[Scott Francis]

Thanks John, I was leaning that way, just I have not used ANY of these small cams…so I thought I would check out from others as well….I will look into that one.. and I really appreciate all the input and help…. I REALLY love this forum and all your input!!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

De-select all the options under preferences and try it again…see what happens. Also, try to start the device and THEN click on the record button…again see what happens…good luck!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

I use the NTSC template and if it is widescreen change the aspect ratio to 16:9. This will encode audio with the video and not separate streams. You can adjust any audio variations in the tab menus under “Custom” if they require something else. This has work for me for broadcasters across the U.S……good luck!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

Hey John,

No worries, I did not take it that way. Just pointing out that at times technology moves faster than what our wallets do! So interesting that the consumer/pro lines are being so blurred these days….

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

Hey John,

By no means did I say they were not building them anymore….however in one trip to Staples, Best Buy, and Walmart I found no laptops with firewire and 2 with express slot. Some of my interns have also bought numerous one with i3 and i5 chips, again with no firewire or express slots…also looking on Tiger direct I can find only a handfull of them with either option…that is kind of what I meant by off the shelf…and if he didn’t want to buy another machine at a high price. I actually was luck enough to find one last year with firewire, express slot and esata….but it was the only one in the store….
I will have to keep the Lenova stuff in mind next time…thanks!!

Warmly

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

All above are correct..unfortunately finding firewire and an expansion port is becoming harder on off the shelf laptops…. My suggestion is to fly in on a desktop, or buy an inexpensive older laptop on ebay and capture with that. I have 4 older laptops that I use to capture live video to HD and use tape as a backup. 3 of them are old Dell D505’s not good enough to edit or really watch HDV but can capture via firewire fine and that is all I ask of them…only use them for shoots….capture to 2.5″ external USB drives and take those back to the ranch, move data to my editing computers and done!!! Just a suggestion…it sucks that so many manufactures are not using firewire and expansion on laptops now days….oh well….good luck!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

Thanks guys,
As much as you like the Panny TM700 Danny, I need to have component out and LANC control on any cam I use. I use robo heads on 4-5 of the cams when I shoot as many are on a JIB or towers that are 11′ high…no options there. That specific panny does not have either unfortunately. I need to go component HD as well to match my cabling and I don’t have the $ to spend on HDMI amps to send them over 150′ so component is a must. I have been looking into the Blackmagic stuff and there requirements for computers and RAID arrays as well. Anyone use any of the sony AVCHD cams like the AX2000? Just wanted to check, again thanks for all your input.

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

Thanks for all the replies…I still am unclear with my main question though.
1) I have 5 cams 3 FX1’s and 2 HC1’s have to do some color correcting when using them all, but have had good sucess.
2) Manual controls are a must as I always shoot shutter speed 60, no gain and let the iris run on auto with manual focus on my robo cams (I can do up to 4 of my 5 on robo vs having a live camera operator at the cam.)
3) I track up 48 tracks of audio from the board and mix entirely separately from my cam audio…better end product and I only use the cams for lining up the video and crowd reactions that don’t make it to my audience mics.
4) I monitor with 5-6 720p 19″ monitors all LCD. What I see on them is straight from the cams using the component out at 1080i.

This always seems to look better than when I watch my footage captured in HDV while editing, even on the same monitors. Hence my desire to look into capturing via Blackmagic or another HD box vs buying up to 5 new cams with AVCHD compression?

Looking at costs, it would be a bit cheaper going the Blackmagic rout vs 5 new cams. I tried the FX7 and HATE the colorset vs my FX1’s and HC1’s and it is a nightmare to color correct to even get close. I tend to like CCDs as well over CMOS except for the HC1’s which is 1 cmos sensor, however I can work with the exposure and get reasonable footage in lower light. The color correction is pretty good, as only the reds tend to look a little more magenta on the HC1’s.
My main question is, is it better to invest into Blackmagic cards, RAID arrays and such for each cam (about $1000 for a decent computer with needed HDs, as I build my own), or to look into new cams, which are WAY more than that, up to triple or more.
I understand this is a loaded question, however cost is an issue as is doing it is steps, then I have to deal with color correction and getting cams to play nice with each other in color correction. I am wired up for 6 cams via robos using component, cat5e and sony lanc remotes, so I need to stay in the sony brand (or at least LANC capable which I believe panny is).

So there it is…Blackmagic Intensity with PC’s or newer Sony cams with AVCHD compression….anyone?

Thanks again for all the input guys!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

Thanks guys…I have had good results with my FX1’s in the low light settings I shoot in. I have read in other forums that the AVCHD format has issues in low light. I understand the size and number of imagers are more important than recording format. When I do a large production I watch all 5 of 6 of the cams and call out shots as well as use 3-4 robo cams that we remotely control from the monitoring area. The footage I see in real time on the monitors (coming from the sensors) ALWAYS looks a ton better than the HDV footage. Hence my desire to get a better end product. I currently capture both to laptop (one at each cam via firewire) as well as to tape as a backup. This saves a lot of wear on the cams. I would not have too much trouble taking a PC for each cam as I am also looking into a building a video truck as well. I think cost will be lower in I go with the Intensity cards, and would get a better end product coming in via the imager….but this is my question about avchd formats….better to compress with that then uncompressed via imager? Not sure! Thanks again guys, also I love my Sony’s and will probably stick with that brand due to also being able to control the cam (zoom, focus and rec/stop) via remotes at the monitoring station. I know panny’s and some others (including SLRS) don’t have as easy of a remote control as the Sony’s, plus I already have 6 remotes and I am wired for them…again thanks to all!!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Scott Francis]

When I have done that, I re-render out only the part I messed up and then create another project, bring in both the full-sized bad clip and the small fixed clip, line them up and re-render the project using the same format as the full length bad clip. This will allow it to smart render a new clip and only need to make any changes to the fixed part. Hope this helps!!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions