However, if you're more interested in DV rack for picture calibration, I believe the HVX200 has a buit in Histogram feature

Advice on Laptop purchase
 

I'm getting a laptop soon, and I will be getting DV-Rack with it also. I want to know what things I should look at in the laptop specs that will impact the DV-Rack performance the most.

Specific questions:

Does the type of video card matter?

Does the video memory matter?

Does 2 GB RAM matter over 1GM RAM?

Can I capture directly to a USB external hard drive hooked to the laptop?

And lastly....

Are they do for a software upgrade any time soon that may change these answers?

Thanks all...

they all matter.. im not the best to give info on computers components.. but i know you cant capture straight to an external usb harddrive. you would need a program.. you could look at direct to disk solutions but thats something different.

"Can I capture directly to a USB external hard drive hooked to the laptop?"

i capture laptop to 1394/USB2 external 2 1/2" 5400rpm drive over USB2 ...

my old laptop worked with 512 ram .. current laptop has 1 gig = i see no difference = they both worked excellent with DV rack ...

old laptop video card shared memory and new laptop video card has 64mgs ram = they both worked ..

i have not seen any past upgrades to software make any current computer obsolete ( maybe DV rack with HDV might make a older slower CPU BUT that is a different product not a upgrade )

Using DVRack to match HD cameras
 

Any suggestions on how to best use DVRack with the HDV upgrade for matching up the latest HD cameras for a comparison test? Serious Magic has been kind enough to give me the software needed to do this and walked me through the basic process, so I'm just looking for any further tips from DVRack users on how to get the cameras as closely matched as possible. In particular, any thoughts on how to match up a Panasonic HVX200 would be appreciated, since the only thing I can think of is to test it in DV mode before switching to HD mode for recording.

Also, any ideas on how to set exposures to deal with dark-skinned subjects against a wall-of-windows background? I could just eyeball that but would prefer a more rigorous process, plus any hints from people who have used the various HD cameras under such conditions. The test is coming up in less than two weeks, so any advice on all of this would be much appreciated.

I was at the DVRack office yesterday and was told they're considering a P2 upgrade, but it doesn't sound like that's imminent yet. I'd suggest HVX200 owners contact both Panasonic and Serious Magic to express their interest in that.

In the meantime, would it be possible using FCP, Avid or Edius Broadcast to capture P2 data "live" via a firewire cable from the camera to a laptop?

DV Rack with Canon XL H1 in SD mode?
 

My XL H1 is due to arrive tomorrow. I plan to order DV Rack HD Powerpack, but currently only have DV Rack. Will the H1 work with DV Rack in SD mode without the DV Rack Powerpack?

Best,
Christopher

If the XL-H1 can downsample to SD resolution via the firewire output then I would think it should work, but to make sure try contacting DVrack tech support:

dvracksupport@seriousmagic.com

Please let me know what you find out - mine shows up Thursday. I expect that it will work in the 1080 60i mode, but may get flakey in 24F. I'm trying to figure out my flow or project settings for 24F anyway, so please let us know what you hear.

Thanks again
Shawn

We used the DVrack HD Powerpack demo and it worked excellent with 25F. The "Console" tool from Canon crashed after a few seconds everytime we tried it.

I can recommend DVrack to everybody.

Serious Magic products
 

How is the demo limited? (e.g. time limited, feature limited, or both)? I downloaded the Powerpack demo, but I'm not sure I want to install it since the licensed version of DV Rack is already installed. Perhaps I should just use DV Rack until the licensed copy of Powerpack arrives.

I also have and plan to use Serious Magic Ultra 2. Has anyone here used the H1 with Ultra?

Best,
Christopher

It is time limited to 30 days I think, but full functional.

Intel
 

Intel Graphics are kind of hit or miss. There are some Intel chipsets that don't even support 32-bit color. Others have pretty good 3D support. Most Intel graphics chipsets that have the word "Extreme" in the title have enough 3d support to run DV Rack just fine.

Playing video (even high def) doesn't require very much from the video adapter.

It's gaming, and other tasks that do 3D rendering on-the-fly and such, that really taxes a video card.

A quick follow up.

Decompressing HDV isn't all that hard on a processor either. HDV is MPEG-2, which even at high def, a modern processor can handle fairly easily (MPEG-4, by comparison, takes quite a bit more processing power to decompress).