HD-SDI for the Novice
 

I've looked pretty deeply into the history on this forum and follow it almost every day.
Below this msg is a thread about HD-SDI, but I see no solid conclusions (as if there were any).

Can anyone please offer a sub $10K (hopefully about half that) solution for a lad to get HD-SDI into a PC where it can be edited in either Sony Vegas 7 (unlikely, since it's only 8bit) or Premier Pro 2 (or 3)?
Right now, I'm thinking a "medium priced" rack-mountable desktop with Black Magic's HD Link Pro all mounted into a half-sized Anvil case.

At NAB, I saw a couple solutions that drove up well over $8K and often about twice that.
Did I miss anything cool?

Mathew,

The INDI recorder from Colorspace is expected to retail at under $7,000 for the recorder itself, and under $2,000 per media pack. This puts a package shooting with 1 media at around $8K-$9K, and a package with 2+ at just over $10K.


If that breaks the bank, and portability/reliability is not an issue, you can build your own PC based solution for less.

However, if you want something that can be mounted with the camera, and you know will never eat your footage, take a look.

http://colorspaceinc.com/icon/

...the INDI is about half way down the page.



Aaron Burtle
Colorspace Inc
Los Angeles, CA

Unless you have the camera with HD-SDI now, you will not find anything in the half range (near 5K) considering - camera, bridge, RAID array, software, fast computer (think hard about monitor that is SDI during the shoot, or you just end up with cleaner cr#p). A lot of pitfalls and gotchas come with the price of shooting HD-SDI on a PC (or a MAC for that matter). You can at least go to DVCPRO HD on the MAC with HD-SDI, and avoid the cost of the RAID array while starting out. This is the route we took, but a large RAID is in our future. The PC has only two options, with uncompressed (hello RAID array) or Cineform. If you find any other good options, please let me know.

I'm in no way trying to talk you out of it, but cost is a limiting factor or everyone would likely be doing it. I only wish I was better prepared for the hard reality before I started down that road (knowing myself, I would have done it anyway). After all we have gone through, and doing exactly what you are now considering... I only wish I had the time to do a webinar on this subject. I would have KILLED for something like that. I might even consider doing one if enough people wanted it.

Email me with a contact number if you are still considering it, typing all the pros/cons is tedious.

Hey Aaron, good luck with that product, the need is climbing for that. I would like to run one of those through it's paces. I'm nearing my end with DVCPRO HD in our production.


Peace!

I thought the INDI recorder was one of the more impressive items being show at the show this year.