Full screen view
 

Barry,

Since you're so happy to have the zoom feature, I just wanted to make sure you knew about the full screen mode in which the video takes over the whole monitor. To toggle between the normal and full screen views, simply press ALT+ENTER. All the keyboard shortcuts for clip playback work when the video's filling the screen and the transport controls are nowhere to be found.

Hey Mark, what's the chances of a "HDV" version coming out to accompany the HDR-FX1? I'd be first in line to purchase..

Murph

Re: Full screen view
 

Whoa... just tried it on my 17" LCD... AMAZING! Very, very cool. You can zoom in a lot closer, but the full-screen monitor looks great!

You guys really seem to enjoy working on this software, don't you? It shows in the final product.

Still think you need to change the 16:9/4:3 switch. Ideally it'd be a button on the front panel, but if not, the menu option should work more like a Panasonic BT-H1390Y: either 16:9 or 4:3. If you want to provide for more aspect ratios inbetween, maybe you could make it through shift-clicking on the arrows to scroll through by small increments.

Just used it on a shoot, I am flat-out loving this software, haven't been this pleased with a software purchase since I dumped Premiere and first got Vegas 4+DVD. I bought a laptop specifically to use it, and now I'm starting to think about one of those micro-laptops with the little 7" screens, I think DV Rack on one of those palmtops would be a dynamite, indispensable combination!

Trial Users -- Did our E-mailed Survey get through?
 

To anybody who has downloaded the Trial Version of DV Rack:

We sent out a survey by e-mail to people who downloaded the DV Rack trial recently, and the number of replies has been less than expected. With so many filters out there that block presumptive spam, we are wondering whether people are even receiving the survey. So if you have it, would you do us the favor of dropping me a note with the following info?
* What site did you download the trial from? (seriousmagic.com, downloads.com, other???)
* Did you receive an e-mail from Serious Magic asking you to fill out a survey?


In order to avoid clogging this thread with replies on this matter, please send your response to mmapes@seriousmagic.com. I assure you on my honor that you will not receive any emails from us as a result (with the possible exception of a courtesy thank-you, and unless, of course, you request any information).

Thanks for helping us get a handle on this matter.

Virtual PC 7 released - DV Rack compatible?
 

Hey Mark,

Microsoft just released the "Virtual PC 7" software. Does this version include the pieces needed to get DV Rack working for HDV on Macs? I'm bummed that Virtual PC 6 wasn't useful in that way - if Virtual PC 7 is compatible I'll buy it and DV Rack!

Murph

I don't think this will work or be fast enough. Virtual PC on Windows
itself does not support firewire for one. Does VPC on the Mac
support that?

If you look at the specs on Microsoft's site - Virtual PC for Mac is suppose to be really fast. I've also got a G5 dual 2.0ghz, so that ought to help.

The main thing is that Mark mentioned that the inside guts of DV Rack need something in Windows that wasn't provided in previous Virtual PC for Mac software. I think it was Direct X? If this newer version just released has that inner workings then maybe DV Rack will work? I am just wondering.

Murph

Virtual PC 7
 

Murph,

I think your question about Virtual PC 7 was directed at Mark Randall, who's infinitely more tech-savvy than I am. I haven't discussed your question with him, but I did run it by DV Rack's lead developer. He found that the web site did not provide enough information to draw any conclusions. When we have a chance, we'll give it a try.

Excellent! I appreciate it, and I'd love to see HDV support on Mac with Virtual PC or even Mac native! I think there are a bunch of people interested in it.

Murph

DV Rack for HDV??
 

Any word on DV Rack for Mac via VirtualPC??

Also, any word on HDV support...even on PC??

Murph

any way to record multiple audio inputs -like more than 2 using dvracK?

Im using dvx100 and have many audio interfaces avaialbe,adat? rca?analog, input combinations w firewire??

also

assuming cost is no object, what laptop is "the best, biggest baddest etc" i have a powerbook so i would not do this unless i had an equally powerful pc laptop

Kent,

The short answer is no, at least not from within DV Rack. It receives audio only from the DV camera via FireWire, and while you can switch cameras through the app, you can only record or monitor one camera at a time. I'm sure there are ways that you could feed multiple audio inputs into some cameras, and DV Rack would record all that audio, but it would not recognize it as separate tracks (apart from the right and left channels, of course)

Murph,

I've been trying to get an answer for you on DirectX support in Virtual PC. So far I haven't found any definitive info, but what I have learned is not encouraging. There's some disagreement on other forums as to whether Virtual PC has zero support for DirectX or whether it's just limited. The consensus seems to be that plans to implement Direct 3D support were scrapped. In any case, we hold out little hope that it would allow DV Rack to run on a Mac.

On HDV support: You are among a surprising number of customers and potential customers who are very interested in DV Rack working with HDV. We've certainly discussed this and will be keeping tabs on sales of HDV cameras before moving in that direction.

please allow sync audio from second source in your development.

any way to sync with this tool to allow for complexe audio? this would be the holy grail

Mark, sounds great...from what I've seen HDV is a winner.

Murph

16:9 PAL support for DV Rack?
 

Does DV Rack support true 16:9 PAL? I can't seem to find anything other than the letterbox button which crops my image. Any ideas here?

The latest update lets you control the aspect ratio of the monitor. You can select practically any aspect ratio from 1.000:1 down to 2.35:1, including 16:9.

Does the trial version allow for custom aspect ratios?

Edit: found it - its on page two of the menu controls. Cool!

My vote for HDV support and more audio feeds (not thru firewire).

That way this app would be the perfect Pro HDV recorder, avoiding the crappy compressed HDV audio. I think the market for such an app is huge.


cheers

Ric

I've added the ability to record multiple audio feeds to our lengthy list of proposed enhancements. If this suggestion makes the cut, we would almost certainly implement it so that the additional audio is recorded as one or more separate clips (depending on the number of audio devices). Otherwise, we would be violating DV Rack's prime directive not to alter the DV data received from the camera.

Exelent
 

Mark,

Do it the way you want, but the extra audio is a must. Our next documental piece to be shoot wiith the Sony FX1 needs surround sound. We are considering a laptop plus ProTools for the audio .

If we had an unique device (notebook) that lets us adquire the audio AND the video at the same time would be great for us and I think many more people in the industry.

tks

Ric

by all emans, this would be a big market for you cus many folk now have to use Pro Tools etc just to get the extra audio in...please do it

Any news on whether you are going to implement a very basic editing rack into dv rack?

I suggested this quite a while back, but got no definitive response.

My post is on the first couple of pages, but basically a rack that would allow you to drop and trim you clips into. I am talking very basic here, just to be able to get a rough cut instantly without having to leave dv rack?

I think this is a very good idea - what do you say?

Lawrence

Lawrence,

I entered your suggestion for a timeline queue with mark in/out capability into our list back when you first proposed it. We batted it around then and, as I recall, the idea got a round of approving nods. That said, I make no guarantees about when or if any idea will be implemented--with nearly eighty feature requests on the list, the competition will be stiff when the time comes to select the feature set that we will add to 2.0.

My apologies for not posting a reply back in September,

Murph,

You can be sure that DV Rack will not work with any PC emulator on a Mac. DV Rack requires not only Microsoft's DirectX but DirectShow as well. It also uses the hardware overlay surface of the graphics card. If you want to confirm this for yourself with any emulator company just ask them a.) DirectX b.) DirectShow c.) support for hardware overlay surface on video card.

We wish it did work as that would be cool and we'd love to bring this unique functionality to the Macintosh. The tough part is that DV Rack is doing some rather difficult things and to do so it is making maximum use of the resources in the PC. That kind of app is very difficult to emulate.

Kent,

Regarding recording additional audio inputs into separate .wav files on the PC hard drive. If we were to support this, what kind of hardware input do you think the customer would be using? The typical "Sound Blaster"-style input is not going to be high enough quality for serious work.

Secondly, there will be a problem synchronizing the WAV file on the hard drive with the audio/video in the DV clip on the hard drive. Whatever sound card is used is certain to initiate it's file at least several samples (or maybe thousands of samples) off from the DV file. I'm not sure there's any way our software can overcome this limitation of the hardware. So users will be left with doing some kind of audible clapboard marker in each clip to allow the various files to be aligned in the editor. Would this be a problem?

--- Mark

Ok Mark, I understand...and will probably end up getting a cheap laptop PC to do DV Rack stuff.

Murph

Well, the audible clap is how we do it now running a seperate system. So it wouldnt be as usful if thats all you did but would still be possibly better than running 2 systems.

On the PC, most programs access ASIO or Windows Wave drivers which i think makes the particular card irrelavant. you might look at Camtasia Recorder to see how they access audio inputs. if you had asio you could access more pro cards though.

You might look at scripting latency offset features that are common in Pro Audio apps and may help in this question.

timestamping?

i guess the real supreame implmentation would be a way to have a sync mechanism built in so that disk and tape audio and timestamped and could be dragged into a nle from one location.