[Steve Voyk]

Hi Will,
Yes, all the other replies are correct.

PAL is upper field first (unlike NTSC) but when setting the DV standard in PAL, it appears a mistake was made and hence PAL DV is bottom field first. Crazy !

regards,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Thanks Bob…
That clears up the HD Link question.

OK, so what about in the case where I have Final Cut Pro working away (SD or HD job) and I want to output the timeline (as I’m working) to a fullscreen second monitor that is LCD based? I don’t mean that I want the GUI on a second monitor but rather the ‘broadcast monitor’ output on an LCD (similar to having a traditional Sony BVM/PVM broadcast monitor in edit bays).

What is the CHEAPEST way to do this on FCP and which external box is required? I thought I read that the Intensity card will also give you some kind of monitoring output on fullscreen???

Or is the only way to have a HD Extreme card plus the HD Link card working in tandem ?

Thanks,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Hi,
I’m almost 100% sure that NTSC is lower field first.

Regards,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Hi,
Along with the others, I too, would shoot 24p which records it as a 60i (59.94) signal.

The HDCam-SR deck can record 1080/59.94 both in 4:2:2 and 4:4:4, however since your material is only 4:2:2, output it as such since a little known issue is that HDCam applies higher compression when recording in the 4:4:4 mode. Infact the biggest loss in this case is the initial DVCPro 100 codec.

Regards,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Hi,
Can you point me to directions for 3rd party RAM for MacPro.
Thanks,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Ed,
No offence taken (I know what you mean)…
Thanks for that link… missed that one.
Cheers,
steve

[Steve Voyk]

Ed,
I did a search numerous times and could not really find the exact info that I was asking for. If you find the links please post send them to me.. much appreciated.

Jeremy,
Yes, I’ve looked at the RAID3/5 scenario as I must have some kind of backup.

Unfortunately, they’re all more than $2K. The G-RAID Pro’s are perfect price-wise with RAID 3 protection except they use FW800 which I don’t feel is a good move since it saturates the FW bus pretty much non stop.

What I came up with was a S2VR HD RAID 1 + 0 solution … ie. 2 drives mirrored then striped, with a hot swappable spare. I realise I am wasting a lot of my drive space to get protection at the expense of throughput, ie. from 5 drives I am getting only two for throughput (about 120-130Mbps). Does that seem realistic?

Alternatively, The Fibrenetix FX606-U4 is a SATA drive setup with SCSI connection in RAID 3.However I have no real world specs on the throughput of these. Anyone else using them?

Else, as you mentioned, I need to really spend quite a bit more and look at RAID3/5 with eithere SCSI or FC4 connections.

Feedback appreciated.
Regards,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Whoa !! thanks Jeremy.
This is the first I’ve heard of all these issues with the MAcPro.
I was intending to go SATA or possibly FC as I want RAID3 or 5, use 4Gb RAM and either go BlackMagic or AJA for the cards.

I’m in no rush.. I can wait until the end of the year. Do you know how far away are any othe fixes?

I’m shocked that I was about to purchase all these items and none would work. Can you offer any more detailed info on the issues?

Thanks again
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Thanks for the reply Gary.

I looked at the G-RAID Pro with FW800 connectivity. Whilst their website ‘guarantees’ playback for up to 2 streams of uncompressed 10bit SD, I read report about not to even consider FW800 for SD uncompressed work.

Does any one here use the G-RAID Pro and how have you found it ? Cn anyone sugest any other solutions, particularly SATA that has a RAID system built in ?

Alternatively, recommendations for FC2 storage that is cheap would be appreciated. All the 4Gb FC (1Tb) seems to be over the USD$4k price point which is above my budget currently.

All help appreciated.
Regards,
Steve

[Steve Voyk]

Hi guys,
Many thanks for your answers… I should ahve been more clear though.
I do have a Sony broadcast monitor for SD monitoring purposes. The second monitor was only for viewing HD fullscreen since I can’t afford a proper high def monitor.
Thanks for the tips on the various issues…
So a good SATA setup is enough to do uncompressed HD… that was something I wasn’t aware of. Are the drives 7200 or 10000 rpm?

Regards,
steve