Tom Matthies
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COW Coin
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DaVinci Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Bob.
Ah yes! Colorframing and ScH phase problems and the every nasty horizontal shifts. I’d almost forgotten about that. It is amazing that, in many ways, editing has become so easy over the years.
When I was just getting started in this business I worked at a local TV station that had been color for only 6-7 years. It was populated by curmudgeonly old engineer types. I used to endlessly hear how “you kids don’t know how easy you have it these days”. The stories about live commercials, live remotes from Hell and how VTRs were new, unproven technologies. I used to think “Blah, blah,blah…” Old guys telling stories. Well, now I’m doing the same thing telling old guy war stories to people that have never edited in tape before.
A few years ago I was interviewing a potential editor here. He was familar with a few non linear editing systems, the PostBox and the good old Video Toaster. When I asked him what linear systems he had used in the past, I got a blank stare. What’s a linear editor he asked? I replied “You know, CMX 3600, Ampex ACE, Grass VPE’s and so on”. Well, he calmly replied that he ahd never edited tape before and really had never even had the opportunity to learn to do it. A cold chill ran through me. The end of an era I thought sadly. Damn kids…
Anyhow, here I am well over thirty years in the business, working as an editor and a systems engineer while also running a home business producing, shooting and editing local TV spots and videos. I like to think that I still keep up on technology and learning new things. I will be going for my SBE Senior Broadcast Engineering certification in a few months. It’s a bit scary thinking that I’m even eligible for it.
Oh well, “Old dogs-New tricks” Woof!
Tom -
I guess I should clarify.
In the past four+ years I’ve been using the LaCie drives, I’ve never had one go down on me…ever. So far, they have a 100% good record for reliability.
I’m just looking at a little preemptive maintenance and to try to get away from Firewire dependencency in favor of SATA.
I have one drive (of 12) that’s acting a little funky and failing to mount or dismount everytime. Last night I heard it doing the little “click-click” dance for no apparent reason that I could find. And only that drive is making noises although it is mated to another identical drive as a small raid. The companion drive seems to be acting fine for now. I just thought it might be prudent to get another set of drives in here and back it up as soon as possible. Just in case.
SATA seems to be as good or better than FW800 and I thought it would be as good a time as any to give it a try.
Tom
PS to Matt above: The drives are well out of warranty. That’s why I havent contacted customer support. -
Or just use the tried ‘n true method of converting through Quicktime Pro. Just open the mp3 in QT Pro and export as an .aiff @ 48K. It will take you less than 30 seconds to do it this way.
Tom -
And speaking of D2 machines and stuff in storage, I still have a pair of Ampex VPR-200 D2 decks in my garage. They still work great. Just cant bear to toss ’em out. I just gave away a mint Ampex VPR-6/TBC-7 to a friend in Burbank. At least it will get some use there.
Such is this business.
Tom -
And speaking of D2 machines and stuff in storage, I still have a pair of Ampex VPR-200 D2 decks in my garage. They still work great. Just cant bear to toss ’em out. I just gave away a mint Ampex VPR-6/TBC-7 to a friend in Burbank. At least it will get some use there.
Such is this business.
Tom -
Hmmm. I export OMFs thru FCP for use in ProTools all of the time. It works…mostly anyhow.
Tom -
Just a shot in the dark here. I notice that you are using a decklink card. I’m wondering if your preferences are set to output a different codec than what you edited your sequences in when using edit to tape. Check your preferences under Audio/Video settings>A/V Devices>Different output for edit to Tape/Print to video.
Make sure that this is unchecked or at least showing the same codec that your main sequences are set to. For that matter make sure that your Playback Output is set up correctly as well.
What are you recording to and how are you feeding it?
Tom -
This spot will be edited at 29.97 with pulldown added. I do, however, need to pull a few scenes for my graphics guys who are rotoscoping a scene. They will prefer those shots in the 24p format they were originally shot in. That will be the only 24fps scenes in the produstion. Those completed rotoscoped scenes will then be brought in with pulldown added back in to match the rest of the footage in the final edit. Hopefully all pretty straight forward.
Although, when you think about it, shooting on HDCam at 24p, capturing the footage, sending it to graphics, rotoscoping and compositing with 3D animation, outputting back to HD animorphic, adding in pulldown and editing into an HD animorphic timeline was not exactly routine a couple of years ago! To bad it will end up as a letterboxed, SD spot for distribution. Oh well, that’s progress! I guess…
Tom -
Thanks Bob.
Actually everything on the list is already in house and has been in use for a while now. This system is replacing an older G4 system that was “retired” and given to the graphics department for authoring DVDs. The new system has been up and running for a couple of months. Just today I did the 5.1 crossgrade and things seem to work fine.
The reason for the post is because of a post on the FCP COW site a while ago addressing this compatibility problem with the Kona 3 and the HDLink. It’s not bad advice from the dealers but a little street knowledge from the field. I had assumed that the HDLink would work with any HDSDI stream, but I may be mistaken hence the post. You know what happens when we assume? I ended up ordering the Aja box today along with the Kona 3. I’m also getting the breakout box for the Kona and a nice 24″ Dell widescreen for a client monitor. Now with a roll of SDI Co-ax and connectors, I should be in good shape.
FWIW, our plant is all tied into a central sync generator. I am wondering about tri-sync right now however…Hmmm.
Thanks,
Tom -
I don’t think that FCP suupports RS-232 protocol. Are you sure that the J3 is RS-232 and not RS-422 for control?
We don’t have any J3’s but our DVW-500’s are RS-422.
Tom