Comments

craftech wrote on 10/26/2005, 8:20 PM
Store them on a DV tape as a master. Then erase the files off the hard drive. Use the master to make the VHS dupes.

John
cfolsom wrote on 10/26/2005, 9:57 PM
Unforntunately, an out put to minidv is not an option. We program 45 hours a week with different programs airing on different days and times.

I load the various programs into the "file loader" and then out put to tape. The "file loader" will not accept mpeg2 and I have not tried any other format simply due to time.

Will the "file loader" accept any other format?

Thanks,

Chris

Chienworks wrote on 10/27/2005, 4:01 AM
Printing to tape assumes your destination is DV. To make sure you get as smooth and error-free a transfer as possible the print to tape function cannot encode video on the fly, so it's source must match the DV destination. Therefore the only file type it can use is DV .avi.

Suggestion #1: set up a separate print-only computer networked to the editing computer. Render to DV .avi and transfer finished AVI files to the print-only computer for printing. The print-only computer will then have lots of time available for printing to miniDV and VHS.

Suggestion #2: render to DV .avi print from the editing computer to a miniDV deck or camcorder. Connect the analog outputs of the deck to a VHS machine and you can print to both miniDV and VHS simultaneously. Delete the .avi files after printing.

Suggestion #3: get an MPEG decoder card with TV output. This will let you print MPEG files to VHS. This is probably the worst option. MPEG is a rather lossy format and most decoder cards don't conform to TV standards. The assortment of cards i've used all produce an image that is "short & fat" with the height of the image only filling about 4/5 of the TV screen.
cfolsom wrote on 10/28/2005, 4:27 AM
Thanks for the input from all.

I still have to figure out what will work best for my company.

Thanks,

Chris

farss wrote on 10/28/2005, 7:49 AM
I haven't a clue as to what your 'file loader' is however doing some research on what it'll accept would be a good start. SOme such systems will ingest WMV9 so that might save you some space.
You certainly need to get rid of VHS, even going to Super VHS would be a step up. I don't know for how much longer VHS is going to be with us. If you moved over to DVCAM tapes they'll hold 4.5 hours of program so you'd make some savings just in storage spce. The other option might be SX, I thin you can get 6 hours onto one tape. Also you have a number of options with auto tape loaders, not cheap but you save on labor.
Bob.
cfolsom wrote on 10/30/2005, 2:56 PM
In about a week, my company will be taking on another cable comapny channel. We will duplicate the programming on the two cable companies.

Once we are online with both systems, we will purchase two video servers to install in each cable system. This will handle the harddrive space situation I am having now.

I was hoping to find out if the "print to tape" would accept anything other than an AVI.

Thanks for the input.

Chris