Something like Big Mug Software's Capture Magic HD
 

Greetings,

We use Final Cut and Vegas and use a macbook pro to record and preview out in the field. The software we use is Capture Magic HD by Big Mug and it works great.

Is there anything like this for a PC that I could use with Vegas? I know Adobe includes something to do this with Premier, but I can't spend the money for Premier for just that piece. Is there anything else out there? I know this topic has come up many times before, but never seems to have a resolution.

Vegas works to capture onto a laptop, but the preview is not large enough to do adjustments with. Any ideas?

Thank you for any help.

Sorry if I'm telling you something you already are aware of.

DV-Rack is the name of the product that then became incorporated into Adobe CS as On Location (and, as you say, cannot now be bought separately - how dumb is that?).

Maybe worth trying to track down a copy? Not sure if Adobe are still supporting the old versions (or if you can still activate them) but if you can get a copy you won't be disappointed. It's a great field tool.

It is able to handle HDV well? That would be fantastic! I'll see if I can find a copy somewhere.

Any ideas by the way?:)

I believe (stress believe!) that DV Rack v2 handles HDV but I can't swear to that. I think there are a few forums that still discuss the Serious Magic apps (in fact there is a sub board here). You may find some better answers there.

Good luck!

I've been using DVRack 2.0HD for several years and it is a great program. It supports HDV in the modes I've tried, 720p and 1080i. It is a marvelous tool. This week we used it once again on a green-screen shoot, and the waveform monitor, vectorscope and reference monitor are very handy. We were shooting out of sequence - it's easy to look back to a previous shot for wardrobe, lighting, or any other potential continuity issues.

IMHO Adobe is supporting registration/activation of the original DVRack in a half-hearted way. Going to the Adobe pages and registering the product worked for me, but the activation server that DVRack wants to connect with is no longer active and you have to call in for an activation code. This worked for me, but if you read the forum elsewhere on DVInfo, you'll see at least one other person who's had trouble with DVRack or Ultra (the other product Adobe bought from Serious Magic).

Ultra is a great keyer.

Both these products got absorbed into the CS3 production suite, as OnLocation and Ultra, pretty much as-is.

The recent release of the CS4 suite includes a cross-platform (!) rewrite of OnLocation, but Ultra is gone. There's rumours that a re-written Ultra may be back someday.

I'd suggest locating a copy of the CS3 production suite if at all possible - it's Adobe branded and includes both apps, registration/activation should be straightforward for a long time to come.

These are two great products. If my activations of the old products become unmanageable I may go for new product (but don't tell Adobe). At this point I'm going to hold out in the hope that Ultra comes back to the suite.

I've seen the CS4 version - it looks very different from previous versions and has a few additional functions (haven't looked into them yet so not sure what they do). I concur with Seth's suggestion about trying to get hold of CS3. Here's a Mac version on eBay (with the windows only On Location) adobe on location, Computers Networking, Cameras Photo items on eBay.com

Thank you very much for your help. It seems like a good route would be to just find a copy of Adobe Premier CS3 for cheap.

The cameras we use are JVC's 200u's and we shoot 720p60, do you think that would present any problems?

Make sure you're getting the production suite bundle...

On Tuesday we were shooting with an HD100 at 720/30p - I've not worked with the 200, does it have an actual 60p mode? If so, I haven't tested it.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/private-c...ultra-2-a.html

May be what you're looking for, Jason?

Jason, the Markertek web site says they have Serious Magic DV Rack 2.0 HD in stock for $495.00.
Might be worth looking into.

Thank you very much for all the advice. I think I'm going to order it from that website as a just in case rather than from the new boot. I don't mean to be a jerk, I'm just a bit nervous.

Once again, thank you very much. My boss now thinks I am pretty cool with using you guys as a recourse.

Merci!