[Jason Porthouse]

Mike,

I hope I can chime in with my thoughts on Blackmagic products. I’ve been very happy with my Multibridge Pro, and the new BM Decklink Extreme is getting good feedback here – an excellent spec for the price.

I know many on here keep on championing AJAs superiority, and yes they are a premium product – but for the money I feel the BM cards offer a real alternative provided you are aware of any potential limitations. So, if you need similtanoeus HD and SD downconversion on the fly then by all means get an LHe or 3; if this is never (or so rarely as to be a minor inconvenience) going to happen given the likely workflow you use then save money – go for a Decklink and spend the saving on a decent monitor, control surface etc.

I took the view that the Multibridge does 95% of what I need for 50% of the price of a Kona 3. This is in the UK where some of the issues (1080>720 downconversion for instance) are moot. If I suddenly need the features of the Kona 3 then I’ll sell my Multibridge and spring for a Kona, but the saving enabled me to get a broadcast monitor that is far more esssential that being able to run off similtaneous HD and SD – for a boutique shop like I run I can take that hit in time if I need to.

I’d also take a look at the MXO2, I was impressed by this at a recent WEFCPUG event here in the UK. Nicely built and nicely specced for the price.

HTH

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

I use the whole tablet but in ‘Mouse’ mode rather than absolute mode – i.e. I can pick up and ‘stroke’ the cursor across the screen. I find this gives me the resolution I want and keeps my wrist active…

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

Hi Jason,

I’m pretty sure that mixing 1 and 2 gig sticks is a no-no, from what I’ve researched… For optimal performance I’d be inclined to take the RAM back to 2x1gig sticks in each riser and see if this helps. I know it’s not clear from the Apple article, but having odd sizes, even with even no’s. is a no-no. They ideally must match in size AND be an even numner in each riser. You can’t do this with 1 2gig in each, only with 2 1gigs. That make sense?

HTH

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

[Ben Holmes] “I’d love to see BM update the firmware on the MBP to fix this, btw – if it were possible.”

Me too, and I see what you meant by your original post. As I’m a more ’boutique’ style facility it’s not a show stopper for me (else I wouldn’t have got one!) and like you find it’s a great price/performance ratio, but it’d be nice to have.

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

[Ben Holmes] “Switching to the equivalently prices Kona LH will gain you the ability to work with or without a BOB (altough I gather you are keen on them) and also live downconversion for SD monitoring of HD projects – something which only the new BM cards (not the MBP) support.”

Ben, I thought the MBPro did downconvert? I’m sure I’ve had mine doing it… *puzzled*

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

You stick your FW drive on the lap of the fat guy next to you who’s fallen asleep on your shoulder, drooling quielty to himself. Brushing pretzel dust from your keyboard as the brat in the front seat reclines for the umpteenth time, spilling cheap Chardonnay in to your laptop bag – virtually guaranteeing a tap on the shoulder from the guy with the rubber gloves as you pass through immigration. Welcome to your office…

In all seriousness, they do like to embellish somewhat – but we had the chaps from Matrox come down to WeFCPUG the other day and the MXO2 looks like a genuinely well thought out and well engineered bit of kit. They seem to be thoroughly committed to the product and excited about future possibilities; I think they will give AJA a serious run for their money.

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

Kevin,

Had a similar thing myself… the fix was to turn thumbnails off in the timeline and trash the thumbnail cache. Helped the 3 or 4 crashes a day go down to 1 or 2 a week. This was with XDCAM and HDV. I’m not entirely convinced that the problem is down to something I’ve done, as quite a few people and differing machines are suffering from this in PAL land.

BTW, sorry if it’s teaching you to suck eggs but to turn them off go to the sequence settings, under the timeline tab I think…

HTH

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

Thanks for that Wayne, I’ll certainly try it. The Apple notes are clear once explained!! I thought it was symmetrical rather than symmetrical and even…

I managed to successfully export a QT last night by placing all clips (i.e. the edited sequence) in a new 1080 50i sequence. Seeing as it was shot 25p, this doesn’t alter the look – but for some reason did enable the export.

I had an interesting side issue with this – on exporting some slo-mo clips for a graphics pre-viz, the graphics house noticed interlacing artefacts on the video – even though it was from a 25p timeline and with 25p originating footage. Other clips in the same sequence that were not slomo’d were fine. I have a feeling that FCP isn’t rendering P, and instead rendering interlaced – and this may be throwing the exports out. Will investigate further…

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

Hi Dan,

No, I’ve tried different drives. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this – but I’ll persevere!

Jason

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*

[Jason Porthouse]

I’m running Component out of the Multibridge to my 42″ at the moment, and it looks spankingly good on HD, and surprisingly good on SD. Yet to try HDMI but will do at some point.

JP

_________________________________

Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

*the artist formally known as Jaymags*