[Torrey Loomis]

Shawn,

Try shutting down both the RAID and the Mac.

Fire up the RAID, then fire up the Mac. See what happens.

BTW–what kind of RAID is it?

Torrey Loomis
President – Silverado Systems
Apple Pro Video VAR
Apple Xsan for Pro Video Certified
1108 Sandwick Way
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 806-7189
tloomis@silverado.cc
https://www.Silverado.cc

We have Panasonic DVCPRO HD and Sony HDCAM

Check out our rates at https://www.silverado.cc/rentals.html

[Torrey Loomis]

Tommy,

I have listed some answers to your questions below. All of these are subject to change based on what happens at NAB…

Tommy’s questions are:

1- What’s with all the different HD formats, are they all just flavours of the same thing :ie DVCam, DV, DVCpro (all kinda the same, and all deviations from the core DV format.)??

Check out Marco’s excellent discussion of these and other codecs here:

https://codecs.onerivermedia.com/

There is a great section on the DV codecs under the 4:2:2C section. Compare the DVCPRO HD image at 1080i to an uncompressed 1080i image. You’ll see some major differences.

2- Do i need a capture/monitoring card? Don’t the decks have firewire. or FW800? Are those “ports’ not fast enough? Does one capture via a port at all, or is it an analogue capture, via component video/xlr audio?

You’ll need a capture card to get uncompressed video via HD-SDI. Panasonic’s 1200a VTR can be equipped with a firewire 400 port which allows direct transfer from the deck to FCP. The new HDV cameras can be plugged in via Firewire and used with iMovie HD and with Final Cut Express HD, but FCP hasn’t been updated yet with this capability.

Or, with the HDV cameras you can run the analog signal into a AJA converter and a Flying Cow box and convert to HD-SDI signal for capturing to a card.

3-Do I need a RAID drive system to keep up with such large data-rate files? Or is it more of a “file transfer from data on tape” ie non-realtime capture?

DVCPRO HD does not require RAID speeds, but everything else does. You can check out datarates here:

https://www.silverado.cc/drivespeeds.html

4-Once it’s in my system, and on my timeline, will I have any realtime playing and previewing? Why only Panasonic’s version?

You can have realtime playing and previewing with uncompressed, too. However–that will drop off if you start to add multiple layers of video and graphics.

5- Do i need a big Hi-res HD Broadcast monitor, with some sore of digital input? or will the capture card offer analogue out to standard component CRT monitor? Or do i loop through the deck? What deck?

Sony PVM series monitors can be equipped with all sorts of input cards that will take the SDI signal out of the capture card. Or, you can get one of the many flavors of HD-SDI –> DVI converter boxes that allow an SDI signal to be sent to a 23″ Apple Cinema Display. Definitely wait to see what’s new at NAB on this issue.

6- Simple to down-convert for SD tape. ie TX still eventually on beta-SP. I use a AJA LA for this analogue out/in.

Many of the capture cards will now downconvert HD to SD. Plug in your Beta deck and record directly from this source.

7- Disk sapce consumption? Compressions?

You’d have to be more specific on this–and this really depends on what format you are using. Capturing uncompressed from Sony HDCam will take up a lot more room than native DVCPRO HD.

8- General choking of system with such large data? Lots of “preparing window for display” etc?

Hasn’t been an issue on the projects we’ve worked on.

9 – Output to HD deck for archive/client copy?

Sure beats keeping all that stuff on the RAID…

10 Buy now or wait till after NAB? Tiger and next FCP?

Definitely wait until NAB. There is absolutely no reason not to wait two weeks to see what might be forthcoming at the show. Even if you ordered a complete HD suite the fulfillment time alone could take 1-2 weeks.

Torrey Loomis
President – Silverado Systems
Apple Pro Video VAR
1108 Sandwick Way
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 806-7189
tloomis@silverado.cc
https://www.Silverado.cc