[Paul Thurston]

This is one way of doing what you seek. You would connect the video signals to an AJA FS1 converter and you would get a standard definition or HD video interlace SDI video out. You would then capture that stable video signal with an AJA SDI capture device such as an AJA Io X3 or you would record those sequences to an AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G video recorder (which you would then use to file transfer later your video to your computer.) The audio requires an audio cable adapter that connects the RCA audio outs of the VHS player to connect to the audio in of either the FS1 or the other AJA items.

That’s as portable as I can think of right now.

(This of course would be for an NTSC frame rate endeavor.)

Please remember that 50 Ohm BNC cables / RCA cables should not be used, but instead true 75 Ohm BNC video cables. By all means, do not use a regular RCA video cable between the VHS player and your video capture devices. RCA cables are all 50 Ohm cables and really do not have proper shielding for what you want to do. (RCA cables cannot protect you against RF interference generated by other devices nearby.)

I use a video switcher that has a composite in and outputs Serial Digital Component interlace SDI out. The switcher allows me to see a waveform monitor and Vectorscope of the incoming video which I use to correct the black level (usually sits around 7.5 IRE instead of 0 IRE,) Luma levels (usually sit around 107 IRE instead of under 100 IRE), and Hue. VHS pretty much all the time has the Hue off (usually takes on a purple toned shade). I color correct those in the switcher color corrector before I capture the video using an AJA capture device.

Hope that helps

[Paul Thurston]

Now I thought about the symptoms you describe and based on my experience, you may have a driver that is conflicting with another driver, you have a driver that is damaged, you may have a driver that causes what you experience by design(perhaps the driver was probably coded before the product even existed… yikes… need an updated driver), or as I’ve described, there’s perhaps something happening with your drives.

What kind of drives do you have?

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

Hi Gerry,

Q: “do I really need the Media Cache and Preview folders to be on separate drives to this day still?”
A: The answer is no. You may actually put these items on the same drive your media is on.

BUT, you have substandard technology that will limit your ability to edit well. The Drobo 5D is a Near Attached Storage designed for small bandwidth. So yes, you can save large files to it, and yes they will playback the file, as data, but the speed or transfer, as you probably noticed is not great.

I’ve edited various projects using RAID-0’s, and have successfully finished them all quite well. But every six to eight months, I have to rebuild the RAID as it starts to fail (RAID-0 is problematic, especially with non-server type SATA drives.)

ALL drives fail, even server destined SAS drives. But non-server type SATA drives fail or die faster.

For video editing, you should consider using at least four drives for a RAID-0, preferably SAS 10k ones.

Just because you have a RAID-0, does not mean disaster will not strike. This is why some folks tend to build a RAID-60 (inside a CHENBRO chassis) and connect it to a fine PC computer using an ARECA manufactured RAID adapter card (x16 PCI-e 3.) They also tend to only use HGST manufactured SAS hard drives (they hold up longer than Seagate or Western Digital branded drives). WD owns HGST by the way.

Does it cost piles of money to build a RAID-60 inside a CHENBRO chassis? Yes, oodles of it. And the reliability is really high also. You get what you pay for. Personally I can’t stand unreliable equipment, or equipment that is unreliable because the hard drives are under-engineered on purpose.

On the other hand, if you choose to not build your own “tank” full of hard drives, you could just buy something advertised at Creativecow.

Regardless, this type of endeavor is going to be expensive. And yes, most people just give up and use substandard equipment, not designed for heavy duty video editing (Drobo and even Lacie.) They all eventually regret it though.

Q: “So what about USB 3.0? Isn’t it fast enough?”
A: Technically speaking it’s fast. But the drives connected to that USB 3 connector, are usually just home use, under-engineered, SATA drives not designed for video editing RAID setups.

Alas, if you have less than $1000 US Dollars for a RAID setup, you’ll need to save up some more money. Low end hard drives, inside whatever chassis you choose, will always work against you at the end.

For MAC folks who happen to read this:
Q: “What happens if I have an Apple computer, won’t that work better?”
A: You have to look at the least common denominator of the endeavor. If the SATA drives connected to it are for home use, the type that are substandard, and under-engineered (they cost much less than professional server types), no advanced computer technology will save you from the aggravation of the drive’s design. I’m not saying Macs are under-engineered. I’m saying those cheap SATA drives usually chosen for video editing will frustrate certain high bandwidth projects and nothing will save you from that.

The hard drives are the issue, not the computer or drive chassis of choice.

———————————————–
Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

Here’s what I hope to hear:
-All FX accelerated by GPU cards.
-SMPTE wipes that have at least 1024 variable positions.
-Waveform, Vectorscope, and Program Out, concurrently on the GUI.
-Confidence dialogue box that tells us the bit depth we work at. (8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, or 16-bit)
-Digital Cinema Package generated from the timeline.
-All image items should have PROC AMP fx turned on by default.
-A fade transition fx that is not linear but logarithmic.

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

If I understand this correctly then, Ingram Micro purchased these drives. Then setup a company called IMSourcing to resell these items. IMSourcing then resold on the open market these drives to various online resellers, who now just call the drives Seagate-IMSourcing. I understand IMSourcing, as a company, just sells discontinued items so I guess that implies Ingram Micro can no longer source these drives directly from Seagate.

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

How to get your show idea off the ground.

It’s been now two years since I was here and I’d like to share some insight to all those who would like to make a show but don’t know how to make it appear on a cable network.

1. Every once in a while, needs for new shows appear on cable TV networks. The best place to learn about those needs it to visit the American Film Market convention in California. You may need to visit this event every year.
https://www.americanfilmmarket.com/

2. The needs right now are for Reality series. The definition of REALITY is bizarre at least, and so should be reviewed and understood very carefully.

Listen to these recordings and memorize all the things they say:
https://producingunscripted.com/category/podcasts/

Read this:
https://ht.ly/mQ4mF

3. Familiarize yourself with this too:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tlc-honey-boo-boo-alana-thompson-367973

4. Then, familiarize yourself with this too:

https://www.producersguild.org/?coc_ts_3

5. While you’re at it, stuff that’s always good to know… thank me later:

https://www.twoadverbs.com/?page_id=110

https://www.blogtalkradio.com/theinsidepitch

6. IF video, editing, music, and writing is not for you, yet you want to make something because your subject matter is unique in TWO different ways, THEN you should talk to one of the folks who are here and pitch yourself to us.

Familiarize yourself to the pitch meeting, you should know this regardless:

https://goodinaroom.com/blog/the-pitch-meeting-structure-everyone-should-know/

7. ONLY if you are the subject of a possible show, (you think you can carry a show, appear in front of the cameras all the time), either because your life is unique in TWO ways or you believe your family is unique in TWO ways, you will and shall contact Michael Van Dyck, Literary & Packaging Agent at Paradigm LA.

Meet Michael:

https://www.iaemagazine.com/feed/Vol3iss16/michael-van-dyck/michael-van-dyck-literary-agent-paradigm.html

If you are not able to find contact information for Pardigm or Michael on the internet, you should be ashamed of yourself. Try this: firstletterofthefirstname+lastname(vandyck)at paradigmagency.com

-Paul

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

The answer is no. Folks have tried using an Nvidia Quadro 2000 with two Nvidia Tesla C2075 cards with success, yet that requires a motherboard that can handle the bandwidth, number of cards and a program that can take advantage of the setup. My understanding is that at the moment, you can do similar speed work with just a single Nvidia Quadro K5000 card (PNY VCQK5000-PB.)

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

Hi Bruce,

When your computer monitor is “TCO’ 03 power management compatible,” it means your monitor will go into “sleep” mode whenever it detects there is no movement of the mouse or keyboard after a measured amount of time. The Nvidia Quadro 4000 is also “TCO’ 03 power management compatible” aware. So when the monitor reaches it’s time limit of “no action by the user” moment, it communicates that to the Quadro 4000 and the Quadro literally sends a type of “sleep mode” signal to the monitor. The monitor will appear to not have an image, like it’s turned off, but in fact it is still on. It’s like the backlight of the monitor was turned off. You can tell the monitor went into this “sleep mode” as the computer is still running and in your case still rendering.

If your monitor is made by Dell, you’ll notice when it goes into the “power management mode” as it states so on the screen ever so often.

The design process to get out of the sleep mode or “power management” was to just move the mouse. BUT, there is a software bug in the Nvidia Driver that does not allow the Nvidia Quadros to quickly “wake up the monitor.” In fact the Driver may fail to actually wake up the monitor at all (depends on the Nvidia driver being used.) In that case, you’ll just have to press the On/Off button of the computer so it gracefully exits windows.

So how do you overcome this limitation?
1) Connect another monitor to the motherboard VGA out, so you can continue to see what goes on after you discover the Nvidia Quadro has gone into the “power management” subroutine. If you have an old Tube ViewSonic monitor somewhere, those work great with motherboard VGA outs. (This of course implies you’ve not turned off in BIOS the VGA out of your motherboard.)
2) Stick around while the rendering takes place and move the mouse ever so often. (Not recommended, because it’s a pain to do, but it works.)
3) Work with Nvidia to figure out what to do to avert the “TCO’ 03 power management” from executing. I understand Nvidia knows about this issue, and has written about it in its REAMME PDF associated with the latest Driver update. They know about it, they just can’t fix it right now for some reason.

On a side note, the TCO’ 03 power management is controlled solely by the Nvidia Quadro Driver. It is not controlled by windows 7 power management at all.

-Paul

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

Hi Kevin, could you kindly discuss in more detail the improvement of the Nvidia Maximus configuration? The Tesla C2075 card and the Quadro 6000 card appear to be identical cards. If a PC computer had both cards installed + an AJA KONA 3G card + the Premier Pro CS 5.5.2 update, what would the advantage be in comparison to a computer that only has a Quadro 6000 card + an AJA KONA 3G card installed (no C2075?)

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile

[Paul Thurston]

Here’s what the JVC DCL-5 head cleaning tape looks like:
https://www.broadcaststore.com/store/model_detail.cfm?id=17399

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Paul Thurston
Producer
Chile