DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

D

DVStory

Member
Has anyone tested or planning to use the DV Rack by Serious Magic. It's a virtual software rack that replaces certain hardware video and audio montiors and recorders. It is going to be released for sale sometime this summer. Any feedback on it would be much appreciated as i am seriously thinking of getting it to shoot with my DVX100. Thanks.

Link to product page: http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

-Anthony
Vancouver, Canada
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

[quote author=DVStory link=board=Links;num=1088994138;start=0#0 date=07/04/04 at 19:22:18]Has anyone tested or planning to use the DV Rack by Serious Magic. It's a virtual software rack that replaces certain hardware video and audio montiors and recorders. It is going to be released for sale sometime this summer. Any feedback on it would be much appreciated as i am seriously thinking of getting it to shoot with my DVX100. Thanks.

Link to product page: http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

-Anthony
Vancouver, Canada[/quote]

Seems rather redundant. All of this is available through Final Cut Pro out of the box, no need for another application to do it. And I would get an NTSC monitor if you want good field confidence on your shoots in any case. Maybe the virtual audio is ok, but if I want that sort of control over audio, then I would have an audio board in the loop in the first place and be tone balanced to my camera.

I am sure it has a lot of appeal, and it certianly would be impressive to show it to the client, but I am not sure it is a valid reason to weigh down my camera with a short firewire connection to a laptop all through a shoot.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

I recently went on an HD shoot with the Panavision HD Cam and to my amazement, the DP did not use any test equipment, just what he could see through a 16x9 monitor (which flickered because it was a 24p shoot.) Maybe I am dating myself, but I do not like to shoot anything without “scoping” it, especially since the newer cameras have so many variables for setup.

Fixing shots in post is nowhere nearly as effective as making sure you have the right image to begin with. Does FCP monitor the image signal in real time connected via firewire or do you have to capture it first to then view the vector scope? In addition, you do not keep the test equipment connected to the camera during the shoot, you use it to make sure your setup is correct then disconnect it. Since DV has very little headroom this could be a very powerful tool to make sure you’re capturing as good an image as you can. It could also be very helpful creating a look and consistently being able to recreate that look.

Thanks for the link, I’m certainly interested in learning more about this product. If anyone has the opportunity to evaluate it – please share your experiences with the rest of us, I will do the same.

~chuck
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

[quote author=ChuckS link=board=Links;num=1088994138;start=0#2 date=07/05/04 at 09:14:42]I recently went on an HD shoot with the Panavision HD Cam and to my amazement, the DP did not use any test equipment, just what he could see through a 16x9 monitor (which flickered because it was a 24p shoot.)  Maybe I am dating myself, but I do not like to shoot anything without “scoping” it, especially since the newer cameras have so many variables for setup.
~chuck[/quote]

In 18 years, I have never used a WFM / vectorscope on a shoot except on a truck. As long as you blue gun your field monitor and pop the zebras on during lighting, you are generally ok. The primary goal of the WFM / VS is to allow fine tuning of black set, gamma, and the various stretch features in high end cameras, not to check for proper light levels, which are apparent on the monitor anyway. Unless you have a real high end camera and a complete CCU in your field package you simply wont be able to do anything about issues you come across that the WFM or VS can show you that the monitor may not.

As a rule of thumb, I light to achieve a set depth of field with a certian mood -- two things that the WFM cannot tell you. Zebras are all I need to get the right levels, and black point is mostly moot on lower end cameras.

Post production is indeed the best place to match shots, color balance (not white balance, these are different things), tweek the stretch and gammas, and generally go wild with the image. While you are correct that a major train wreck is not fixable in post easily (which is why we all scoff at "fix it in post attitude") at the point where you are staring at the black stretch of your scene in the field and trying to eak out some detail in the shadows using the electronics in the camera you are actually violating the concept of working in the field a little. If the darks of your scene do not show up well, working on the lighting is the answer. It is often best to leave the detailed tweeking to get the final mile to the person in your post crew, since it is less frustrating to them if you provide them with some uniformity and concentrate on the basic quality of the shot instead of maximizing the performance of the more obscure and difficult to see factors of video.

I have never tried to use FCP as a live WFM. I will try in the next few days and report on my success.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

unfortunately, the scopes in FCP aren't realtime.. you have to park the timeline on a frame for it to read. (it won't update as it's playing)
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

[quote author=Kai link=board=Links;num=1088994138;start=0#4 date=07/05/04 at 14:32:01]unfortunately, the scopes in FCP aren't realtime.. you have to park the timeline on a frame for it to read. (it won't update as it's playing)[/quote]

Mine does, or seems like it does. I was unsure about the scoping on incoming live video.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

I think he meant Realtime meaning you can watch them while your capturing.

If that software can hook up to the DVX's firewire and I can see those scopes while I am shooting. I will be their first customer. Although a good quality monitor is good, if you rent them you get a different one each time and the calibration can be across the board. I dont care about colors so much, but peaking and overscan etc. would be great. Now if that worked on a pocket pc, I would be in heaven.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

Another intriguing feature is the automated quality monitor. It looks like you can set alerts for the detection of audio clipping, pops and clicks, hum and buzz, and overall voice level. There are also parameters for video problems. It's hard to tell from the specs, but it seems like you can quickly review clips with any problems that trigger your setpoints. This is a potentially fantastic feature to help catch problems and reshoot immediately.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

I talked with a couple of people who looked at the DV Rack at NAB and they were truly impressed. I'm thinking that I will use it mainly two ways:

1) For moving shots, i will use it during set up to help ensure I get the right picture and audio before I shoot. I will disconnect it when I actually shoot and if time permits use it to check the footage to make sure I got it; and

2) For more static shots, like interviews, I will keep it connected to my camera to monitor the video and audio while shooting to an external hard drive.

Does this sound logical? Thanks.

-Anthony
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

it actually looks like it captures while it does all this and can pop off stills as you go... right to the laptop drive.

Man the more I read the more I want it.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

Yup, it does capture directly to the laptop hard drive, i just thought it might be better to have a faster & bigger drive for longer captures.

Jarred if you are interested in getting it, I know a vendor in Richmond that is selling it called DCC Technologies. I've bought complete systems, software and hardware parts from them with no problem. Here's a link to their site:

http://store.dcctek.com/product.asp?pf_id=dv-rack&dept_id=01-009

I deal with a guy named Michael Choi - i think he is the owner of the shop.

-Anthony
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

Thanks Anthony.. I forgot for a second who you really where. good to see you still around!

wow at 700 bucks I think im gonna try the demo out first :)
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic, any thoughts?

Interestingly when I posted regarding real time monitoring (Vector/Waveform) I did not realize you could use this software for capturing, I was more interested in real time testing. The DVR aspect of this sounds cool and it would be great if it could incorporate some of the codec’s from Panasonic or Canopus.

To my way of thinking, (if you can call it that) this software could have some interesting possibilities. Slapdragon is correct, you certainly don’t need this software to acquire a great image with the DVX and a good field monitor, however, I’m very interested in developing and managing my own look and I can think of no reason (other than political or marketing) that this software couldn’t be taken a step further and be used as a CCU. You could simply use the software to control the real time color processing capabilities already built into the camera the way that a DaVinci or Pandora does during Telecine transfers, all Serious Magic needs to accomplish this are the API’s which I think are published.

That would be cool. :D
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic - FCP usage

Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic - FCP usage

There was mention here that you couldn't get real time updates on the FCP scopes but I double checked today and it works fine.
Bring up Log and Capture and click on the Clip Settings tab in window. Hit Waveform Monitor and Vecotrscope button.

You should see a realtime Waveform and vectorscope. (along with Audio) It's not at the full 30fps but fairly quickly on my mid-level G4 Powerbook. You can be recording the camera (to tape) while these update.

As far as I know you can't magnify the live image within FCP but if you have OS X you can go to Universal Access system prefs and turn zooming on. You can then zoom in and out with shortcut keys (even make it grayscale or contrasty) Great for critical focus since you can really blow it up.
 
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