Serious Magic DVRack

[Hugh DiMauro]

How do I reset the clip numbers to start at #1 when starting a new project? I have a few different projects going on at once and only the first one starts with clip #1. The fourth project's first clip begins with clip #15 instead on #1. Why is this and how may I reset each new project's first clip to clip #1?

[Colvin Eccleston]

I think it will start from 1 if you rename the first clip.

[Mark Mapes]

You can rename any DV Rack clip at any time (as long as the DVR isn't recording). Click the clip's name to set the cursor there, then revise it at will. Press Enter to apply the new name (or click anywhere that takes the focus away from the name field).

Each time you rename any clip, the new name becomes the base name for future clips. DV Rack appends a number to name to make it unique--and it's smart enough to keep incrementing the number until it finds one that's unique, so it will never overwrite an existing clip.

[Hugh DiMauro]

I will try that again. I could have sworn that even though I changed the clip name, the numbers did not change but just to make sure (so I don't sound like the fool I am) I will try it again.

Thanks!

[Dominic Jones]

Yeah, update please - what's with all the teasing?!?

This'd be a godsend for us...

[Gary Bettan]

DV Rack for HDV was officially announced at NAB. It will be a $200 add-on for owners of DV Rack.

HDV PowerPak enables current users to acquire HDV footage natively.

April 18, 2005 (Las Vegas, NV) Booth # SL4910—Today at NAB 2005, Serious Magic, Inc.™ announced its HDV PowerPak for DV Rack. This solution allows videographers who own HDV cameras to capture, display and analyze high-resolution HDV content seamlessly into DV Rack. The HDV PowerPak for DV Rack will be available for $195 in late June 2005.

“HDV PowerPak for DV Rack should enable users to extract extremely high production value out of their Sony HDV cameras delivering high-quality results for their productions,” said Bob Ott, vice president of professional audio and video products in Sony Electronics’ Broadcast and Production Systems Division. “It’s an invaluable complement to Sony,s HVR-Z1U which is making its debut at NAB this year.”

We'll have more info later this month - and we will start taking back orders.
http://www.videoguys.com/dvrack.html

Gary

[Barry Green]

Yes it's coming, as Gary said. It's a plug-in pack for DV Rack itself. Along with the announcement, they also announced a permanent price reduction on DV Rack, so the whole package even including the HDV Power Pack will still cost no more than the original DV Rack did.

So if you already have DV Rack, you can upgrade to HDV Rack (okay, that's not what it's really called) for $195. DV Rack itself now goes for $295.

[Dominic Jones]

That's great news - thanks Barry and Gary!!

Any info on how well this plug in performs/required system differences/known issues etc. yet, or is it still to early?

Was there a working version at NAB?

[Hugh DiMauro]

Now I can finally consider HDV. I was in a bit of a quandary because DV Rack worked so well with my SDV (what I saw in the monitor is exatly what I got on the hard drive! Way to go Serious Magic!) that I was planning on staying with SDV much longer than expected just so I could use DV Rack. In my mind perfectly exposed shots was more important than HDV but now Serious Magis will be giving us the best of both worlds.

[Andy Coughlan]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of purchasing a Z1 with an eye to my next shoot at the end of the month. I use DV Rack and they have announced the HD upgrade, but that won't be out in time.

Does anyone know if it's possible to record HD onto tape, but downcovert the firewire output to DV on the fly so I can use DV Rack as a monitor to quickly review takes? I've checked through the manual and can't see anywhere where it explicitly says this is possible, though I'm guessing it is.

If so, do you lose much in the way of cropped images?

Andy

[John Beale]

Since the FX1 can do this, I'm sure the Z1 can as well. You just go to the "IN/OUT REC" menu and set "i.LINK CONV" to ON (HDV->DV)

In addition to that, you can convert to DV in one of two ways, anamorphic widescreen (which only shows up correctly if your display is native 16:9) or letterboxed so it looks correct on a 4:3 display.

Both of these show the full width and height of the image recorded in HDV mode, but the anamorphic mode gives you more actual resolution since it's using all the scanlines of the standard-def raster.

My laptop running Vegas 6 can actually record the live HDV via firewire to disk. However that uses about 100% of the CPU, and if I close the laptop lid, which triggers a few additional processes briefly, the capture quits. I was able to close the lid when capturing with Scenalyzer Live in SD mode.

[Karl Soule]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the long wait to reply - I was in Vegas from the 15th to the 23rd, and after that, I took some well-deserved time off to recuperate. :)

We did show a working version of the software at NAB. Hardware specs are not released yet, and it's always difficult to judge at this stage of coding. One of the last steps in the coding process is speed optimization, and that hadn't been done yet at NAB. We were running the software on 2.6-2.8GHz Pentium 4 systems, and it was very responsive in it's current state.

The HDV PowerPack for DV Rack will include a new HD monitor module, in addition to the SD monitor. The HD monitor is 16:9 natively, and has similar features to the SD monitor, like twin zebra patterns, blue gun, underscan, etc. The "zoom" function on the monitor samples the original video, so you can look at 1:1 pixels in the HD signal.

[Barry Green]

Yes you can use DV Rack's monitor/waveform feature on the downconverted DV footage, while recording HDV to tape.

[Barry Green]

Karl -- that's great news about the 1:1/sampling-native-image for the monitor in HD, but can we *please* get that in the SD version??? That's my biggest disappointment with DV Rack, and I'm hoping that it's going to be addressed -- I haven't heard that it is. Please verify?

Regarding performance: yes a working version was shown. The monitoring didn't look like it was running at 100% speed, looked like it was updating at maybe 10 or 15fps? But that's all dependent on processing power, as computers get faster the performance will improve. What's important is that the recording be flawless, and I'd easily sacrifice monitor refresh rate for proper recording, and that's the tack Serious Magic took.

What's great about HDV Rack (can I call it that?) is that it shows you what the footage looks like after the MPEG compression gets through with it. You won't see that on your LCD or on a live monitor hooked up to the camera. The only way you can know what you actually got on tape, is through something like HDV Rack.

[Karl Soule]

It's coming for SD users as well, Barry. :) I don't have a time set, but the zoom/1:1 pixel feature will be in the SD monitor at some point in the future.