Jim, there's more to it than meets the eye. They say it's a PC only app because of "Direct X" - a Micro$oft only graphic component. However, if you look a little deeper you might find some PC sweet deals that would sour if they added Mac support. It totally bums be out because I've downloaded their DV Rack and used it on my old Pentium III PC...it's awesome. They would sell TONS of Mac versions of this software (my request to them was for a Mac/HDV version).

I think us Mac users should contact Apple or some other Mac-centric software company and get them to develop a better kick-ass Mac version. Anyone have any connections out there in the software world?

<<I think us Mac users should contact Apple or some other Mac-centric software company and get them to develop a better kick-ass Mac version. Anyone have any connections out there in the software world?>>

Actually Christopher, given their attitude toward this valuable end of the market, and the obvious ability for Macs to output full res playback via firewire in FCP, then yes Serious Magic has left the door wide open for someone to tap into perhaps the biggest segment of this market.

Personally, I don't think they have very sharp strategy at the top of their company which often happens with companies that have real strength in R&D. It's the right brain/left brain thing that we deal with all the time in launching new brands and companies. Some get it and some don't... the big picture that is. Serious obviously doesn't in this regard.

So yes, as soon as I got the response that I did from them (check out the "Is Serious Serious?" thread in this section), I started thinking along the lines of a competing product that could move right past DV Rack in the existing market.

In fact my brother in law is a top developer who just sold his company at a very young age and I'm sending him an email about this concept.

I own a marketing/advertising company, the market most definitely exists, and the technology is there. I'm going to do a little fishing with Apple and some techs this week. Stay tuned.

( By the way, that thread I mentioned is here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37620 )

Jim, I'd be willing to bet you'd sell quite a few seats. If you make a DV Rack type product (even better?) for Mac that includes HDV support...I'll be your first customer.

DV Monitor 1.0

Its getting closer though:

http://www.RedLightningSoftware.com

Hopefully this will be as better as the DV Rack soon. Keep a lool out for it.

I don't remember who it was I talked to at the DV rack booth at NAB 2005, but I asked him the same quesiton about a Mac version. He told me something very surprising - they had only sold 1500 copies of DV rack at the time and it just wasn't cost effective to spend the money to develop a Mac version.

Only 1500 copies, that surprised (and saddened) me.


Mike.

They would sell another 1500 copies in about a month if they made a Mac version.

Or I'm just delusional.

Seems like this whole thing is sort of academic in light of the new Intel Macs. DV Rack runs on the new Macs, it's been discussed here. Of course you have to install Windows XP on your Mac, but that's no big deal.

I have been following the development of this guys program on another forum. He is going in the direction of HD and it is specificly written foe Mac.

http://www.redlightningsoftware.com/Home.html

There's another program in the works that comes close to DV Rack.

http://www.divergentmedia.com/scopebox/index.html

This one has scopes as well.

That is a great find William. It looks like these guys are essentially doing a Mac version of DVRack. It even looks like they will have different versions depending on your desired use (DV or HD.) However, there is no mention of HDV so the term "HD" may only apply to cards like Decklink and Kona, or possibly m2t capture.
Until Apple adds HDV via firewire capture support to quicktime encapsulated HDV codec I think it is going to be very hard for these 3rd party developers to capture it in a direct to edit format. I'd imagine this is around the corner for Apple though.

Maybe these guys could implement iMovie's realtime transcode to AIC?

Well, if the developers aren't viewing this forum, I'll pass your suggestiions on to them. And the HD capture is presently built for the HVX200 and other FireWire DVCProHD cameras.

Yes, HDV over FireWire, Kona, and Decklink monitoring and capture is what's needed.

ScopeBox HD support
 

Hey all,

Dave alerted me to this thread, and I wanted to clarify ScopeBox's HD support. As Tim said, QuickTime currently does not support HDV input. We didn't want to wait around for Apple since many others are eager to work with currently supported formats, so we'll be shipping version 1 without HDV compatibilty. ScopeBox v1 will support all the other major HD formats Apple currently supports including DVCProHD, Kona and BlackMagic.

At the same time, we are working hard so that as soon as Apple releases a version of QT with support for HDV, we will be ready to release a compatible ScopeBox the same day.

mike
--
mike woodworth
ceo, divergent media, inc.

Release date for Scopebox?
 

Is there an anticipated release date for Scopebox?

We are in beta now, and hope to be shipping within the next month. The list of issues is dwindling quickly, so hopefully soon.

If you're interested, sign up for our mailing lists at http://www.scopebox.com/mailinglist.html and we'll keep you informed as things progress.

mike