Assorted posts from 2002Q1
 

Has any one had any experience using Video toaster 2 (http://www.newtek.com/products/videotoaster/vt2_features/Bforce.html)
I need to be able to do some live multi camera shoots and this seems to be the best bet, but have found very little mention of it anywhere other than there own website. How are others handling live multi camera, will be using XL 1 & XL 1S

Sony NTSC Field Monitor Tint
 

I have a -small- puzzle that perhaps someone has already solved. I use a Sony PVM-8045Q NTSC monitor while doing my edits and, on rare occasions, while actually shooting. This is an 8" monitor which I purcasedd brand new (B&H) last August and which features numerous adjustments and modes. I feed video to it via the BNC video-in port from my RTMac external monitor port. (In the past I have fed it from a Sony video switch connected to my Panasonic deck, with the same results described below.)

The puzzle is that the image always appears just a bit green as compared to the same image previewed on my computer or on my Sony XBR direct view tv. I have walked through a basic calibration process and adjusted brightness/chroma/contrast against SMTPE color bars but to no avail. The last measure I see available would be to tinker with the R/G/B bias and gain controls but I am adverse to fiddling with those if I can avoid it.

Any ideas or thoughts?

Home studio - avoid noice and voice over
 

Hi,

this year I plan to perform my production at home. So I have to think about two aspects:

1. How can I prepare my NLE-system and room to get conditions that allow voice recording? As mic I am thinking in a headset.

2. I will build in a AMD Dual-processor two work either with Xpress DV or Fast Studio DV3. Any suggestions?

Markus

Canon firmware bug with Firewire drives?
 

Has anyone heard of a Canon firmware bug that prevents clean capture to a Firewire drive? After a couple of months of trying every update and fix I could find, I still couldn't get my Canon Elura to capture cleanly to my Firewire drive. I then got an e-mail from a tech support guy at Ratoc which said:

"This issue is belong to hardware of your camcorder. Earlier models of Canon DV Camcorder include Elura ware using Fujitsu FireWire PHY chip and this chip does not absolve control command from computer when data transfer is doing with FireWire Hard Drive at a same time. The result of time out will be occurred and encountered jerky movie. Fujitsu was improved this issue on next generation of chip and newer models of Canon DV camcorder work fine. I think another DV camcorder works fine on your system. Fore more detail, please ask to Canon. Unfortunately Canon is not fix or repair previous DV Camcorders."

I tried talking to Canon, but they just refer me to my local dealer, who doesn't know anything.

I borrowed a second Firewire card from a friend and capture works fine with the camera on one card and the Firewire drive on the other.

Mike

my-tv
 

Fifth round of web movies on my-tv, please vote ! :)))

www.my-tv.it

Performance test for edit workstations
 

Is anyone interested in developing a standardized test for editing workstations? This would consist of a standard clip that is posted on the internet for users to download. Maybe each user renders it the same way. Then each user that performed the test would post the time it took to render the clip, and the specifics of their setup. This would help those of us at the forum recognize what setups are fast and which ones are slugs. I am open to sugguestions on this. Or maybe this has already been done on this forum?

see my other post
 

I've posted an interesting article (I hope :) in
the other forum Let's Talk About Movies, the
post is titled "el mariachi / desperado (& a bit
on se7en)" and talks about cheap movie making
styles.

Enjoy!

Hackermovies
 

Hi there,

check out: http://www.hackermovies.com

it is a site about no-budget digital filmmaking and they have some awesome shortfilms online.

Most of the threads are german, but you can talk english, everyone will understand you :).

have fun and cya
Ulrik

final cut pro3
 

anyone experiencing scrolling text that is unsteady on screen text seems to shake some fonts worst than others.

GL1, infrared
 

I want to use a GL1 to shoot in near/total darkness by bathing a scene with infrared. I plan to shoot with the camera in full manual mode. What I'm wondering, in more of a qualitative than a quantitative way, is how much IR I'm going to need in order to get a nice (better-than-recognizable, yet stereotypically grainy and surreal) image out of the camera.

Ideas?

/j

High Def Information
 

Several folks have recently asked about HD-related issues here. If you're one of those folks you might find this brief article from the January Videography magazine to be of interest.

http://www.videography.com/article/mainv/0,7220,32402,00.html

Also of interest is Sony's Cinealta web site which is devoted to information surrounding Sony's HD system.

http://www.sonyusacinealta.com/

Certainly, few of us are in the market to purchase or rent this equipment. But it's safe to predict that many HD elements will soon find their way into the high-end of the prosumer market, particularly as sales of HD-capable televisions increase (which they are).

Enjoy!

DMA editing tip for windows 98
 

I apologize if this is novice information but it may help someone. I searched the DV site and did not see any discussion of it accept briefly in a DVD discussion. My pentium III 733 and studio 7 DV software were a little jerky downloading and creating a clip. At the pinnacle website they suggested enabling DMA, direct memory access. It allows data transfer to the hard drive without passing thru the CPU, thus making data transfer faster. It solved the problem and now everything works great. They also said that few people will ever experience side effects from enabling DMA (pioneer AO3 DVD burners might). Here is the description to get to DMA To enable DMA on a Windows 98 / Millennium system:

Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and open the System icon. Click to the next tab called Device Manager. Open the Disk drives category. There should be an item called GENERIC IDE DISK TYPExx (xx can be any number). Highlight this item and click on Properties. Click on the Settings tab and locate a checkbox called DMA. Check this option and press OK on the warning box that follows. Press OK on the Properties box and close the device manager. Restart the system.

How to view 16:9 images
 

I took 16:9 pictures and edited them in Adobe in which I can
view them in 16:9.

But, I can not view them in 16:9 in MS Media Player, or Quick Time player.

Do you know any video viewer that I can view 16:9 images?

Integrating GL-1 frame w/ Sony footage
 

I am working on a project shot with the GL-1 in frame mode almost exclusively. My problem is I have one tape shot with a friends Sony.....this tape looks like video....and of course the GL-1 has a look and feel of its own.

Has anyone had any luck filtering Sony footage in FCP to make it a bit more compatable with the Sony look? Whether through contrast, saturation etc?

I'd very much appreciate your experinces with this.

Catalog MiniDV library?
 

How do you catalog your video library?

I read Nathan01's post and the software was ok, the labeler was great, but does anyone have a great way to catalog. I am starting to get swamped with all the MiniDV taps laying around and I can't remember everthing on them. I prefer to have something that allows me to capture a photo to attach to the data on the tape.

Right now, I'm just capturing a photo from each clip on a tape, giving it a file name related to the tape it is on and saving the montage of captured stills in my computer and using the thumbnail feature of windows me to "see" what is on a tape. It gives me an idea of what is on the tape, but, it doesn't help me in quickly locating the clip on the tape since I don't have the time code information.

Just wondered how the experienced people handle all the tapes they have. Thanks.

Wide Format Shooting
 

I am a director interested in doing a project in wide format, because I think the world is heading in that direction. What is the best camera setup to do this? I have heard the GL1 or XL1s wide format capability is not good enough.
That you need at least an anamorphic lens, or that you need higher end cameras with better ability. The other consideration is that I may have to rent all of this.

Which device control for VX2000?
 

1/ On my Pre 6.0.1, the device control list for Sony does not include the VX 2000... which one is the best choice?

2/ Why is it that many time when I re-open a current project the settings for device control are gone (no device control)?

3/ As soon as I select a directory on a disk partition, I am not allowed to select a device control with the pop-up menu (only none is available). So the only way is to accept the root of the partition!

XL1 - Premier Capture Question(s)
 

If I use frame mode with my XL1, is it non-drop frame or drop-frame 30fps NTSC in Premier? I also notice that there is no selection for progressive frames, would you use "no frames" in the keyframe section and if exporting to an mpg2 encoder, would that also be the progressive setting? Also, if you capture at 60 fps or higher, would those settings in Premier change? Oh yeah, while I'm here, if I shoot with my XL1, does it matter what you capture from as I use a JVC DV deck to capture and print back to tape? In addition, is there a work around for the audio drift when capturing more than 15 mins. of footage?

Web cast with xl1
 

Is it possible? or do you have to use S-vidio sout and a capture card and is taht possible?

Sony WV-DR7
 

Have been reading excellent reviews on this deck and am wondering if anyone has any experience using this with a Canon XL1-s? Any information that can be provided is greatly appreciated!

purchasing a good video card
 

I'm new to all of this and just purchasing my equipment. I'm also confused as to what i need and don't. I will upgrade my video card,but dont want to over kill. Too mant choices. I'm looking at the ATI RADEON 8500.I guess I'm worried about loosing quaility when inputting the video. Is there anything special I should look for when making this purchase? Don't want my film quality to suffer from lack of knowledge. I also hear thar fire wire isn't all it's cracked up to be. Should I input with s video insstead?

Detailed Specifications
Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Connectors: Video - 15 pin High-Density D-shell (VGA)
Video - 4 pin mini-DIN (S-Video)
Video - DVI (Digital Flat Panel)
AGP Support: AGP 2XAGP 4X

RAMDAC Speed: 250 MHz
Resolution: 2048 x 1536


Also

64MB AGP NVIDIA GEFORCE3 TI 200
Manufacturer: PNY Technologi

Detailed Specifications
Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
AGP Support: AGP 2X
AGP 4X
AGP Texturing
RAMDAC Speed: 350 MHz

LAST BUT NOT LEAST

All In Wonder Radeon 8500DV AGP 64MB DDR NTSC/DVD/FIREWIRE/DVI-I
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies
Lowest Price:
$315.38

Detailed Specifications
Type of Video Card: 2D/3D Video w/TV Support
Connectors: Audio - Line In (1/8" Mini)
Audio - Line Out (1/8" Mini)
IEEE 1394 - 6 pin Powered
Video - 4 pin mini-DIN (S-Video)
Video - DVI (Analog Monitor)
Video - DVI (Digital Flat Panel)
Video - RCA Composite Video

AGP Support: AGP 2X
AGP 4X
Color Depth at Maximum Resolution: 16.7 Million Colors (24-bit)

Problems with Avid and Premiere (WIN 2000)
 

I have problems to capture video under Windows 2000. Tere are no problems under WIN ME and Premiere 6.0.
Under Avid Xpress (WIN 2000) I am able to remote my Camera (Sony PD 150) but there is no video in composerwindow.
The camera is detected under audio-, video-, gamecontroller as 1394 DV Camcorder (NonDirect show). Maybe that is The problem.
I Think it should be Microsoft DV Kamera and Videorecorder.

But how can I cange the driver???
Where do I get the dv Connect drivers disc that is required???

I use a Terratec Cameo 400 DV card.

Please, who can help me???

Lighting Help
 

The following link is designed for theatre, but it's useful just the same

http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~pacshop/lab/lab.html

DA Conversion with Sony products
 

When I am editing sound effects in Final Cut Pro and play footage back on the timeline, I will get audible distortion at loud points if I am using my Sony DVMC-DA1 box to convert the firewire into video for my monitor and audio for my sound system. However if I pipe the firewire through my Canon XL1 instead of the Sony box I get no audio disortion at all, making sure to play everything at the same exact level. Does Sony just use inferior hardware to do the DA conversion?

I have noticed that my Sony MiniDisc player distorts much more easily than my Sharp MD player. Seems like using cheap DA converters (and maybe even AD converters) is perhaps a Sony trend. Anyone else notice this?

Pro Digital Camera Guide at http://SYPHAonline.com
 

The Pro Digital Camera Guide at http://SYPHAonline.com offers free access to more than 70 unbiased product listings and covers professional studio and portable cameras and camcorders.

You can browse through the entire database of cameras, or search for specific products by application, recording format, body type, interchangeable lenses, CCD number, size and type, aspect ratio, audio channels, weight, cable/transmission type, digital interface, cost range, as well as manufacturer or product name. A summary description and contact details are provided for each product, and in some cases, a fuller specification is available with a product shot and live email and web links. Where possible features which help in post production are highlighted.

Background
Other professional titles accessible via http://SYPHAonline.com include The NLE Buyers Guide to nonlinear video editors and disk recorders/servers for editing, and The DAW Buyers Guide to digital audio workstation and tapeless recorders.

Help - Software not recognizing device
 

Have recently purchased used Sony VX1000. Am running Ulead Video Studio 5.0 while saving up for Mac G4 with FCP. Was able to connect for a few days and had no problems capturing. Now when I start capture process I get a message that there are no capture drivers installed on this system. Have uninstalled and reinstalled Video Studion and when I hook up my camera through 1394 port I get message that their are no device drivers installed on my system. I'm thinking - they were there yesterday what the heck happened to them?! Have been through Uleads FAQ support and emailed them earlier in the week. The are "working" on it. Meanwhile I have all this great footage I've shot and am dying to edit. Suggestions? Am I missing something easy? FYI - Am running on Compaq AMD K6 laptop with TI 1394 Firewire Card Bus.

Batch Logging File Formats
 

Howdy All;

We have a bunch of iMacs running premiere, and also a discreet Edit NLE. I've been attempting to use batch capture data from premiere in the discreet system, so that we can use the imacs for logging, and free up more time on the discreet for the fancier stuff. So far, no success. Does anyone know anything about these batch capture file formats?

all advice appreciated!
Eamonn Doyle
Trinity College, Dublin

Yahoo: Electronics Firms Unify Blue Laser Standards
 

Interesting news story:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&u=/nm/20020219/tc_nm/tech_japan_dvd_dc_1

New Tech?
 

I've been trying to search for information on New Technologies in the DV world that are coming out in the near future. But haven't found much and haven't gotten my hands on the magazines I've been trying to look for.

I must say, I actually thought the DV cameras out right now would have been a lot better by now. But I've noticed that there just is not one camera that has all the goodies. It's usually disperesed. One camera will have something that another camera does not. Sux.

I just bought a Canon GL-1 but I'm sure I bought it at the end of it's run. It seems like they will probably come out with something better in the next couple of months. But I couldn't wait because I do have some immediate needs for it.

But I'm hoping that there will be a pro-sumer DV camera out there soon that will do all the goodies in one.

My pick:
1) combined Digital video and stills with atleast 3megapixels on stills.
2) digital video with 3CCDs at higher specs
3) True 16x9 anamorphic abilities if that's possible
4) 16x9 guide lines to give post-production possibilities
5) Special features galore (digital effects, etc...)
6) Stop motion animation capabilities
7) Updated LCD Screens with more pixels/colors
8) Better battery usage.
9) Light weight but not small like the Sony miniMV...that's ridiculous. TOO small. You have to be able to hold it with your hands not your fingers.
10) Better night usage.
11) Advanced audio capabilities

Some cameras have some of the features I mentioned but none that has all. and definitely some that no camera has.

okay, went off subject a little.

DVD 'Stand alone' Writer!
 

Panasonic DMR-E20 any good anyone? The price is not bad (under $1000 us) and it appears to do alot all in one machine, direct connection from my DV camera! This may be a better way to go instead of the computer 'hassel' .

http://www.techtronics.com/uk/shop/50-panasonic-dmr-e20-multi-region-dvd-recorder.html

MacCentral:FireWire 120GB external hard drive available
 

That's one big honkin' Firewire drive. I have an internal 120Gb IBM Deskstar but haven't seen an external drive this big. And it's 7200rpm!

Posted today:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0202/20.drive.php

Anyone Upgraded to the New Mac G4 1Ghz DP?
 

Are you a Final Cut Pro user and have you upgraded from an earlier G4 dual processer to the new dual 1Ghz? If so, I'd like to hear your impressions of the new system, especially with regard to (non-RT) render and export times.

Thanks in advance.

Dsr-500
 

Am using a DSR-500 on Wednesday.

I would like to get a look slightly more like film. I am shooting 16:9.

However, I don't think I want to go as far as shooting at 1/25 shutter speed.

I have FilmFX in Post, and so can do this then if I need.

I am always worried about doing too much in camera, as of course it is irreversible.

However, with new DSPs I am told that there are subtle ways of manipulating the contrast settings in camera to achieve a softer more filmic look.

The DSR-500 has a DSP preset of 'film-like'. Does anyone know what it does, and can anyone recommend it?

Thanks

Paul Spurrier

Monitor resolution claims?
 

Hi
I'm about to buy a monitor for my XL1 and have come down to 3
makes, the Varizoom 5.6" a Vicom 6.4" and one apparently made here in the UK for a company called Ntrac which is also 6.4". I need to be able to use rechargeable batteries and keep the weight down as best I can so all of these are fine and all are a similar price, however...
As it is almost impossible to get to see any of these working before I buy I am having to assume that the claimed resolution is the best indicator of good image quality. This is where I am having trouble, varizoom quote 'resolution' of 320x240, Ntrac has 'Pixel resolution' of 960x234 ? how can this be possible, surely it would have to be 960x720, I smell something funny here can anyone help. I can't find anything on the Vicom, although the salesman thought they were the best thing since sliced bread (don't they all)
Cheers
Allan

GL1 Accessories
 

I've got ZGC.COM and Century Optics as 2 sites for GL1 Accessories. I'm about to go on a week long vacation in march and I need that 930R battery and maybe some other extra stuff. But I'm looking for the cheapest.

Can you guys pass on some more sites to me where I can find more accessories?

DVD or SVHS for project- informed opinion?
 

Wonder if anyone's done an A-B comparison on a dv project printed to a decent SVHS deck vs a home burned DVD. I'm shopping for a dv deck and wonder if SVHS is viable for screening- i.e., getting a dual dv-svhs deck or a dv deck and a standalone prosumer dvd burner-. I still have my doubts about nonprofessional dvd creation- the added compression hit -at present - does it significantly degrade a project?

Also-Are folk displaying shorts in festivals on mini-dv, beta or what? I'm getting confused just wondering about this stuff.
After weeks of editing and post I'll sure want the best presentation medium possible.

Pinnacle studio 7 DV / DC10 patch
 

For those of us who own pinnacle studio 7 or DC10 software and have problems, a new patch (beta) is available that solves many problems including creating mpeg movies. The patch is a beta vesion but solved my problem of rendering an mpeg movie.

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/SupportFiles/Studio_beta_download_page.htm

location dc power needed
 

I need to power and Ibook and an xl1 for about 12 hours. I have no ac power available. I can build my own. Hoping someone already has, or knows where to get one. thanks

Mini DV decks again - in the $1000 range?
 

Hi, all,

Read the posts suggesting the agv2000 and the Sony DSR 11 for mini dv decks - unfortunately both are out of my $1000-ish budget. Any thoughts on the JVC DVS2? I just read about possible problems it has with capturing. And what about the Sony DV walkman gv-d1000? Any major red flags there?

Thanks!

Ilya Pearlman

anyone own Ibook? question
 

I do a fair amount of time lapse. I want to extend battery life. can i turn screen off and still run apps?