[Jeff Heywood]

I guess what i was thinking is that rendering a final out to DVCPRO HD wouldn’t be the best bet and 8bit Uncompressed HD is massive, so I’d need something else to render out to. Using ProRes422 might be the key. Then our archived masters would be in ProRes and have good quality and not overly punishing file size.

I’m just trying to think what the equipment needs for monitoring P2 on FCP, and the workflow from FCP, to AE, to windows Media would be and if it would be a smoother run than going the Axio/Adobe Software route.

[Jeff Heywood]

The thing is I haven’t bought the Axio yet. It’s still pending. One of my big problems is how the hell do I track all our projects and assorted media files.

It’s stuff we’ll go back to again and again. I was just going to create a simple kind of cue sheet system pending the next batch of big bucks that would let us buy media management software.

If I have reason I can still switch us from the PC world to the Mac world and FCP.

Being able to use Final Cut Server, and it’s various search and proxy functions would go a long way to pushing me that route.

Apple sort of forgot me in this process, one of their engineers was supposed to contact me and didn’t, whereas the Matrox folks were more involved.

I’m just getting worried about what I’m buying into. I get one big shot to buy, and I’m staking a lot on whatever I buy being the system to stick with. No second chances.

[Jeff Heywood]

That sounds like an interesting setup. I never thought of mixing the 4:3 and the widescreen together. Pretty cost effective too.

So does a 24 inch just get too cluttered and end up being not very workable?

I was thinking just one big widescreen, but it seems both of you still go dual screen.

I guess you could even go two 20inch widescreens side by side.

I’m also going to have a HD monitor/TV at 24 inches in the setup.

Then it would be 20/20/24 or 17/20/24 or go to two with 24/24 with one 24 being an HDTV that is purely for playback.

[Jeff Heywood]

Thanks for the info. I called Adobe and basically got the word that though they wouldn’t guarantee it, the 7600 would work with AE.

I was actually really impressed with how they took my question seriously and went out of their way to get me an answer.

[Jeff Heywood]

Wow, someone else bringing out the big fear of Matrox…lack of support. So close to buying that system for all its interoperability and the fact that we don’t really need to play nice with the rest of the world. We’re in house.

I looked at FCP but it didn’t seem clear what the prime setup was for us and I couldn’t get a clear idea from anyone I talked to.

Back and forth I go…Axio…Avid…FCP.

[Jeff Heywood]

Interesting that you are frustrated with that system because it is exactly what I’m looking at to do the exact same thing.

Where is it really failing you? My main intention is to use it for a couple of layers of 720p, from a p2 card and after effects for the fancy bits.

I cut on one this summer and it seemed pretty snappy and I loved the built in ability to go out to an HDTV monitor. It seems like an open ended and useful system so I’m thinking what am I missing? What is it that’s causing grief exactly? What kind of effects?

Working in 8 bit uncompressed is no small feat for any machine. It seemed to run through the basics fairly well. Dissolves, resizing, colour correction, all seemed fine. What was causing the most grief?

[Jeff Heywood]

Wow that’s great news. Some pricing would be nice, and some capacity on the new p2 store would also be nice.

I’m in a dangerous spot right now. I need to buy in the next month, I need a working system, but with all this awesomeness around the corner with what I imagine will be price drops on the older stuff, I really have to be careful about over-committing.

[Jeff Heywood]

Wow that’s a thorough response. Thanks much. That smooth workflow is what I’m looking for most of all. I really don’t want to mess around and I want to do things as quick as possible. We’re in heavy demand and we’re behind already and we haven’t even started.

It’s good to hear that it is working well with mxf. I was on alpha drivers using the system this summer and there were some hiccups, but not bad considering the drivers weren’t released.

With the HVX we are semi-regularly out in the field, so until the dream P2 cards come out we do need a smooth system to quickly offload. The P2 store or a laptop is probably going to be the way we go.
I guess the problem with the laptop is that you can’t verify, or can’t do it as easily as on the p2 store.

[Jeff Heywood]

Our final output is, for the most part, a file for media servers pushing HD.

Some of our stuff will be for EPK’s, but strangely most stations around here prefer getting a DVD.

In all my reading, I didn’t realize the HVX could just transfer files off to a firewire drive.

As far as the Avid versus Axio thing goes, it seems there are a lot of things the xpress is locked out of. They keep wanting to sell me the mojo, but realtime SD preview is something I just don’t care about. I’d like realtime HD preview and I can get it with Axio. I love Avid. It’s always been my favorite edit platform (though I have strayed). I’d dismiss Axio outright if I had clients to impress because, really, at least around here Premiere Pro, doesn’t impress clients. But, we’re in house and I’ve used the system before with great success cutting a behind the scenes DVD for a game. I like the realtime preview out to an HDTV monitor for both PP and After Effects.

I don’t know truthfully. I keep flipping back and forth. I’ve got my one big shot to spend money and buy the right things. After that, it will get much more difficult to fix any mistakes.

[Jeff Heywood]

It seems interesting but what I like about the Axio is its ability to work real-time without any kind of transcoding. I’m basically juggling between the Axio and an Avid and trying to figure out the field to post workflow that’s best.