DV Rack - very nice if it works as advertized

[Dave Stewart]

I'll be looking for a laptop tomorrow.

[Charles J. Rivera]

Bummer '-(

Mark, thanks for the fast reply
You guys have some very interesting products

I wish i could find something like this for my Powerbook.

regards,
Charles

[Mark Randall]

I'm pleased to announce that DV Rack began shipping out yesterday (and we're currently scurrying to fill the backlog).

--- Mark

[Mark Randall]

The first free update to DV Rack is now available for download (DV Rack owners should select "Check For Updates"). Here's a partial recap of what's new.

--- Mark

· New Feature – Added an aspect ratio feature to the Field Monitor. There is a new menu entry that allows the user to select the aspect ratio of the input. Aspect ratio can vary from 1.0 to 2.4 (note: 4/3 is 1.333 and 16/9 is 1.778). The default aspect ratio is 1.333. This is to help users with 16/9 lenses or squeeze mode see the video at the right aspect ratio.

· New Feature – Added a menu item to the Field Monitor to switch between 0 and 7.5 IRE. The default is 7.5 IRE.

· New Feature – Added zoom/pan feature on the Waveform and Vectorscope screens. Use shift + mouse drag vertically to zoom, drag mouse to pan (like in the Field Monitor).

· Improvement -- Increased the power of the gain feature of the Vectorscope so display is more readable.

· Improvement – Brightened the Waveform Monitor in the parade/r-y/b-y/y modes. Also turned the default brightness from 100% to 75%.

· Improvement – Added an on-screen display to show what line is being used when the Line knob of the Vectorscope and Waveform Monitor are changed.

· Improvement – Now persisting the last device selected in the application settings. When the application starts it will reacquire the last device used if it’s still connected, else it will use the first device found.

· Improvement -- Changed the multiplier of fast scrubbing from 3 to 2 (fast scrubbing is when you scrub a clip with shift + arrows, multipliers are changed by selecting a number on the keyboard).

· Improvement – Added auto-repeat to the menu arrows when the mouse is clicked.

· Improvement – Added click-drag on the arrow of the menu.

· Improvement – Unified all the on-screen displays to use mixed case, except for PAGE N of N, NEXT PAGE and PREVIOUS PAGE in the menu.

· Improvement – Added the full pathname of the current project in the About box.

[Barry Green]

Wow, what an excellent (and prompt) list of updates!

DV Rack is really, really cool. If you haven't downloaded it yet, do yourself a favor and try it out. The only problem I've encountered so far is an overwhelming itch to shell out big bucks for a large-screen high-power laptop to run it on in the field!

[Jim Quinlan]

I purchased DV Rack and am very happy with it. I use it in my home studio and the direct recording to disk option saves much time and allows me to weed out and delete bad takes immediately. The interface is great and the calibration tools have changed the way I work.
Also, one of the statements Bill made in his review in this thread wasn't quite correct.
While the footage is in the special folder, it's not accessible for viewing or access by any other software. IN order to view your captured footage in any other software, like your NLE or WMP, you have to eject it from DVRack. You can do this by selecting the "eject" command.

I leave all my recorded clips in DVRack folders and NEVER eject. The clips are immediately available in Vegas or any of my other tools. As long as you don't directly change the clips, they're available to use. I label all my clips with text descriptions in DVRack which helps me stay organized.

[Christopher C. Murphy]

Will this software accept the JVC HD10U ( JVC HD10U is the HDV prosumer camera)?

I'll buy this software and a new PC laptop if it will work! Anyone tried it?

Murph

[Lawrence Stevens]

Hi there

DV rack is indeed a very interesting tool, and I am sure it will be very useful for me in the very near future

I have however 2 points I'd like to raise, to see if these will be incorporated into DV RACK 2/or updates

1 - It would be great to have a VERY BASIC timeline rack, that you could display under you DVR-1000 rack, with a similar size window. You could then set a simple in and out point on a clip in the DVR-1000 rack and drag and drop the clip into the Timeline rack. This would allow immediate in the field rough cut editing, without having to change software. I dont see this as being too complicated - what are your thoughts

2 - Also how about having an option to allow for a TV out display? For example I have a realtime edit card on my PC, with a WYSIWYG output, so if that could display what DV Rack is currently showing, then a few more people could see the image on another monitor. For example, you could have someone at the laptop using the DV Rack software, and the director/producer/costume/makeup depts could be seeing this also on the screen connected to the PC/Laptop (I'll get to this in a bit) This would be useful if linked with the idea above, as you could also see a rough cut on that screen too - it saves a big crew crowding round a laptop screen. I dont think you would have to worry about sorting out the colour setup of the other screen too much, as it would be just a general screen for watching playback
I am aware that you can't add a realtime edit card to a laptop so easily, so you wouldn't have a breakout box, however a lot of laptops have TV-Out connectors, so could the monitor image from DV-Rack be sent to this?

Let me know your thoughts guys, especially about the simple rough edit idea

Regards
Lawrence

[Steven Davis]

Ok after reading this large report, I have a question. And please forgive me if this sounds really dumb. But as a precausion, could I record onto my tape inside my GL2 and to the software using the same camera? I'm very interested in this technology, but it's nice to have a back up.

[Jim Quinlan]

Lawrence, I made a similar suggestion on the SM forum allowing you to do a "rough cut" on the clips in DV Rack. That would be a great feature and I sure hope they consider it.

Steven, you can record to tape and disk at the same time with no problem.

Here's a pretty good review on the product by Charlie White.
http://www.digitalproducer.com/artic...e.jsp?id=27790

[Imran Zaidi]

That's a heck of a review. Wiping the drool off my DVX as I speak.

I'm going to give the trial a shot with my laptop and external drive to see how it fares. Barring any 3rd hurricane making it's way here.

[Barry Green]

<<<-- Originally posted by Lawrence Stevens :
2 - Also how about having an option to allow for a TV out display? -->>>

Are you talking about seeing the monitor display, or the whole laptop screen?

If you want to see on a monitor what you can see on DVRack's monitor, that's easy: just hook up a composite or s-video output to the camera.

If you want to see everything that DVRack sees, then just hook the monitor up to your laptop's s-video port.

[Lawrence Stevens]

Yes I am talking about seeing what only the DV Racks monitor sees

However if you just linked to the camera s-video/composite output, then you would not see anythin on the monitor when you played back from the DV Rack software. Therefore it would be great to see exactly what the DV Rack software Monitor window sees, it would be in total sync with the software then. If that simple roughcut feature I talked about was added, then the monitor would see that too - this would not work if the monitor was hooked up directly to the camera

Make sense?

Lawrence

[Steven Davis]

Thanks Jim

[Barry Green]

<<<-- Originally posted by Lawrence Stevens : this would not work if the monitor was hooked up directly to the camera-->>>

My demo period has expired, so I can't test it, but...

... doesn't playing back the file also play back through the firewire? If so, then yes, you could still monitor it through a monitor hooked to the camera. You'd have to switch the camera to VTR mode first, but other than that, it should still work...

If DV Rack doesn't output the playback through the firewire port, then no, it won't work. But if it doesn't, it should, so we'd have to report that to them as a feature request.