[Oliver Peters]

[Oliver Peters] “Your Avid component cable has S+BNC on one end and 3 BNCs on the other.”

I meant to say S+RCA on the Mojo side.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Scott Davis] “It is not frame accurate, nor is it dependable, and yes there are weird glitch stuff”

Then that’s hardly an assemble edit. It’s a crash record. There’s just less disturbance since it’s data over FW instead of video over SDI.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[chris magid] “Also, beware that the 1200a does not record any of the special “flagging” or metadata some frame rates of HD100 need. So, while you have a good master to play for air, it may not be a good edit or even upconvert source in the future.”

Chris,

I don’t know what this means. The 1200A records 720/60p or 1080/30i with the DV100 codec. Only the Varicam transport records with flags as far as I know, but it records 60fps to tape. If you shoot Varicam for 24fps, you can capture from a 1200A player through a Kona2, for example, and extract the 24 true frames, so obviously the deck passes these flags, if needed. You cannot record 24fps back to the deck, unless the NLE adds pulldown, because it must record 60/30. Which flags does it need to record and what other deck records these? Also if there are embedded flags, such as from a Varicam, these might actually pass in a FW-to-FW dub, though I’m only guessing on that one.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Get a different reseller. He’s an idiot. Your Avid component cable has S+BNC on one end and 3 BNCs on the other. The 3 BNCs go to the deck, the S+BNC goes to those spigots on the Mojo. This is the Avid trick to share those connectors as either S or Composite or alternately as the 3 pieces of the CAV path. You cannot do component, S and composite simultaneously. Keyspan goes to the VTR remote control. Capture as uncompressed from the Beta-SP and work uncompressed. Some Beta decks also have S out, so you could use just S if you wanted to.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[chris magid] “I do not believe that the 1200A can INSERT edit. Almost sure. I don’t even think it can do an assemble edit.”

This has been debated a number of times in other forums and the Panasonic rep posted repeatedly that the 1200A cannot insert or assemble as it has no flying erase heads. Some folks have been able to get it to do an edit that looks like an assemble over FireWire, but according to Panasonic, there is no guarantee that this will truly be a clean, uncorrupted edit that will play without a glitch on another machine. Crash records are your best bet with the 1200A. Or if you do this type of “assemble”, only do it between black and bars at the head of the tape.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[MichaelP] “The Mac will have FireWire HD I/O support in an upcoming release. “

That’s now looking like mid-2006, I believe – if delivery dates affect your buying cycles.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Grin,

Once you get it installed, let us know about the overal stability. General complaints I’ve heard are slowness with the HD card during capture (even when you’re just capturing SD). Also occasional loss of communication to the Adrenaline chassis. If these issues are gone, it would be great to hear that dispelled. Thanks.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Scott,

I tested this path for the Videography article I just did on Smoke (Linux). It worked fine, but there are some guidelines. You can get a “white paper” from Autodesk about the FCP DOs and DON’Ts. Effects don’t come across, but the clips are put in the right places with Smoke functions applied, just no parameters adjusted. For example, I did a simple quad split on 4 tracks. These were properly placed on the TL with Smoke axis effects applied. Smoke dealt with speed effects and I was told ramps are also supported. Nests are, of course, a no-no.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Ron] “If I remember the press release, the first machines will be out by the end of this year, and by ’06 more Macs will follow. I”

Well, I think that what they were talking about was consumer machines: PowerBooks, iMacs, etc. Realistically it will probably be late ’06 or even ’07 before you see a suitable workstation replacement. If you buy a computer now, buy for what you need today and stretch a bit to get some more life. If you get 3 years of life out of the system these days, you will be lucky.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Unfortunately the reality is that the entire Mac and PC platfrom situation will be unstable and unpredictable for the next 2 to 3 years. Apple will go through several iterations on the way to an Intel workstation. Windows moves to Vista and eventually a new file structure coupled with dual-core chips and other architectural changes. Starts to make Quantel and Autodesk look pretty good, doesn’t it? 😉

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com