[Rich Rubasch]

Hmmmm….still not convinced you’ve thought this through. Only Bob suggested Uncompressed HD. The original poster said HDV and HD. I am going to assume that an entirely DVCPro HD workflow would suffice.

On a location production you might have a mix of DVCAM, HDV and DVCProHD cameras running around. In order to post all this stuff you have to work in one codec….that being DVCProHD or some SD codec like DVCPro 50. So, how else could you get all that into FCP in DVCProHD? Only through a video card. And you wouldnt’ need the same raid for that as you would with Uncompressed.

You would need to upconvert standard def, convert HDV to DVCProHD with the Serial Digital to the card, and the DVCProHD could come in firewire, or via the HD SDI input on the card.

I don’t see why you couldn’t do all this through the Express slot on the Macbook. It is only sending the commands out to the box that would contain the Kona card and the SATA controller. Heck, it could even have a 3-drive raid built in….very cool. So it’s an I/O, a processor and drives with a controller. The Express card isn’t sending all that data back and forth, it is only telling the box what to do.

Still seems possible and it could work as an SD or HD compressed portable solution.

I’ll start working on it tonight and let you know.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

I think Creative Coward is on to something. Build a box that interfaces with the MacBookPro ExpressCard slot. Have a basic set of IO options. Leave off firewire since you already have those. But add in an SATA controller with a multiplier so it can connect with a single cable to a 5-drive RAID.

Keept its footprint as small as is practical.

You now have a slick way to input and output BOTH SD and HD on a laptop with a simple breakout box and a Raid box.

Hmmmm…I don’t think Bob entirely thought this suggestion through. It’s a good one. I’ll bet someone is designing one right now. And as someone who has edited on location, I’d love a little solution just like this to carry around. HD editing on the road made relatively simple.

Nice.

Get’s my vote.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Hold the presses! You say the client is requesting WMV and you have an Intel Mac? Why not install Parallels and encode the right way….in Windows? You will get the best possible encodes, have lots of flexibility and the client will be thrilled.

Is the client going to need full screen (640 x 480) size movies? Will they need streaming versions? Then the PC is the only way to go, and well worth the effort.

If you are talking about 480 x 360 or 320 x 240 low rez movies for reviews, then Flip4Mac is just fine. FWIW, I always encode 15 fps with Flip4Mac, and be sure to tell Flip4Mac that the input (source) is interlaced…..the default is progressive.

And although most of us bash cleaner, I happen to still use it as a pretty easy interface to make MPEG-1, and even Flash video. It is also a great transcoder for Quicktime movies and batches swimmingly. I do not use cleaner for WMV….eithe Flip4Mac on the low rez quick stuff, and the PC for an encode I want to be proud of.

I still loathe Macs compressor. That is not well written software.

Make a partition on the Mac and install Windows….the WMV encoder is a free download and is loaded. You won’t find a comparable WMV encoder on the Mac. That’s my 2

[Rich Rubasch]

I hate to jump in here so late in a thread, but if you have 60 hours why not log out the bad takes so the ingest is not so huge? YOu can always go back to that tape to pick up a shot if needed. I have to imagine that in 60 hours of footage more than 1/4 is unusable, or you will have a better take.

Another option would have been to make DVCAM dubs of the footage while it was being shot and digitize as DV and then you would worry about the final HD version after it was cut (a lot less DVCProHD footage to upload).

It is sounding a little in this thread that a pretty overwhelming project has been mismanaged from the beginning and now you find yourself in a jam. You will always find yourself in a jam if a project is mismanaged!

I wholeheartedly agree….redigitize your footage in DVCProHD! But since you have most of it in the system, how about redigitizing only selected takes that you decide are the best, which will reduce the amount of footage you have to upload?

A workflow for a project of this size needs to have established workflows and from those, timelines, so that the project can move along the specified timeline.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

I can go bigger in Cleaner 6.5.1. Have you tried MpegStreamclip at http://www.square5.com?

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Really, Dave? I figured you would be all over the lates version. I too am waiting for the next version of the new interface and rewrite. I have done two projects in 7.0 and I find I’m waiting for a lot of proceses that I don’t in 6.5. Seems something is taking longer in a lot of simple interactions.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

I’m not sure the size of the monitor is as important as what codec and workflow you will be using and what playback format will be used. Is it a DVCPro HD project? Uncompressed 1080i? HDV?

Or will you simply render out a quicktime movie in any given codec and will play it back off the hard drive?

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

MPEG Streamclip…..squared5.com

Will convert AVI to any QT format you choose.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

We bought these:

https://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?prodCatType=2&storeId=10001&noredir=true&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&productId=119352&cmArea=SC2:CG32:CL161515

I am a short guy and my co-worker is tall….it works for both of us. Clients have asked us about them and they seem to like them. They have a good warranty and lots of adjustments. The mesh is nice. We replaced all our wheels with the hard floor casters because we have tile in the offices, but it is a nice chair for the money.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Turns out our deal is that the camera was a JVC shot at 720p and there are known issues with the M25U deck that it does not support 720p formats from Canon and JVC. It really wants 1080i. We were able to downconvert the signal to component and could get it in the system but it was not ideal.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media