Hi all,

Sorry if this is old news.

I bought DV Rack and installed it today but had problems activating it. I read the FAQs and surmised that this was a problem requiring tech support.

Unfortunately, as Serious Magic are on Pacific time and I'm on GMT, there was going to be a three or four hour wait before they even woke up. Being an impatient Brit I looked for an alternative solution.

I noticed that my boxed copy of DV Rack was in version 1.0.13xx but that there was a more recent version on the Serious Magic web site. Looking at the version notes I saw that it addressed 'one or two activation issues'. I downloaded it, ran the update and bingo, the activation routine worked fine, first time.

I couldn't see any mention of this solution on the web site though, and it might not be peoples first port of call (I assumed at first that the update would only be available for registered users), but it did the trick and it may prevent people having to contact tech support (although I understand them to be A1 in terms of response time and helpfulness).

Hope this helps someone out there.

As an aside, are the Sureshot cards smaller than those shown in the demo video or the Field Guide? Maybe the models head is tiny?

Ian . . .

There are still some discs floating around out there that are trying to connect to an older server that no longer exists. You did the right thing by updating first, and then activating. This can also be done by going to START-Programs-Serious Magic DV Rack-Check for Updates.

Just wanted to confirm Serious Magic's excellent speed of response. Their Ryan Thomas replied with a very courteous email. Very refreshing.

So if I buy a brand new version of DVrack, will it need the updates as well or is already taken care of on the disk? I am stronly considering DVrack for my laptop and Panasonic PV GS400.

So if I buy a brand new version of DVrack, will it need the updates as well or is already taken care of on the disk? I am stronly considering DVrack for my laptop and Panasonic PV GS400.

Pretty much anytime I install software nowadays I check for updates first thing. Things change so fast now in the software world, that there's no way to keep the physical product update, it seems.

DV Rack is an awesome product.

Very true... in fact in just a couple weeks we will be releasing a free update - DV Rack 1.2. Here are some of the highlights:

· Timecode support for AVID Express DV, Final Cut Pro HD, Premiere Pro 1.5, and Vegas 6.0

· A 1:1 monitor zoom to quickly ensure your subject is in focus

· 180 degree horizontal AND vertical flip modes for users of lens adapters like the Redrock Micro M2 lens adapters

· Quick import support of Quicktime files to Final Cut Pro and AVID Express DV editors

Will DV Rack support rotated recording as well as vieiwng for the micro35? Now that would be awesome. Beyond awesome... incredible!

For the 1.2 update, it's just a viewing playback mode in DV Rack. The captured clips are still in the reversed/flipped mode that the camera is providing.

We are looking into a way to actually flip the pixels in the recorded clip, but there's some tricky engineering work to make that happen. Typically, with a compressed signal, you have to decompress the image, modify it, and then recompress it in order to make the change. Since DV/HDV use lossy codecs, that would cause a degradation in image quality, which we don't want to do. It's not an insurmountable problem, but it'll take a little time. We may have some news in the next couple of months.