DV Rack ?

kenackr

kenackr

Well-known member
1) Has anyone out there used DV Rack with the DVX100B (or any 100 model)?

2) Does it really help you to shoot better and or quicker?

3) Or reduce the number of faux pas's?

4) Any comments on field work with it?

5) Have you actually recorded to disk on a laptop - how did it turn out?

6) If you record to disk on a PC laptop will it go into FC Xpress with out glitches?

7) Can you record direct to disk in 24p?

Thanks for any help!

Ken :)


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Search and you'll find tons of user reports. I used it on a five-week feature shoot recording everything to laptop, and the director declared "I shall never shoot anything without DV Rack again."
 
Would DV Rack be appropriate for a controlled docu and is it compatiable with a Mac ibook 12"? Can you import into FCP and does it accept 24p? I'll search but if someone knows the quick answers it would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Hi Ken,
Welcome to DVXuser. To answer your questions:

1) Has anyone out there used DV Rack with the DVX100B (or any 100 model)?

Yes, I've been using it with my 100A since DV Rack came out.

2) Does it really help you to shoot better and or quicker?

I don't know about quicker (unless you're referring to set up time) but definitely better in my case. I don't have a production monitor and you can't depend on the camera's displays for true accuracy. I've noticed that I spend less time making adjustments in post when I use DV Rack.

3) Or reduce the number of faux pas's?

I'm not sure I can think of an instance where it did for me but it could someday.

4) Any comments on field work with it?

See next

5) Have you actually recorded to disk on a laptop - how did it turn out?

Yes, that's one of the primary feature for me. When recording event stuff, there are times when you don't have the luxury to stop to change tapes or batteries. DV Rack allows me to keep recording while I change tapes. Batteries, well, they're another matter.

Early on, I used the firewire port on my laptop and found that there would be momentary glitches in the on-disk recording. Dropouts of 15-20 frames in length. It was very infrequent like maybe once or twice an hour of recording. Fortunately I was running a tape as backup and was able to replace the lost frames (the same can happen the other way around). I determined that it was the firewire port on my laptop. I bought a $20 PCcard and have been solid every since. So it's good to really give your rig a thorough testing when you first get it.

6) If you record to disk on a PC laptop will it go into FC Xpress with out glitches?

I don't use FC Xpress so can't answer. I do load directly into Premiere Pro. The tape serves as a backup. When doing studio work where I can stop and review the clip on disk, I often don't use a tape at all.

7) Can you record direct to disk in 24p?

Yes. The DVX100 records your 24p footage to tape in a a 60i format - otherwise it would not be a standard miniDV tape. The same data stream goes out the firewire port and DV Rack records it as such. It's up to your NLE to understand this and apply the proper pulldown to give you true 24p on your computer.

I hope that helps.

-Dan
 
SilverWolf said:
What are the specs on your laptop?
Click to expand...

Not sure who you are directing your questions at.

As for me, I have a HP 5000-series with an Athlon64 3400+ and a gig of memory. Plenty of horsepower for DV Rack. The problem with dropping frames I attribute to the firewire port. It's somewhat odd to me but the firewire port came with a video upgrade option. This makes me wonder if it shares any h/w with the video controller which would also be very busy while DV Rack is running. Adding the PC card interface was cheap and effective plus it has 6-pin sockets rather than the tiny 4-pin (which I basically despise)
-Dan
 
Silverwolf,

I have an older Toshiba sattelite that will not do the job, and was thinking of getting a new Dell with dual core 2 gig ram, 7200rpm 100 gig drive. I've looked at the specs on the DV rack webpage and would plan to go in better than those.

I'm trying to figure out if I should go the DV rack route or go the Firestore FS-4 pro route. Seems to me eventhough I pay more for a DV rack and a new notebook I get a lot more. I like the idea of spending less time in post. I realize the FS-4 is small enough to mount on the camera and that makes it enticing, but at the moment I'm not contemplating run and gun.

Ken
 
WJM,

That hasn't been posted on the website yet that I could see. They did have an FAQ answer that said they used some MS "thingy" that macs didn't like, so it wouldn't run on macs.

Are you running it yourself? if so what mac?

Ken
 
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