DV Rack - Does it work as good as they claim?

smelni said:
Barry - this seems amazing - almost revolutionary - seems strange to me that we arent hearing more about this.
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It *is* revolutionary, and if you were around when it was first introduced you would have heard a lot about it. It was introduced over a year ago at NAB 2004, IINM, and I'm pretty sure it won "best of NAB" awards or something...


How an anyone justify not using this.
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Don't ask me... I use it on every shoot I do. I can't imagine why someone wouldn't, if what they're shooting is important. It's new, I'll grant you that, so some people aren't used to the idea, but -- try it once, you will *never* go back. Just finished a feature and the director declared that he will NEVER shoot without it again.

The only reason not to use it is if you can't feasibly have a laptop on the set, cabled to the camera. But it's no more inconvenient than having a production monitor on the set cabled to the camera (in fact, it's identical to that). So if you were going to have a monitor, you can have DV Rack also.
 
Envision said:
If I were to purchase DVRACK, and the largest friggin' firewire cable I could find (how long do they go?),
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I have a 30' cable, which is not quite long enough. I think 50' would be long enough, but I don't know of anyone who makes a 50' cable. Laird sells a 75', that's probably enough for just about any circumstance.

Make sure you get a top-notch, top-dollar cable. I don't know what wizardry Laird employs to let them get cables that long (because the official IEEE specification limits cable length to 14.5 feet!) but my Laird cable works well, and I've heard good things about their 75' cable.

does the software come with a online manual or anything to tell you what does what & how to understand it/use it?
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Yes, to some degree. But you don't need any instruction in order to use the two key components: disk recorder and monitor. Well, that's not true, you do need to learn how to use a production monitor. And the waveform can be invaluable too. Whatever you do, get the full version -- don't be tempted by the stripped-down DV Rack Express. Get the full version so you can upgrade it to HD Rack or HDV Rack or whatever you may move onto in the future. And read the manual and learn how to use a waveform and a vectorscope, play around with the Spectra 60, etc. It'll really improve the quality of the footage you shoot.

Lastly, does RAM on your laptop come into play at all?
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Yes. I had a system with 256mb of RAM, and it was a sluggish pig and recording would drop frames. I added a half-gig (bringing the total up to 768mb) and now it flies and I never ever get dropped frames.
 
As usual, thanks Barry! I wondered about a '75 cable, as I would imagine the farther information has to go, the longer it will take or potential for issues to arise.

My own laptop is a DOG (P2 333Mhz), so I only use as a printer station on the far end of my office. However, the laptop I use is a newer Dell for my day job. Funny, the tech guys are always salivating at the mouth to trick machines out, and told me if I ever want to upgrade the laptop just to let them know. I just have to find a good reasy to justify cranking up the RAM. Hmmmm. :evil:
 
smelni said:
How an anyone justify not using this.
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The only time I DON'T use it is when I'm shooting ENG style work which unfortunately has been most of my work lately.
Example: I do alot of convention coverage work and many times I'm by myself. Walking around a convention center floor hosing down the place is not the place for DVRack. More suited to a Firestore type device which will probably be my next purchase.
 
I am confused about one thing - if you use this to capture 24p or 24pa how do you import into premier and perform the pulldown to get into a 24 frame timeline. This usually occurs when you capture from the camera or a deck.

Probably a simple answer but i just dont get it offhand.

any help?
 
Since you asked about the online help for DV Rack, it was overhauled for the release of the HDV PowerPak. Since I'm the one who made the revisions, I'll recuse myself as far as judging how good it is, but I'll go so far as to say it's an improvement. Anyway, I did my best to explain briefly how to interpret the signal on the Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope. I expect that the next update will include the new .chm (help file).

For those who have questions remaining after reading the help, we have a training video in the works that should make it all as clear as day.
 
Good stuff to know ... perhaps I should wait until the training video's available as well, to get the most out of the software from the get-go. Thanks for the info, Mark!
 
I haven't heard a target release date for the training video. I'd be a little surprised if it's out before September. And just to be clear, it will be an extra charge, not free with purchase.
 
Mark the HDV power pack has a better monitor. When can we expect a better monitor for DV Rack itself?
 
I can't say. Our schedule in R&D is very tight at the moment with two products slated for release in September. Releasing an update for DV Rack will only take a few hours, but those hours have to come from somewhere. We can hopefully squeeze that work in sometime in the next few weeks, but I simply can't make any promises.
 
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