DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Mark, have you set it up or are you working on being able to use the new Sony to the rack?
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Dewman,

I'm the lead tester on DV Rack at Serious Magic, and I, too, have been less than impressed with the video quality of QuickTime clips in QuickTime Player.  Turns out that at least in my case the player (V. 6.5.1) is at fault--my QuickTime clips that look lousy in that app appear much crisper in Vegas and Premiere.

A big factor in the quality is the pixel aspect ratio.  You can control this in Vegas and Premiere but not in the freeware version of QuickTime Player (at least not as far as I can find).  The correct aspect ratio on a computer monitor is 640 by 480.  Oddly, in Vegas this requires setting the pixel aspect ratio to "1.000 (Square)," whereas in Premiere it has to be "D1/DV NTSC (0.9)."  Go figger. Anyway, if you're not sure whether the aspect ratio is correct, shoot a clip of something perfectly round such as a compact disc--if it doesn't appear round in the app where you're viewing it, then you have some tweaking to do in that app.

Mark Mapes
Serious Magic
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Thanks, the_other_Mark!

Yep, I'm using QuickTime Player V. 6.5.1 too - glad to here that the issue has been tracked down. I'm currently using FCP to edit with - but I never tried to edit the clips in FCP because of the issue - I will give it a try to see if I have to tweak within FCP. Oddly, enough I will probably be switching to Premiere since I'm using a friend's system to do my editing.

Much thanks on the response!
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Dewman,

In case you're new to Premiere (I was until a few days ago), permit me to share a kernel of knowledge concerning how that program displays video. There are two places to set the Pixel Aspect Ratio--the Project Settings and Interpret Footage dialogs--and the former does not seem to control the latter as one would expect. You set this parameter for the project on the Custom Settings page of the New Project dialog, and you can adjust it through the Project Settings dialog that you open from the Project Menu. Even when I select the "Scale clips to project dimension when adding to sequence" option and then import and view a clip, the aspect ratio is wrong and the pixel aspect ratio in the Interpret Footage dialog defaults to "Use P.A.R. from File."

Don't know what gives--I must be missing something or else this parameter, at least, in the Project Settings is utterly useless. If anyone can clue me in, I'd appreciate it. In the meantime, Dewman, be forewarned pitfalls may await you in getting the correct aspect ratio in Premiere.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Hey Mark!

I demoed DV Rack today and I also liked it very much. It would be nice if you could add full resolution DV display for the field monitor in future releases and also the ability to capture in raw DV (.dv/.dif./.dvsd) although you can convert later but just to speed up things a bit 8) Cheers!
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

o.f.

Glad you like it. Requests noted. Did you try hitting ALT+ENTER? That gives you a full screen monitor.

--- Mark
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

MarkRan:

Love the DV Rack demo. Probably will be purchasing soon. I do have a few questions though.

I currently own a Toshiba Satellite (top of the line multimedia laptop in early 2002) running at 1.7Ghz with 512MB RAM. My goal is to get one of those pocket Firewire drives (maybe 80GB) that are powered through the actual Firewire cable. So, while in the field, I can monitor and record to the hard disk simultaneously. In essence, I want to bypass tape capture.

Is my system going to be able to handle this? Will I have enough system power (electricity) to pull it off? What is the minimum RPM of the hard drive to capture video on the fly? Should I go the route of a 2.5" IDE to Firewire conversion kit? And basically, what else do you recommend?

Thanks,

-DC-
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

DC - you should be fine with those laptop specs - i tested the product on a 1.6Ghz machine w/ 512mb of memory - worked with no problems. I ended up purchasing an external usb drive (IOGear) - 4200 rpm and it worked just fine. I think I spent 120.00 bucks for a 40 gig drive ($20 rebate). By passed the tape completely. IMHO - by connecting the external HD to the USB port and the camera to the Firewire you will be able to take advantage of seperate controller chips - if you connect the camera to the Firewire port and connect the HD to the same port then you will be using one controller chip (Firewire) which possibly could slowed down your capturing processes. I've never confirmed this, but it does makes sense. All the best

dewman
 
DV Rack

DV Rack

Something like 60% of all editing for film, television and video is done on Macintosh platforms. Another 20% is done on linux and avid. I would think that it would behoove the manufacturers to pay attention and make their software and hardware compatible with MAC. I have both platforms, but only one laptop and that is a G4. I won't go spend more money on cross platforming, just to be compatible with Windows.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Among feature film production companies, maybe those numbers are accurate, I don't know.

But in the world in general, the Mac has 3% market share, meaning 97% of the computers out there are PC-based (or the odd Unix variant, etc). The legions of small production companies, one-man-bands, etc... I'd wager that a huge percentage of them are PC-based. Heck, even Adobe abandoned the Mac platform for Premiere Pro, although they are staying with it for After Effects and PhotoShop. One could argue that's due to not wanting to compete with FCP, or you could alternately argue that the copies sold wouldn't justify the R&D expense to build the product.

Either way, DV Rack is positioned towards the small buyer. The $495 price tag isn't likely to make a dent in anyone's budget. The larger companies already have pro field monitors, waveforms, vectorscopes, etc. DV Rack is targeted towards the little guy who doesn't have all that. And the little guy is extremely likely to be running a Windows platform. DV Rack is being sold to WEVA attendees, and DV Expo attendees, etc. And among the larger companies, I'd wager that very, very few of them are Mac-exclusive, they all have PC's as well.

I don't think there's any bias on their part, or any dislike of the Mac or anything like that, it's just a simple numbers game.

As far as cross-platforming, I didn't even have a laptop when I got DV Rack. I went out and bought one specifically to use the software. It was expensive (well... $600 isn't expensive, but it's $600, y'know?) but then I thought... wait a minute... if I bought a dedicated disk recorder like the Sony DSR-DU1, that'd be $1500. DV Rack PLUS the laptop is only $1100. So now I calculate the laptop as an accessory, an "upgrade" necessary to be able to run the software. At a total package price of $1100 I still think it was a steal.

Sure would be nice if they made a Mac version, yes. But it doesn't sound like they're planning on it. However, I've found their customer support to be extremely responsive, so I imagine if enough people flood 'em with requests, they might do it...
 
Re: DV Rack  & laptop

Re: DV Rack  & laptop

Dewman:

Thanks, man.

I only have USB 1.1 on my laptop so it's not gonna cut it for speed. However, I do have built in Firewire port - I can use that for the hard drive. My PCMCIA slot has a Firewire card for my DVX so that should solve the problem of overloading the bus.

I'd like to find a hard drive that powers itself via the Firewire cable. I know LaCie makes some. But would this work on either my onboard Firewire or my PCMCIA Firewire?

Regardless, I'm shooting Saturday in Encino, CA. Anybody who wants to come down and volunteer their skills, just let me know. :)

Thanks,

-DC-
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Hi DC,

Here are some infos from what I know. I have some lacie firewire drives which are itself powered by the computer. But they don't work with the power they get from the laptop firewire, only from workstation pc. You need to feed power to the PCMCIA Firewire card for doing that or power the harddrive.

Maybe it exist, but I haven't seen a combo "hardrive/firewire card on pcmcia" which doesn't need additional power source yet.

Maybe somebody has more infos?

Alex
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

David,

I'm afraid that all of our introductory discounts have expired.  

If you don't already have a preferred dealer for Serious Magic products, you can find one here: http://www.seriousmagic.com/ultradealers.cfm.  We're in the process of updating our website to provide a list of DV Rack dealers, but this page for Ultra will help you find a place that either carries it in stock or can get it for you.

Mark Mapes
Serious Magic
 
scrub disc

scrub disc

Just wondering to those in the know, how do I select which hard disc drive will be used to record the video. I cant see to find where the preferences icon is.
Also can you edit without ejecting the avi clips? I'm rather found of the various monitors in dvrack and being able to use them to view the clips.
 
Re: DV Rack by Serious Magic == Member Discount

Tell it to save your project to the hard disk and directory where you want the clips ejected to.

I don't know if you can use the clips while they're still loaded in DV Rack... they give some pretty dire warnings about messing with the folder called "Clips In Use"...
 
Designating Drive to Record to

Designating Drive to Record to

To elaborate on Barry's response, you can set the drive when you create a new project: in the File menu (or right-click popup menu), select "New Project," browse to the desired drive, and enter a name for the project.

As for editing a clip without ejecting it from DV Rack, that depends on whether the editing program actually modifies the .avi vs. saving your edits to a separate file without touching the master. The latter scenario is perfectly cool with DV Rack, of course. But if the original .avi gets modified--well let's just say you don't want to go there. The warning that Barry referred to (titled _STOP_ReadMeFirst.txt) spells out the pestilence that could be unleashed if you dare to disobey this dictum. Be afraid. Very afraid.

Mark Mapes
Serious Magic
 
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