Super! . . Can't wait . . . Just been using Sony Levels FX to "improve" some footage .. Guess this would have needn't to have happened if I had had analysed it prior to Vegas?

I'm learning Spot .. inch by strained inch!

Grazie

Grazie,
I'm looking pretty serious at this bit of kit. None of what it offers is available in Vegas as it can do it without capturing the footage or it can do it during capture.
One caveat I can see. It's only working on the DV25 data so whatever values the instruments are going to display are going to include any conversion errors. If you're connected staright to the f/wire port on a DV camera and that's what you're using to shoot then this is a good thing. But if you're planing on using it to replace traditional instruments then you'd need to factor in the cost of a DV bridge and whatever conversion errors that may introduce.
My other concern would be if it can / will cope with say a HDV mpeg stream.

Bob.

Haha!
Now, Matrox will have to release a new "double-triple-head" ( the "Everywherehelia"?) card so we can stack monitors vertically now, after having those stacked horizontally for a few years now...

I had a look and it seems great... and from memory, somebody mentionned this rack on the forum a few months ago. I'll check this out with Search...

Now all we're waiting for is this review, Spot ! (Vegas is so powerful to me that I'm eager to see how it could help me more with my projects)

This definitely looks sweet. Keep us all informed.

I think would this this would be great in the studio, but I'm not certain how feasible it would be on location. If time were not an issue, then it would great! So much of what we shoot on location is, more often than not, rushed to put it mildly.

Jay

[Addendum] I went back and read some specifics, like: "The PDM-1410 is the ultimate tool for composing, evaluating and reviewing DV video. Unlike bulky analog monitors, this digital monitor accepts direct DV input, displaying the image exactly as it will be recorded." My question would be, how good can it be if you're watching it on a laptop's LCD screen? Or I am missing something here?

IF you calibrated the screen in the laptop it'd be reasonable. Keep in mind the days of the CRT as a viewing device are limited so even though the purists will say you cannot use an LCD screen as a video monitor that's what more and more of your audience are going to be viewing you work on.
Also of course this box adds safe area generators, is 16:9, 4:3 switchable, gives you scopes and shot logging all in one convenient package and it'll run off batteries.
Apart from a rack full of instruments nothing comes close. Well Miranda do make a box that'll do all of it in conjunction with a monitor but that kind of kit costs big time. A laptop is a pretty handy beast to have anyway, just for general notetaking etc. With this slab of software its usefullness is dramatically enhanced. Remember you can also use this to capture to HD as well as check what you're recording.

And the sweet thing is, the FCP brigade will have to eat crow. Imagine a top end laptop with this and Vegas, heck you don't even need a transport in the camera to shoot, not that I'd not like to have the video recorded to tape as well as HD for a backup.

Robert, I've never had much luck at getting an LCD calibrated properly. I bought the Calibug, which didn't do anything (or I don't know how to use it), which I'd love to sell. But I can't get anything close on my LCDs to match my Sony NTSC studio monitor.

Any suggestions would be greatly apprecited.

Jay

Sorry, but I've got another question.

Since you're recording directly to the laptop's hard drive, what do you about archiving? At least with tape you have that to fall back on. Then again, I presume you could tape with recording to the HDD, right?

Too, you'd have to edit on the laptop, is that correct?

Jay

I just placed my order for DV Rack because of a) all the great reviews and b) it adds a lot of much-needed realtime color correction/feedback features that I'd like to have available while shooting video live, vs having to fix things post-processing in vegas or elsewhere...

I need to find a better dv-camera (I'm just using a sony dcr-pc101 now) and monitor too .. details!

Ken

... color correction/feedback...

That's what concerns me. On a LCD monitor, you won't get truly accurate color for NTSC (broadcast). Not on any laptop I've seen, anyway.

Jay

True ... how about using dv rack with an S-video out card and monitoring on an external small crt screen, attached to the pc/laptop, as monitor?

ken

DV tapes are not suitable for archiving period. ME tape can loose whole chunks of data, MP tapes are more reliable but cannot be used for DV. The whole issue is pretty messy, even DVD-R media may only last 10-20 years with proper handling and storage although that's way better the DV tape.

You are not restricted to editing in the laptap, you can still transfer the files via a network connection or with two machines running XP you can make a network connection via 1394. Heaps of options there and they're all free of dropouts but they're not free of headcrashes! So I'd take a belt and braces appoach, record to tape in the camera and to HD in the laptop. Then you have instant backup as well as not needing to spend time capturing.

One comment that SPOT made regarding direct to HD recording. You really need to watch asset managment as you're not going through vidcap which keeps track of tape numbering etc. So you'd need to get prett anal about logging and file number ona longform project. I tend to do this anyway but I know how easily this can get overlooked in the heat of the moment.

I like the idea of capturing to HD, those dinky little tapes are so easily misplaced and we regularly get cameras back with tapes still in them.

Bob.

That should work. But it kind'a seems to defeat the purpose.

I'm not trying to be negative, jsut trying to weight the possibilities!

Jay

Bob, I didn't "archive" in the true sense of the word. Back-up may have been a better choice.

Jay

I'll be interested to see how this pans out in the longterm. Certainly studio monitors are slowly all going to LCD and I agree I've yet to see a LCD that looks anything like a CRT. But is this really an issue or just what is / will be the issues.
If most of the viewers are going to be watching the broadcast on LCD/plasma does this perhaps mean the reference standards need to change?

There's not much point making your images look 'right' if that's not how the viewer is going to see them. I'll agree that CRT based studio monitors are fine when all the viewers are also watching CRTs, hopefully your reference falls in the middle of the spread of what viewers are watching on and the better adjusted their devices are the closer they get to seeing what they're supposed to.

But if they're using a totally different technology then there's a serious problem at hand, everyone will endup seeing the same different rendition of your work.

Bob.

Hold on a second guys---I dont think that an LCD or a CRT monitor is going to give you accurate color no mater how you calibrate it. Thats why we use NTSC monitors to do color correcting. This product will give you scopes, so you will have those to guide you --I would like to see this baby in action.

Ext monitor RExy? That would be neat .. !

Grazie

You can already connect an external monitor to the camera however what you see there is not the same as what's being recorded to the tape. What goes onto the tape is encoded to DV 25 which isn't quite the same thing.
The advantage or aotherwise of this box of trick is you are monitoring what's going onto the tape.

Bob.

The advantage or aotherwise of this box of trick is you are monitoring what's going onto the tape.

Bob, that was my concern. Based on their web site, you're not recording to tape!

"Best of all, each shot is turned into a ready-to-edit DV clip on your hard drive right as you shoot, eliminating tape dropouts and the tedium of batch digitizing."

So you've got this all footage on the laptop's hard drive and you have to do all your post work there. That does not appeal to me a bit in the least.

Jay

Jay, how about an external hard drive? then you just hook that up to your edtiing system?




DVRack is a production tool, correct? Are there uses for it in post?

BK, that was my orig point .. "Are there uses for it in post?" . . over and above Vegas . . . yeah?

Regards,

Grazie

Yes, Buster, that's my concern. I'd rather just hook up an external hard drive. For what we're doing, I really don't see any need/use for it.

Jay