[Todd Gillespie]

As far as my knowledge, you would need to buy a Sony deck to ‘record’ back to DVCAM. Most large format DV Decks will playback DVCAM, but Sony’s decks are the ONLY ones that can record DVCAM.

So you either want to Master back to DV or you might need to buy a Sony deck.
The DSR line are very good and very reliable. We have about 15 (11s, 20s & 40s) none as given us any problems. If you look around you can get a DSR-11 for about $1900.

Good Luck.

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Sounds like you have a bandwidth issue.
Welcome to troubleshooting 101.
Trash Prefs-restart
How full is the drives? Try dumbing some stuff.
Try running the media off another drive.
Try running the program with some video/audio/grfx off
Turn off all tracks but one video track, does it still crash? Build up from there.

And many, many, more choices.
As the Cow says, you need to fill out your profile, I can’t give any more specifics because I don’t know OS, Versions, Drives, Data Rate, etc, etc,

Having been responsible for running 4 Media 100 systems, you shouldn’t be having problem just because you moved to 720? Again, it’s hard to comment without more info.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Funny Thread. I could tell right away that Charlie hadn’t experience your problem. But Charlie is still the ‘King’ . Yes blacking/stripping a tape is a must for student enviorments.
Obviously the ulitmate goal is to get everyone trained correctly. But if you’re in an enviroment where new students come every quarter/semester, then that’s not an option. Don’t bang your head on the wall too much, it’s likely to be a process that repeats itself. From my experience, students will continue to make these kind of mistakes, no matter how much you try to warn them. Kind of makes you wonder how they got into college? You can midigate some mistakes, but not eliminate them all together.

From your list, the key is to have all the manual settings on, nothing ‘auto’
The couple things that I run into, that was not on your list, is tape speed SP NOT LP and tape stock. Although it hasn’t been a problem lately, we have had tape problems in the pass with certain brands not playing right on our decks. For some reason, TDKs were a problem.
The thing about making a list/guidelines for students is that you have to write it for the least common denominator, so you have to write it for “Zeek, the kid to still puts pencils up his nose.’ 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, I think you need to do a list. As a matter of fact I need to rewrite one for similar situation. Just don’t expect all of your problems to go away.

Good Luck

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Greg,
The funny thing about this post, is that every editor has their own style. What might make sense to one person, will not to another.
That being said, you, obviously, understand that there is some value in organizing your project from the begining. How you organize your bins and project, is determined a lot by how you like to cut?
For me, I usually will cut the entire show with no cutaways, graphics, etc., then go back and add them as needed. Cut a very basic show and build up from there. Plus one of the first issues when cutting shows for us, is the length. So this way I’ll find out how much time I have to work with.
For a show like yours, I would keep it as separated as possible, bins for cutways, bins for over the shoulder, grfx, wide shots, role playing, etc. It is very helpful once you start building the show and need to look for shots. I will also color code my clips when needed. Green is a used shot, blue unused, yellow used 1x but more avaible, etc. Then I can list the bin by color and quickly find shots I haven’t used. Whatever works for you.

Another approach that I’ve been using lately is cutting parts of the show in different programs. When you have longer shows with lots of video, grfx, sound, etc, it can be very easy to get lost. Also, it’s very easy to bump your clips out of sync and not know it when it’s further down the timeline. It also allows me to focus on that part of the show without worrying about what happens in a hour from now. Although this is easier to do with some shows and nto others. Unfourtunatly I’m not infront of my Media100, so I can’t remember if it allows one timeline to be placed in another?? But that’s a big help when working this way. Like with FCP, I’ll cut each segment, then drop those timelines into one Master timeline.
If you’re use to more of a linear style, than this approach may not be for you?

There are many more options than that, but just to give you an idea.

FWIW – Good luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Tim,

not to add any more confussion to this post, BUT even though Tiger is 64bit inabled, you would need the program to run at 64bit to see any speed improvements in regards 64bit processing. So even though Tiger is 64bit, when running AE, it’s pulling from 32bit code. Not only that, but you would also need to make sure EVERYTHING on the computer is running at 64bit, otherwise, as soon as it hits a older 32bit writen code, the OS will ‘port itself down’ to 32bit to run the code. So if a plug-in was written in 32 bit, or anything other 32bit code it ran into while running a program, it would be slow down the 64bit throughput. It will probably be a couple of years before anyone is running on a computer that has everything running at native 64bit.

I read an interesting article about 64bit. It metion that even IF you rewrote all the software to run native 64bit, for G5 or a dual Xeon for that matter, the computer would actually run slower!! Computers/Software is at a transitional stage right now and software is a little ahead of hardward. What happens in 64bit is all these little ‘pointers’ that tell what the computer to do, and where to go, suddenly double in size. 2 problems with this, one the pointers DON’T need to be any bigger (since it’s just ‘pointing’ where/what to do) and now your computer is chewing through Cache and RAM twice as fast, but still not doing anything different. So now your cache and RAM have to dump data, to make room for more, twice as much as before. This continual dumping of cache slows down your computer. So we’ll bus/cache speeds double for it to catch up with 64bit programs. Yikes! I’m sure it will happen, it’s just a matter of when.

Somebody feel free to clarify any of the technical stuff I might have missed. I very computer literate, but there’s a point where it’s just too much info!

So, I imagine that if Adobe wrote AE in 64bit tomorrow, PC’s and Mac’s would stay about the same distance from each other.
Kind of like ending up where we started…
😛

Cheers,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

I couldn’t agree more. As I stated in my 1st post:
[Todd at UCSB]
BUT for editing, go with what feels comfortable, the majority of your time savings will occur with how quickly you can navigate around your OS and Editing program.

Peace

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Matt,
Don’t take my previous post as a mark against Apple laptops. Quite the contrary, I couldn’t be happier with mine (typing on it right now!). I also use AE, and lot of plug-ins, Camera work, etc, and have no problems. It’s nothing that I notice when working on my PowerBook. But from my experience, when I use a PC laptop for AE work, it’s like “wow, this thing can really move!” Also we have done some Invigorator tests in the past, Apple vs. PC, and the PC are about 2x faster for the same project file. AE is fun for some lite stuff on a laptop, but if your going to due anything serious, there’s not enough workspace with any laptop!! AE’s windows take up so much room.

I don’t want to start a Apple vs. PC laptop rant, but as a general rule, AE runs a little faster on PCs. With the new G5, the gap is much closer. I’m sure some Apple-file will be able to point to a website the has the latest test results, which put the G5 at the top. But that’s with a G5 tower, not a laptop.

For me, nothing beats FCP for laptop editing. FCP is one of the FEW programs that with each new release, more realtime effects can be performed with LESS hardware.

I would diffinatly get a PowerBook though (not an iBook), and load it up, faster HD, Better Grphx Card, Max out the RAM, etc.

Bought my over a year ago and it’s still has tons of power.

Cheers

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Sorry, must have been too short handed.
I was refering to a Wireless Lav Mic system. not the shotgun. 2 channel UHF system. Looked on SOny.com, doesn’t list the reciever? But it doesn’t look that expersive. That’s good.

Also, I was refering to a CRT or Hi-Res monitor, not the LCD camera monitor.

It sounds like a good camera, but I would be a little worried buying into technology that is at the end of it’s lifecycle.
That’s why we didn’t buy the DSR-570.
Nothing against Sony, we’re ALL ABOUT DVCAM over here. over a dozen DVCAM decks a counting, but Sony’s moving towards optical and Panasonic is moving towards solid state.

Like most camera purchases, companies want them to last. So you wouldn’t want to buy a camera that you would need/want to replace in 2 years.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Mike,
Spending money on gear is my specialty 😛
I agree with your assesment on HDV, it’s still a couple years off. But I would still look really hard at the new Panasonic AG-HVX200. Not for it’s HD, but for it’s P2 cards solid state recording. One of the biggest slow downs for an editor is waiting for your footage to digitize. WIth the solid state cards it’s 4-8x realtime. Plus their are no moving parts when it’s recording.

But the bigger questions is: for $10,000 that gets you the DSR-400 camera body! Nothing else. No Lens, no mics, no monitor, etc. You might have a monitor and/or mic, but the lens alone will run $2-15k. DSR 400 is a nice camera, but with a cheap lens, you’re not going to notice. Plus the internal mics with those cameras make it really nice to shoot with. I bought the Sennhieser Mic to go with the SDX-900 that we have, it was expensive, but worth it.

When we were looking at DSR-570, I believe the mic package was $3-4k. Ouch!

Point is you might want to think a little smaller, but outfit it completely. ei: XL-2, Panasonic line, Sony HVRZ1U, etc.
Or, look for a used package that comes with a nice lens.
FWIW

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

This question, which has been asked many, many times before, is akin to asking someone if they should buy a Toyota or Honda?
Both are good cars, cost about the same, and can get you where you need to go. It just depends on what your preferences are.

I would definatly say that Apple’s FCP is a proven labtop edting work horse for many people. I have cut serveral 90min shows, straight from my G4 laptop, added titles and effects, and exproted straight to DVD with embedded markers- all worked faulessly. FCP is really good at adjusting RT features to your needs as well.

It looks like other users can say the same thing about working with a PC.
The only thing I would add is that you probably will get better performance with a PC then an APple for AE work. BUT for editing, go with what feels comfortable, the majority of your time savings will occur with how quickly you can navigate around your OS and Editing program.

Cheers,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production