[Mattso]

Great thread, guys thanks.
Bottom Line… shouldn’t be an issue… but it is with my old machine. fine. I can live with that.
We’ll figure out what kind of Hardware Christopher’s going to get in the comming days.
And no, i don’t have millions… only gazzilions. I divested myself of US currency when Bush took office. I only deal in Clams now.
The Checks are in the mail boys.

thanks again
matt

“I don’t Tan… I stroke.”

~ Woody Allen

[Mattso]

SIGH…..
A GAZZILION DOLLARS! Yep! ONE GAZILLION DOLLARS to you if you can prove this experience I’ve had (several times) to be untrue. It will likely require you to stop the the space-time continuum and reverese the events of my life — AND sprinkle magic fairy dust into my editing gear, thus creating a wholesale change in its capabilities.
A GAZZILION, Sean.

I’ve hit this dead end several times. And I’m certainly not suggesting that your experiences are any less material. I mean its POSSIBLE you’re all high… but I’m nt suggesting it.

Seriously though… could this phenomenon be a product of my still using a G5? The added processor power of the ProMac might be making more than a little bit of a difference… No?

Incidentally, this is NOT the first time I’ve run into this. This was also true with the CinewaveRT system I had before that product dissappeared… and I THINK it was the state of affairs with the AVID I owned before that.

Perhaps you’re all just part of some sort of Wizard coven…
I am, after all, just a wee, lowly Director…. and a muggle to boot.

best
matt

“I don’t Tan… I stroke.”

~ Woody Allen

[Mattso]

SIGH…..
A GAZZILION DOLLARS! Yep! ONE GAZILLION DOLLARS to you if you can prove this experience I’ve had (several times) to be untrue. It will likely require you to stop the the space-time continuum and reverese the events of my life — AND sprinkle magic fairy dust into my editing gear, thus creating a wholesale change in its capabilities.
A GAZZILION, Sean.

I’ve hit this dead end several times. And I’m certainly not suggesting that your experiences are any less material. I mean its POSSIBLE you’re all high… but I’m nt suggesting it.

Seriously though… could this phenomenon be a product of my still using a G5? The added processor power of the ProMac might be making more than a little bit of a difference… No?

Incidentally, this is NOT the first time I’ve run into this. This was also true with the CinewaveRT system I had before that product dissappeared… and I THINK it was the state of affairs with the AVID I owned before that.

Perhaps you’re all just part of some sort of Wizard coven…
I am, after all, just a wee, lowly Director…. and a muggle to boot.

best
matt

“I don’t Tan… I stroke.”

~ Woody Allen

[Mattso]

I’m the ‘CLIENT’ that Christopher is speaking about.

I want to address his concern here, specifically the idea that COMMON codecs are different between machines.

Let’s talk first about a simple, compressed codec, like DV.
If you go sit down and capture a file thorugh firewire in your dual G5, the capture preset you’ll choose in the ‘Log and Capture’ is going to be “DV-48khz” or some such… the common, everyday DV codec that we all know and love.
It is a software-based codec and is uniform from system to system.
HOWEVER. If you sit down at your system and instead of using the firewire, chose to use the AJA KonaLh card you’ve got, and select “AJAKona-to DV25” in the Log and Capture window’s ‘catpure settings’ you’ll also capture a nice little DV file. But THIS file is different from the other file…
I’m not asking- I’m Telling.
It IS different. WHY? HOW? dunno. Is it a Hardware- CODEC? I dunno. But if you take that file and put it in the standard DV timeline, it WILL have at least a dark green bar above it in the timeline.
And the same is true in reverse… if you put a standard DV file in a Kona-DV timline, it will indicate with at least a dark green bar (maybe worse) in the timline.
This is true, and unequivical and repeatable.
My interpretation is that this is a different kind of file. Maybe one field-ordered-one-horizontal-square-pixal different – but different, none-the-less.

NO BIG DEAL… I mean, we aren’t using DV codecs for our upcoming project…

But if is the case with the ubiquitous little DV25 – as it is with DVCPro50… this will almost CERTAINLY be the same with DVCproHD – or any THIRD-party 10bit HD codec being introduced to the mix, no?
I mean, I will bet HARD CASH that if Christopher sends me a bunch of media captured through the BM decklink, that the mechanism by with that media is encoded will have made that codec in it’s prefered image, and will therefore be different enough from the media I’ll have otherwise captured through my Kona as to cost me some real-time in my timeline. Or WORSE?

Please… tell me I’m wrong. and Proove it!

It should be said that the reason Christopher is asking about this is that I’m preparing to buy him a system with a AJA card in it, which he could then use to help do remote work on this project. He’s dutifully trying to argue the cost savings for the Decklink, and this codec issue is our last sticking point.

Thanks gang,

Praising the Cow –
Matt S.
Seattle

[Mattso]

I hear ya. But It’s that prematurity that’s the dumb part.
I’m not saying the idea isn’t noble. A grand effort, for sure.
But It’s dumb because, they’re mixing apples and oranges; A low cost camera that does HD, and a low cost camera that does P2. They’re not the same, and if the launch fails to satisfy the $ expectations … (witness the earlier launch of P2 equipment) which technology is the loose link. In other words, what if the obvious shortcoming of the P2 storage space drags down sales…. and they don’t realize that they would move a gazillion units if they had just taken an intermediate step like adding dvcpro50, or overcranking or native 16:9 chips to the dvx100A… or all of the above.
I mean from a biz perspective, it just seems kind of clumsy. “Dumb” – to pack so little of so much into something so new.

I do hope they licensed the P2 ‘raid’ technology to 3rd parties, get those prices down, and specs up… I totally agree, that I’d accept the lack of camera masters and the ease and manageability they bring, as well as all the risks associated with trying to kill so many birds with one technological stone – and jump all over this camera if/when these P2 Chips were bigger and cheaper.

that’s all.
thanks for the debate ya’ll.

matt,so

[Mattso]

Surely we’ll all be using solid state technology in the the future. Yes. Duh. And optical media holds great promise… to be sure. But BluRay is not NOW, neither is affordable solid state media, apparently.
Now is now.
Now, I need a workflow that is practical for many purposes, like oh, say…. tape.
That’s all I’m saying. It’s just a tool thing, not a techno-thing…

M

[Mattso]

Good points all…
But Graeme, you should know – it’s not tape I’m in love with – it’s truly removable media. Like the optical disks and such that you mentioned. Stackable, cheap removable media that a guy can label and ship and which other guys can put it in their deck and it WORKS. Right NOw.

I feel that sometimes a product like this comes along, just to force the world to gape in awe, (like I was doing before I read all the info I could get my hands on) and say”wow… the future sure is going to be neato! All hail the future!!!”
But the fact remains, this seems like just an EXPENSIVE UNI BODY DV CAMERA – (Luis) with strange, HD Tumor clinging to it’s neck… lop off the tumor and you have a swollen dvx100a with an untested chipset.

True, can’t be everything to everyone. But it’s like my wife’s little canon dv camera.. it shoots stills and stores it on a chip. It’s got a nice big chip in it that allows her to get pretty big stills… but the dv mechanism will never get more than 720X480 of that big old chip, will it… no. And yet – the camera is sold as a video camera. Not a still camera. It’s the DV camera that makes the sale.

Look – I’m no fan of MPG2 compression, and I certainly don’t want to give any more market share of ANY emerging technology to Sony – I’m just saying… The ability to shoot a respectable amount of footage and manage that media effectively and at a reasonable cost, is more important than having the ability to shoot a couple of minutes of marginally better images. Perhaps I should say that it is more USEFUL to MORE PEOPLE… to have have that ability. And therein lies the rub. A product that can serve more people’s needs will win out, price-point notwithstanding.
And though you might say that because this camera has the kitchen sink in it, it will serve more people – what if the kitchen sink holds only a pint of water before overflowing…. weigh what practical things you get against against the $$ –

Which reminds me… Anyone recommend a copier/fax/scanner/printer? Mine had a failure in the Scanner mechanism, which means no copier, and which leaves me with a sh*itty fax/printer witch requires 50$ in ink cartridges per month, ans still does a mediocre job…

hey wait…. ink cartridges.. expensive refills…. P2 cards..

hmmm… maybe it’s not so dumb after all!

Best,
Matt, So
President, International Whale Blubber Purveyor’s Association.

PS. It’s about a gigbite- per- minute storage space – according to Panasonic’s #s –
that puts the P2 storage thing at about an hour capacity.
That’s 1 DV tape, and you gotta pay someone to transfer those chips that would otherwise be in your camera… which panasonic says takes a minute per gig to transfer. The math just doesn’t work for me…. maybe in a year,,, i dunno.