[Leonard Levy]

The Matrox MXO2 mini has tools for setting up color contrast etc on your HDMI monitor but it may not work at all with an HDMI to DVI adapter. Have to test it yourself. Also the monitor may or may not work with its set-up software. My Dell 2405 didn’t work with HDMI and setup tools didn’t work with component.

[Leonard Levy]

My experience with the T-Tap on a new non retina 2.7 Ghz Macbook Pro running FCP7.03 OS 10.8.2has not been fabulous and I’m returning it unless Aja support has an answer.
I’m just using it to drive a a monitor for color correction.
I’ve found that as soon as the list of color correction filters become even slightly heavy ( like just 2 of the 3 way color filter one of which is doing a secondary correction) that the monitor run through the Aja loses its ability to hold a steady image in real time. The time line on FCP is fine though. I compared it to a more expensive thunderbolt MXO2 and that had no problem keeping up.

Also if you are using for color correction there are no tools for monitor color set-up and if you’re HDMI monitor is a computer monitor and it is not exactly 1920×1080 it won’t work either . For example my Dell 2405 is 1920 x 1270 and requires an HDMI to DVI adapter – it isn’t supported. (That does seem to be the same on the Matrox MXO2 though)

[Leonard Levy]

Looks like Aja is the ticket for me and very reasonable. Hope its soon.
Thanks again.

[Leonard Levy]

Shane to the rescue again. Thanks.

[Shane Ross] “The MXO (the original) did additional processing, and even bypassed the video card in a special way in order to get that true video signal.”

What difference does the “true video signal” make. Will it affect color or gamma (Flanders has blue gun) or is it only motion or interlace and aliasing issues?

Will the Aja T-tap or the Decklink give me a “true video signal”?

Certainly much cheaper than an MXO2 which is overkill for my needs as I’m mainly a cameraman who just does a little editing here and there. I’m attracted t the T-Tap also because it supports 3D for HDMi and I may do some 3D cutting .

[Shane Ross] “Unless you get a USB to DVI converter. But I hear that latency on video is an issue…when used to monitor video play back on the Canvas and Viewer. Might be fine as a bin monitor. “

T-Tap has simultaneous SDI and HDMI so I though I could put the HDMI into the Dell with a converter (or get a newer one with HDMI in) I would only connect the Flanders for color correction so latency might not matter. Would be nice to have more screen room for FCP than just the laptop.

Any idea when the Aja is coming out?

[Leonard Levy]

see below

[Leonard Levy]

OK I’ve decided on the standard non retina MBP 2.6GHz 1 w/ 1GB Nvidia video RAM , 6MB L3 cacheand now see I can upgrade to 16G RAM for peanuts.
So the 2 questions left are :

upgrade to the 2.7Gz w 8MB L3 cache ?

(Shane says it won’t make much difference , but others say that the L3 cache can help a lot when compressing and rendering – and I want to be able to do 3D editing and color correction with Resolve. One guy said that it made the difference between being able to playback RED footage real time or not.

and/or upgrade to an SSD?

What difference will an internal SSD make to video editing?

Shane suggests I do this but its expensive and I don’t edit for a living so marginal speed differences in the basic functioning of the machine don’t matter to me that much, whereas rendering and playback limits are very important. Will SSD affect that stuff.
Also can’t I always switch to an SSD later as prices come down?

[Leonard Levy]

RE shooting without a tripod. My own experience after shooting many years is do not tell the director he doesn’t know what he’s doing, because he may have a much clearer idea of what he wants than you do.

Just try to suggest also doubling up with the tripod for security. There is no inherent reason why you need a tripod. It all depends on how he wants the elements to line up. Its a music video & can be as wacky as he wants. If he doesn’t want to that’s his problem. It will probably be fine. You’re his helper, but its his show.

[Leonard Levy]

Just shoot it both ways with and without a tripod.

[Leonard Levy]

Why do you say the cineporter looks like vapor?
Reports on DVX User by the company imply it is very close.

[Leonard Levy]

There’s a lot of misleading information on this about the Redrock M2.
First of all I think the optical achromat used by the camera to focus on the image is much improved from the version he used. There is still some softness in the corners but it is generally not to bad. Depends on the nature of the image. it has never bothered me at all.
Re: speed – the Redrock supposedly loses less light than the P+S mini 35 adapter.

You can get Nikkors that are f1.4. You can also set up the rerock for PL mount with Zeiss lenses. Difference between the Redrock and the P+S = about $7000 or morePrice difference bewteen Nikkors and Zeiss maybe $15-25,000 for a set of 5 or 6 lenses let alone a Zeiss cine zoom lens.

There is no image loss flipping the image in post. its easy. Its not too hard to flip the monitors in the field,.

The Redrock makes an incredible image but it is definately softer than a clean image.
The optics neccessary to flip the image in the more expensive adapter lead to further light loss and may also introduce more image degredation. I have never compared them directly though.

Somewhere on the web there is a comparison between the P+S w/ Zeiss lenses and a Sony 900 cinealta vs an HVX 200 with the Redrock . The producers of the show ( maybe it was 24 or something) preferred the Redrock HVX combo saying it was sharper. Hard to believe and I wasn’t there.

The redrock is a bear to set-up properly and there are competitors like the Brevis which may be equal quality and may have some improved features.Its a great look.