MOTU V4HD Information Available
 

The friendly folks at MOTU just updated their website

http://www.v4hd.com:80/

Enjoy.

I Liked the V3HD until I saw it was only DVCProHD/50/25. I didn't like the AJA IO because it was ProRes only and now that MOTU added ProRes I guess I like it better than the IO, but still not a fan of ProRes (or DVCPro).

Although it definately boasts more (audio!) feautures and is (much) cooler looking than the Matrox MXO2 (not yet released), as a capture solution for the Mac I believe that will be a really good solution, being able to capture in pretty much any codec you want.

On Windows however the V3HD (and V4HD?) seems to be the only choice for a mobile HD capture inteface. You can't use ProRes on Windows anyways... So it is nice of the MOTU people to offer a free exchange for V3HD users (for a limited time).

George/

The MOTU V4HD is now shipping
 

The MOTU folks have updated their website again...

MOTU V4HD - News

They also have a limited time upgrade program.
If you already have a V3HD, you can exchange it for a V4HD, no charge...

This device adds a lot of nice features especially with audio, but with Premiere or On Location one can capture whatever is sent to the computer. For Panasonic HD cameras, that would be DVCPROHD, so for straight capture, the V4HD seems a bit redundant to me.

Now if it had a hard drive and could capture without a laptop, then we would be getting a bit more unique, imho.

The international auto-switching internal power supply seems like a really nice feature. I do a fair amount of work in Europe, and not having to deal with power converters for expensive video equipment is a big plus. I don't know if the V3HD offered that or not. If it didn't, it is a much appreciated addition.

Personally, I think any of these boxes (MOTU V4HD, AJA IoHD) is gross overkill if all you are doing is straight capture to computer.

Their real value is in doing real time capture, multiple realtime cross and up and down conversions plus monitoring all combined. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If you don't need all that, then they are just a lot of money blown out the door.
But if you do....

I agree with Bill. I have only ever used the Aja IO HD for projects where I am capturing in real time to an on-site computer and in instances where I have audio and video timecode running into my system from separate sources, in which case some sort of interface is needed. These days, especially with solid state cameras, these units are becoming obsolete. I think in the future we may see MOTU and Aja creating units with internal drives. That is a niche that has yet to be effectively filled (from a price standpoint).

Except that if you are doing mobile capture into a laptop with the MX02 you are limited by the computer's processor speed, and at least with the current MacBooks that rules out ProRes because they can't do it in realtime.

Also, if you want to use the MX02 to do uncompressed on your laptop you are out of luck because it uses the express card slot - and firewire isn't fast enough to support an array to do uncompressed, at least for HD.

So for mobile use really the MX02 lets you capture in any codec you want as long as your computer can do the compression in real time, and as long as it doesn't require a SATA array.

Capturing uncompressed on location through a notebook is a tall order that imho is not realistic. The new QuadCore MBP's look promising to support high bitrate codecs to a FW800 disk/array.

However the MXO2, as well as the V4HD and IO, are more that just capture interfaces. And in the case of the V4HD and MXO2 will grow in capability with the host hardware.

George/

..the new quadcore MBP? when is that out?

i am looking for an all-in-one device that I can use at home or in the field with the Prores codec, so MX02 looks very promising but unfortunately it can't capture to prores on current core duo MBPs;
the aja io hd is too pricey for me but has a great spec;
the V4HD disappoints with no HDMI input (why? are MOTU saying HDV camera users with firewire/hdmi output wouldn't want to capture to Prores?)

I was wondering about that one as well.
I went to the Apple website, found nothing about quadcore laptops of any variety.

On the PC side, HP does have a quadcore laptop now.

HP Official Store — Buy an HP HDX 18t Premium series notebook PC from HP

Quadcore's are still speculation at this point; as with all Apple products that's all they'll be until a formal announcement... and Apple just announced a macbook-focused media event on October 14th, so we should know in a week.

I didn't see a quadcore option on that HP link - and as far as I know Intel hasn't shipped quad mobile chips yet (their site currently shows no available quad mobile systems from any manufacturer), although I believe their roadmap indicated shipping by the end of this month so it's pretty likely they'll be available as an option at the top of the new macbook line.