Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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That was going to be my next question once you stated that you did a clean wipe and install. The fact that some of your Macs were slow while others weren’t must mean that some of your people changed the “put hard drives to sleep whenever possible” default setting to “never”, while some didn’t.
Glad you got it sorted out.
– Don
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Any consumer DVD player has to know what kind of television you’re hooking it up to. There’s always a preference in each DVD player’s menu that can be toggled between 4:3 and 16:9. Obviously, if you’ve got a 4:3 TV hooked up you set the DVD player to 4:3. This way a wide screen movie will be letterboxed and the full screen picture will display at the correct aspect ratio using the whole screen.
The reverse is true for a wide screen TV. Set the DVD player for 16:9. The widescreen movie will use the whole screen. but when you play a 4:3 movie the picture will be pillarboxed on the sides, maintaining the correct aspect ratio.
I’ve been doing the same workflow as yourself for FCP, Compressor and DVDSP and have never had a problem with my DVDs displaying improperly, no matter what DVD player or television they’ve been used with.
– Don
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When you installed FCS2 on your machines did you wipe your startup drives first, then re-install the OS? If not, then that may be a contributing factor. You may want to use a cache and log cleaning program like Cocktail to do this because it’s been proven that large operating system cache and log files really slow things down in FCP.
– Don
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Gary Adcock was apparently doing a week long test of the PMW EX1 right after IBC, so we can cross-examine him when he’s back from that. I’m sure he’ll have some sort of report for the COWers, anyway. I’d certainly trust his judgement on whether or not the camera is a quantum leap forward for event shooters (picture quality, workflow etc) or if it is, in fact, just a glorified HDV shooting improved Z1U.
Also, I have it on good authority that the next FCP update will have the capability to transfer EX footage within the log and capture window.
Version 1.1 of the Sony transfer software is available at the Sony website. They talk about being able to do user-defineable clip name changes now, so this must be the update XDCAM users were waiting for.
– Don
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Update on the pricing: It would seem that the 4000 dollar price tag for the EX may in fact be in Euros and not in US currency as was first reported. This would put the US dollar figure at a more realistic $6000.00 USD.
– Don
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Maybe this will make you feel better: the suggested list price for the EX is $4000.00 USD. And the 16 GB cards will be under $1000.00 each, with 32 GB cards available next year. Obviously, this price is designed to corner the market and to be THE camera in every event shooter’s kit bag.
– Don
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I’ll reserve judgement about the picture quality of the EX until I have one in my hands for testing. I do know that there are lot of camera people out there that use XDCAM for broadcast every day and they like what they shoot. Yes, XDCAM is a form of HDV using the MPEG2 long GOP codec, but the big difference is the variable bit rate recording of XDCAM.
I’ve already heard comments that the EX 1920×1080 picture is “to die for”, so that alone is encouragement enough for me to seriously consider buying.
I don’t know if XDCAM will output a 4:2:2 signal from the HD-SDI port and simultaneously record 4:2:0 video to XDCAM discs/flash media, if that’s what you’re asking. Perhaps someone else in this forum will be able to answer that for you.
Like Graeme Nattress said, who is the software designer for the RED camera: “Not ALL compresssion is bad.” Indeed. Just look at ProRes422 HQ.
– Don
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[Colin McQ] “I think I have a Hi-8 camera buried in a closet somewhere i’d let go for under a grand 😛
“Why………that’s what I said.
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/59/856482
– Don
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[quicksilver8907] ” I want something with mic inputs and I prefer to get something that is the size of pd150, I like the larger cameras.”
There is nothing in your price range (that is new) that even comes close to what you want, especially if you’re looking for something that is close to a PD150 in size.
Maybe a Digital 8 camcorder. They were pretty hefty.
– Don
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[rafalaos] “What mean that, that from a 420 makes a 422? If is like that this is a deception. You can do the same in FC.”
You can’t generate 4:2:2 information from something that was originally recorded in 4:2:0. If you were to drop a 4:2:0 clip into a 4:2:2 FCP timline you’d still be working with a 4:2:0 clip. FCP or anything else for that matter, cannot invent colour information that wasn’t there to begin with.
However, the XDCAM EX will indeed output 4:2:2 via the HD-SDI port. The signal is taken directly off the imagers, bypassing the the MPEG2 compression process, much like shooting RAW with a digital still camera.
– Don