thanks again

[Chris Jones]

Thanks, that is good to hear 🙂

[Chris Jones]

Thank you fro the replies.

I bought the card from Newegg.

Regarding the ARC 1882 folder:

1. I’m not sure if all folders/files are needed for Snow Leopard.
2. I’m not sure if what is needed in the folder/s are an update to the driver or if it is the new full driver.

And to be honest. I don’t even know how to open those .bin packages. I tried Stuffit Expander and Archive Utility. But neither worked.

I called Areca Friday Morning about the ARC 1882 folder but wasn’t able to connect with anyone there on Friday. I was going to try again Monday.

[Chris Jones]

This is from the Resolve Config Manual on the Blackmagic website:

RAM: 6, 12 or 24 GB for memory
optimization (not 8, 16 or 32 GB).

I always thought it was odd – but they took the time to put it in the manual so they must feel there is something too it.

I have 8GBs also, but now that you can get 32GB for the 2009 4,1 for $250 I was going to upgrade. But from this it seems that it would be better if I get 24GB ($179)

[Chris Jones]

Thanks for the info.

I found those updates Friday.

I’m still not sure how to launch the Storage Manager.

[Chris Jones]

I didn’t realize there was a price difference between RAID-0 and RAID-5

My main use for the RAID will be so that I can use DPX files in Resolve – I’d like to have the freedom to learn and be creative and push Resolve’s capabilities as far as I can.

I was less worried about back up since I was planning on backing up often.

My larger concerns have been the challenge figuring out what to buy, since all the hardware and terminology is new to me. Then being able to set it up – meaning whichever products I buy, have good tech support, so when I do inevitably run into a wall I have somewhere to call.

Also I like the idea of buying a solid card, so I have the option of expanding to a larger setup down the line.

Right now the ATTO R680 + ProAvio EditBOX Desktop 4-Drive Mini SAS ($395) + (4) 2TB 6 Gb/s Enterprise Drives seems like a good option – but there might be better options.

The bottom line is it’s just a new area for me. If I was building a new computer I’d know what parts I needed, how to figure out which parts were compatible, and where to buy the parts.

With the RAID, I’m not even sure what a multiplier does… or if I need one.

The 2722 Highpoint + Sans Digital 8 disk still sounds great to me, but I called Highpoint to ask a few questions and there is a major language issue there – so tech support might be difficult. ATTO on the other hand was able to answer my questions and I feel confident they would be able to help me set up if I needed it. The R680 manual looked pretty good too.

So that’s where I am. Thanks again for all the suggestions! I’m getting there, slowly but surely.

And if you have suggestions on setups I have not thought of that would be great!