Beta deck to iMac ?

F

finchy

Well-known member
Hi there,

I was just wondering if it is possible to hook up a diigi-beta deck to and imac and if so, what would be the connection??

Many thanks


Tom.
 
There are a lot of multi-format Sony VTRs out there that have digi-beta with firewire in and outs. A lot of them also have the SDI digital in and out. So it would depend on the deck you want to hook up the iMac to. If the deck you want to use has firewire, you should be good to go (the iMac SHOULD read the deck as another firewire device and your NLE, i.e. FCP should give you the option of selection that). If your deck does not have firewire, it should have an SDI in and out, then you would have to go SDI in and out through a SDI to firewire converter (AJA makes several) to the iMac. Your last choice would be analog component video in and out, to an component video A/D converter, through firewire to the iMac.

The question is, do you already have a digi-beta deck that you want to use? If so, check the specs on the deck to see what you need. Also, do you have digi-beta source material you want to input to your iMac, or do you have DV material on your iMac you want to output to digi-beta? Either way, it would probably be advantageous, cost wise, to contact a high-end post house in your area that still uses digi-beta and pay them to either take the digi-beta source material, and put it to an external hard drive that you can then readily hook up to the iMac, or, to take the DV material you have on the iMac, put in on a hard drive ,and have them output it to a digi-beta master. Some TV stations may still have digi-beta post systems that you may be able to cut a deal with.
 
Thats great cheers guys!

Its literally for future use when we shoot on beta, we would just rent a deck.
I have got a broadcast post house to dump some reels for us in the past but it ended up being a bit of a pain the the arse.

Hopefully we will upgrade to a mac pro tower at some point too....

Thanks


Tom
 
Sorry, but that won't work. The AJA IOHD does connect via firewire, but then the firewire bus is taken. IT uses it, and nothing else can be on it. No external drive. And you can't capture to your internal drive...not ProRes. DV maybe, but not ProRes.

An iMac might be a fine machine for EDITING, but CAPTURE...no, you need a MacBook Pro or MacPro.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top