[Holycowseattle]

—Forget syncing the decks in an attempt to “loop through” to the Media 100. Looping through the 1800 is not a good answer.

—You have to use a TBC to stabilize the signal.———

—The trick to “saving” this footage–is to generate a stable signal from an unstable source (your degraded tapes). Only a TBC can stabilize the unstable output of the VHS & 3/4″ footage and create a stable signal that can be recorded.
Again, forget the 1800, it sucks at this.
Running through an external TBC stabilize the video signal, but it will not make the dropouts and glitches on the source material disappear…it will simply stabilize the video signal to a solid reference.
(The glitches will appear in your subsequent dubs, but they will not interfere with the recording/dubbing/digitizing process.)

MOST SOLID SOLUTION:

Buy/borrow/rent an external TBC (Time Base Corrector) with external sync capability. (These can be found on Ebay for about$300.) Get a TBC not a Frame Sync.

1) Run the composite out of the VHS & 3/4 material into the TBC.

2) Run BLACK (genlock) to your TBC and your Beta deck.
(Same sync source.)

3) Run the output of the TBC to the composite input of the deck. DUB all of your material to Beta. Its much more archival than VHS & 3/4″ anyways–and it costs less than archival data formats (DLT, etc.)

4) Digitize from Beta later if you need the footage.

SECOND OPTION=============================
LESS SOLID SOLUTION:

Buy/borrow/rent an external TBC.

1) Run the composite out of the VHS & 3/4 material into the TBC.

2) Run BLACK (genlock) to your TBC and your Media100.
(Same sync source.) Connect composite out of TBC to composite in of Media100.

3) Digitize away. The TBC should help “iron out the glitches”…HOWEVER…from our experience…with long dropouts..the Media100 may still occasionally get “confused”. The TBC should solve 99% of the problems in this scenario, but remember that computer hardware is usually more “picky” than a tape deck regarding input signal.

-P

MACHINE:
Apple Intel 1164-CORE Cyber-Net Station
36 KiloTerabytes Ram
OSX 19.2.1 VelociRaptor
Quicktime 12
24 Kiloquad Data Pipe to the eCentral RAID core
Final Cut w.Virtual Reality Studio V9.0.4
iDirect Neural Interface
MSOffice 2024
After Effects CS14

[Holycowseattle]

Thanks, but the answer is not that simple.

I am working with 720/24p footage.

v12 HD Suite supports that right?

Not in this case. I suspect one of my shooters shot the footage in 720/24pa or 720/24pn on the HVX & HPX cameras. The source footage I have here is clearly not supported in import–as evidenced by my inability to import it. I just don’t know specifically which of the two they shot–and without the cameras in the office, it is pretty difficult to figure it out. (Would normally just pop the card into the camera in VTR mode and examine the clips on the viewscreen.)
—

I suspect that the “native” formats (ex. 720/24pn) are the ones tht aren’t supported–but again I would like to hear it from someone who has verified it.

POINT BEING: I need to tell my shooters to avoid one or more modes…but I don’t know which ones they are offhand.

[Holycowseattle]

Yes, (for clarity) the VOUT works just fine.

I learned today—-Apparently one must configure the outputs correctly in the Media100 VOUT control panel for things to work.

“SD Y/C Composite” was selected in my panel and it should have been “SD Component”.

Still feeling silly for missing such an obvious whatever….

-P

[Holycowseattle]

Oh geez…. They must have implemented new options…or I had not paid particularly close attention to the VOUT panel before.
The top of the list is now (I am not sure when it changed…or if it ever did.) is SD “Composite Y/C” (I am working SD Component.)

Yes, that was the problem.

And Yeessh! I am relieved someone else is out there to catch those rookie mistakes we make even after years of editing.
Thanks.

Now if only I had someone to make sure my shoes were tied and my hair combed……
-P

[Holycowseattle]

I am working with D1 resolution NTSC projects.

-P

MACHINE:
Apple Intel 1164-CORE Cyber-Net Station
36 KiloTerabytes Ram
OSX 19.2.1 VelociRaptor
Quicktime 12
24 Kiloquad Data Pipe to the eCentral RAID core
Final Cut w.Virtual Reality Studio V9.0.4
iDirect Neural Interface
MSOffice 2024
After Effects CS14

[Holycowseattle]

Simply stated, when I launch AE7 or AECS3 the Media100 (Kona3HW) output changes from color bars (at rest setting) to a black screen.

No video from AE ever appears to the output.
I can choose between hd and SD resolutions from within AE for the output…and when I change those settings, there is a slight flicker on the monitor–and it returns to black output without ever “changing resolution”. (It seems stuck at 525. My Sony HD tube monitor reports the resolution of the input signal whenever there is a change.)

So again, quite simply, no video ever appears at the output. I can hook up a firewire converter and change the output of AE to that with no issues…..But the Media100 VOUT simply refuses to work.

-P

[Holycowseattle]

VST/RTAS/AU are a plugin architectures supported by some (many) high-end audio programs and a few other types of programs. Media100 is not on that list yet (does not currently support a plugin architecture.)

Most of us buy a nice external Dorrough or Benchmark hardware Unit if we need serious metering. The two advantages being: a) they are a LOT easier to read than screen images of meters (remember LCD’s have latency) and b) we don’t have to buy “updates” every year and a half.

Regards.
-P

[Holycowseattle]

As I recall…and it has been a while…the file icons were still movie-esque…but they were darker. Grey perhaps? Yes it happened with us as well.

The stange part of it all…is that we ran EVERY damn utility under the sun on the drives and they ALL reported the drives as fine. WE would re-low level format the drives…rebuild the raid…and it would work for an hour or two…then start having trouble again as it would fill up as we restored data.

The drives (2 out of 8 of them) finally stopped responding to low-level formatting. (Died electronically) And then we finally knew DEFINITIVELY that two of the drives had died.

Again, my biggest and most burning frustration was with the Myraid of utilities we tried on the drives with no success. (To my dismay, they ALL repeatedly reported the damaged drives as “fine”.) Again and again…even the apple disk utility reported the drives as “ok.” Yet they weren’t.

Good luck.

-P

[Holycowseattle]

This probably isn’t the answer you were looking for…but here goes…

(Keep reading…I do eventually address your question..)

I know a lot of people work “on the cheap” when it comes to HD monitoring and I suggest you don’t.

Buy an HD tube. Even if it is a really small one–and put that by your edit position.

For client session WOW factor, buy a relatively cheap (well..not that cheap $1500) 42″ Panasonic Production plasma. Hang that on the wall above your edit position. They look great in the room and really show off your work.

But you get an HD tube for your editor position monitoring.

(( If you are doing regular HD work for clients, you should have the budget for it—its truly an INVALUABLE tool.))

Most people don’t realize that when you monitor on LCD (or plasma for that matter…) you can’t see your interlacing.

Exporting to After Effects, transcoding codecs and working in 3rd party applications opens you to a host of potential FIELD issues (flicker, etc) that you SIMPLY WON’T SEE on an LCD.

Dare to disagree with me folks. I will send you proof on HDCAM.

I am dubbing tapes in our office (HDCAM Offlay) 3-4 times a month to several “laptop” guys in the area who shoot HDV short films and P2 stuff for corporate work. (No offense intended as I am one too on my own time…but I still check my personal work on a tube before I offlay!)Point being, their output is often WRONG. Sometimes its only one shot in a 12 minute video…but it is FLAGRANTLY obvious when the interlacing is wrong!

Keep in mind many of the things you do can introduce interlacing flicker if you are not careful. Upscaled SD footage can develop flicker if the fields aren’t set correctly….using the wrong CODEC for production can introduce SERIOUS flicker or even just Moire artifacts if you get the settings off or compress too much….and on an LCD there simply is NO WAY to see this.

THE ANSWER YOU PROBABLY WANTED: I do understand your concern over the investment on the Apple 30″. Get it. Its a greaqt monitor. I have one at home, my boss has one on his edit rig and our other editor uses one in the office. Its a great piece of tech and you will really LOVE the additional desktop workspace. Its scorchingly bright and resolves color realy well for and LCD. It is strange however…that there are relatively few reviews of it on the web. I don’t know why that is….

That stated, however, I personally would never use that alone for video editing. I think the whole “one editor…one rpgram…one LCD…” dream the marketers (Apple?) are selling us is wrong…or at least distorted.

Yes, I know there are alot of great 3rd party products that allow us to use LCD’s (HD-SDI/SDI/HDMI converters, etc) for our HD monitoring. But folks…when you really do the math…LCD’s suck when compared to a quality tube. Brightness, LATENCY, (did I mention LATENCY?), and other factors just keep them from being as good (for the moment..YES, they are evolving.)
FYI: Did you know…some large format LCD’s don’t even display TRUE Millions of Colors. They display several thousand and “dither” to fake it for the eye. A common practice in the industry. Read the specs carefully. (SIDEBAR: That recently came to light AGAIN in the news with several angry laptop owners suing apple for what they felt was a misrepresentation.)

But all that aside LCD’s are still progressive in nature…and we are for the most part (in broadcast 480i & 1080i) still operating in an interlaced world.

Buy the 30″. It rocks.
Get a few extra jobs and buy an HD Tube for monitoring.

Don’t obsess over the fractional number of specs and reviews…I gave up a long time ago. I try to focus on my product….as the technology we use is so quickly out of date it does not merit the years we take off our lives obsessing over these details.

Peace,
-P

MACHINE:
Apple Intel 1164-CORE Cyber-Net Station
36 KiloTerabytes Ram
OSX 19.2.1 VelociRaptor
Quicktime 12
24 Kiloquad Data Pipe to the eCentral RAID core
Final Cut w.Virtual Reality Studio V9.0.4
iDirect Neural Interface
MSOffice 2024
After Effects CS14

[Holycowseattle]

Ok…now this is REALLY starting to sound familiar. Now I remember all of the fuss of the aforementioned re-configuration. (We don’t normally EVER have to break down an entire M100 system and redo/reload it…thats why there was some serious “fuss” over that incident in our office.)
The end cause was that we lost a hard drive out of our SCSI raid. As I recall…when the problems in the Media100 started–none of the disk utilities turned up any problems until the drive finally stopped responding (electrically) altogether. When that failed we decided to wipe and rebuild.

What jogged my memory on this was the whole “…we can play the clip in Media100 but not in QT…”
My prediction is…..If you are on the same path we were….you will soon start to experience clip failures within the Media100 application as well. (Clips start to get “chunky” and the video output screen/edit window turns “green” a lot.) The system starts reporting “Bad Frame” errors. ANd it eventually starts locking up. Pretty soon you won’t be able to export clips either. The system quickly degraded and we lost all our active projects.

We rebuilt our raid and wiped/reloaded the system at that point. (last version of 8.2.3 whichever it was.)

Interesting note….we initially tried to rebuld the raid with some other SCSI drives we had leftover from a previous OS9 based Media100 system. They were Seagate Atlas IV’s….which I learned the hard way are NOT compatible with OSX. (That RAID was PSYCHOTIC!) Really, Imagine that!? A SCSI drive not compatible with a MAc operating system!? Its well documented on Seagate’s site….

In teh end, we purchased a new matched set of drives–loaded them in the external case–striped ’em—and the system then ran fine for another 2 years until we retired it.

Regards,
-P