[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Greg,

You are going to want the most scalable, reliable and easy to maintain solution.

The advantage of G-SATA is its portability and size. However, if you want to increase the storage, or the number of drives raided together (for higher throughput) you have to string multiple G-SATA units together. You have multiple power supplies, a tangle of leads, and more things to go wrong.

Using an enclosure that has growing room for extra drives, a decent onboard power supply (rather than the G-SATA bricks)and easy access for upgrading/replacing the drives to me seems a better option.

These are just observations though, as I have no direct experience of these solutions.

Hope that helps in some way!

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Matt,

The only time I have experienced what you describe (other than the disk being full, which is not the case) was when Boris “forgot” what the title was. It was created and worked fine but when I came to render it wouldn’t. Editing the title subsequently yielded a “fresh” title, rather than the one that was there originally.

So the question is, can you edit the offending titles ?

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Kit,

The problem lies with some DVD recorders and Media 100 not speaking the same language when it comes to the control side of firewire. Media 100 is expecting a certain response from the DVD recorder that it doesn’t know how to provide. The answer is to select “no machine control” in your hardware prefs, then master to tape with the DV box checked.

You have to start the DVD recorder running manually of course, but at least the pictures (and sound) are in all their digital loveliness.

As an asside though, one of the cow users (Jerome I think) posted a while back that he was using a Philips DVDR-615 that worked with Media 100 firewire control directly. If he’s around, perhaps he can chip in with his experiences ?

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Jerome,

Set your hardware prefs to 48K. Use the import tool to re-import the audio file you want from the media drive. In the import dialogue, select “convert to 48000 Hz”

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Try changing the file to a .aif rather than a .MOV – that might help. Also are you using the audio file that Bitvice creates, or one you have exported yourself ?

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Michael,

For anything I produce/edit/make, I don’t use the standalone. For these DVDs I used BV and DVDSP as you suggest. It does take longer but the results are better, easier to control and adjust, and represent the best possible encoding as the data stays in the digital domain.

The Standalone is harder to control accurately, can’t do VBR and has only a few presets for quality (mine has more than most, though as soon as you go above 2 hrs it flips to 1/2 D1). But it is quick, produces nice enough quality for screeners and is reliable.

I mainly use mine for encoding other things to DVD like VHS, U-matic etc which would otherwise take up a lot of suite time if I had to digitise them first. It is however, nice to think that if I am editing close to the wire, and a client needs a copy right then, the standalone is there to step in.

As for compatibility, there are DVD recorders that record on DVD-RAM discs which have always had compatibility problems, but the majority record on “normal” DVD discs. That said recorders use a special format (DVD+VR) that is not always compatible with existing set-top DVD players, though most computers play them. Add to that, that many DVD recorders only record onto +R media which is also incompatible with a lot of machines. My first experience with a set-top recorder was, like you, of a disc that wouldn’t play on my machines, and that was a when I was the client! I was not impressed so vowed not to make the same mistake.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my standalone can record on DVD-R media which is compatible with more players, but the +VR thing still gets in the way sometimes, that’s why I always demux the disc it produces, extract the bits I want and re-author in the usual way.

Boy that was a long answer. Hopefully something in there was of use!

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the thanks, and well done on the kit, sounds like a cool set-up!

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Chris,

I have a Liteon DVD recorder that I bought for my media 100, though curiously it seems to spend more time in my living room 😉

I chose it because of its firewire DV-in and the fact that it is an “All Write” model that can write to pretty much any disc format (+R/RW,-R/RW,CD etc) you shove in it.

After recording I use MPEG Streamclip to demux the disc, then use DVDSP to re-author a disc with my own menus – always nicer for clients than the ones generated by the machine itself – plus you can tidy up the in/out points of the clips.

I have yet to try it with the firewire connection out of media 100. I know that there are recorders that respond like decks and work under machine control, but have yet to find out if this is one of them.

Hope that helps!

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Greg,

You can download a freeware screen recorder (silverscreen recorder springs to mind, but there are others) and use that to capture the flash animation (by playing it in say Safari) to QT.

Hope that helps

K

[Kieran Matthew]

Hi Greg,

I’ve bought two refurb machines both directly from Apple and from Cancom in the UK. I always go for refurb if I can as they are much cheaper, usually come with extra options already installed, and a brand new mac becomes 2nd hand the moment you open the box anyway.

That said, I initially had major problems with both of them. A g4 was DOA and a powerbook had a motherboard fault. However, they were covered under warranty so the G4 was immediately replaced, and the powerbook was fixed – both have been faultless ever since.

I may have been unlucky, but refurb machines have been returned for something and sometimes faults don’t show themselves during testing. It’s a gamble, but the odds are stacked in your favour!

K