Forum Replies Created

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  • Mike Cohen

    December 11, 2009 at 3:11 am in reply to: old folks and young folks

    Back when I was doing internships and applying for jobs out of college, folks were always impressed that I could setup a waveform and vectorscope and time decks. I had to explain that I had to seek out someone to teach me that.

    Once I started my job, we at the time were doing a ton of 3D animation (Alias Wavefront, the precursor to Maya). Once all the frames were rendered, we hooked up the SGI computer to an MII record deck via component for video and a serial interface called a VLan which controlled the deck to record each frame to tape as an insert edit. We had to let that rip overnight and if we were lucky we had a 10 second animation in the morning without any head switches. We were unlucky often.

    A few years later when we got our first NLE, In:Sync Speed Razor, running on a top of the line Pentium 1, we managed to network the PC to the SGI and use command line FTP to connect and transfer the image files, then play out the animation timeline to BetaSP, as we were still doing primary editing in the edit bay.

    Sneakernet was also quite popular – shuttle SCSI drives from computer to computer. Once we got ZIP drives our problems were solved. Imagine saving 100 megabytes on a reusable disc, only costing about $15 a cartridge – amazing.

    Yep, kids these days have it easy!

    Mike Cohen

  • Mike Cohen

    December 11, 2009 at 2:56 am in reply to: Fast and cheap business plan

    Unfortunately there seem to be thousands of kids with video cameras willing to work for very little money, because it is better than making no money. But if Demand is spending $17million to make $200million, maybe it should pay a bit more for its content.
    Or not.

    Maybe they will read this thread.

    Mike

  • Mike Cohen

    December 11, 2009 at 2:48 am in reply to: Problem Client Doesn’t Return Calls

    Search this forum for “grinder” and you will have your answer.

    I think you answered your own question.

    Mike Cohen

  • Mike Cohen

    December 11, 2009 at 2:43 am in reply to: exporting a HDV file??

    Fastest workaround would be to copy and paste your content to a HDV 1080i Sequence, then export to HDV tape via firewire. It will render of course, but then you have a HDV master. This assume you have a HDV camera or deck.

    Then capture the HDV tape to an MPG file via firewire. There is your HDV file.

    For DVD – do they need NTSC SD MPEG-2, presumably 16:9? Export the file from the HDV timeline – should look good.

    However is the source XDCAM footage 1080i or 1080p? If it is progressive, then you could have issues with the MPEG-2 file, and for that matter with the HDV master, as that will be 1080i.

    Can’t offer a ProRes solution.

    Mike Cohen

  • Mike Cohen

    December 9, 2009 at 10:31 pm in reply to: Matrox MXO2-mini on a PC with CS4

    is Neoscene a better option with the MXO2-mini than just the Matrox codec alone?

  • Mike Cohen

    December 8, 2009 at 10:47 am in reply to: Know when the holidays have officially arrived?


    Chanukkah for the Cohens was traditionally a time to gather, exchange copious amounts of gifts (8 nights x 11 people x 1 night of actual festivities) – each person opens 1 gift from one person, and round and round we would go.

    This of course followed dinner of brisket, matzoh ball soup, kugel, chopped liver and when Grandma was around, stuffed cabbage with a stuffed derma chaser and my mom’s specialy, latkes!

    But the one thing missing was lights. For the “festival of lights” we had no lights except the traditional menorah.

    So needless to say I was quite excited when I married a nice Catholic girl. Over the years I have become slightly less excited given the propensity of lights to get tangled over 12 months no matter how nicely you wrap them up. The “over-under” method that works with XLR cables does not apply.

    We too have switched to LED lights – on the tree, in the windows, and large version of LED bulbs on the outside. Alas I’m in a townhouse so there is not much room to get too crazy. Not a bad bulb yet in 3 years.

    I was most excited to get one of those porcelain winter villages to arrange on the mantle, complete with fake snow and a little mirrored skating pond with little skating figures. Maybe it was my sweet electric train set I had as a kid (17) but whatever. It is like traveling to a mysterious little town just over the next hill, with little George Bailey about to fall through the ice. Only don’t let me get started on “It’s a Wonderful Life.” My dad, brother and I can quote every line of that movie, and I do a decent Jimmy Stewart impression (my wife hates it when I do the Charleston and stutter like Ol’ Jimmy).

    Oddly enough, Christmas Day with my in-laws consists of each person opening one present from one person, and round and round we go. Amazing. The highlight of the day is the lighting of the Christmas pudding. Rum plus fire at the dinner table is a beautiful thing.
    (imagine “Backdraft” with icing!)

    So traditions, whatever they may be, are what define the holidays for me. We have tried to combine traditions and make some new ones. Well, just about time to leave the house for today’s call time. Gotta fly. On Prancer, on Vixen, on Judah, and Elijah. Ho Ho Ho, Shalom, Shalom, Shalom.

    Mike Cohen

  • Mike Cohen

    December 7, 2009 at 3:26 pm in reply to: Avid laying off 120 people

    I will chime in with another take.
    I have never used Avid aside from evaluating the Xpress system along with Media 100 many moons ago.

    “Avid is laying off 120 people”

    You know what, a lot of small medium and large companies are laying off people this year. The bottom line of a business is to make a profit for the owners, the shareholders or both. Is the company is trouble beyond the need to cut costs? Is the company changing its product offerings? There are no doubt many questions associated with the decision that have less to do with product reliability and features and more with cash flow.

    As has been discussed on these forums in great detail, there are editing systems at all price ranges and feature sets, giving everyone a choice that suits their needs.

    As a Saturn car owner I am disappointed to learn that the company will go away completely soon, no doubt laying off thousands of dedicated workers. But as for my driving options, there are other comparably priced and equipped cars.

    Mike Cohen

  • Mike Cohen

    December 5, 2009 at 1:20 am in reply to: SNEAK PEEK: Adobe Mercury Playback Engine

    so you don’t need the top shelf CUDA card depicted in the Adobe video in order to get the “silky smooth” playback of native formats?

  • Mike Cohen

    December 5, 2009 at 1:19 am in reply to: Matrox MXO2-mini on a PC with CS4

    how is the Matrox I-frame mpeg-2 codec to work with, vs native HDV?

    what are you using for storage?

    have you used the uncompressed HD option?

  • Mike Cohen

    December 4, 2009 at 3:11 pm in reply to: SNEAK PEEK: Adobe Mercury Playback Engine

    Yikes – the rendering speed alone could save weeks of waiting per year.
    The CUDA gpu looks to be about $1700.

    The real time-ness of native formats is just what the doctor ordered, and makes me think maybe you don’t need an I/O card after all, but what about monitoring on an HD monitor? You would still need a way to get the output via HDMI, component or SDI out…?

    Mike Cohen

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