Serious Magic/HVX

LearningVideo said:
This looks very promising. The real question at the end of the day, how much will it cost!
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Depends on when you buy. The price will be going up to $795 (if I understand correctly) but you could buy the existing version today for $495 total (DV Rack + HDV Rack) and get a free upgrade to DVC Rack when it's released.
 
brianluce said:
How difficult is it to use waveform and vectorscopes? These are two features needed to use dvrack as a monitor right? Do you need to be an engineer?
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Not at all, but you do have to devote a little bit of time to understand what it is you're seeing. You can get super-technical if you want, or you can look at it simply and say "whoa, that's clipping" or "hmm, that's completely underexposed" etc.
 
Barry_Green said:
Depends on when you buy. The price will be going up to $795 (if I understand correctly) but you could buy the existing version today for $495 total (DV Rack + HDV Rack) and get a free upgrade to DVC Rack when it's released.
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Better yet, you can pick up the DV Rack + HDV Powerpak bundle for under $330 at B&H right now.
 
Barry_Green said:
Not at all, but you do have to devote a little bit of time to understand what it is you're seeing. You can get super-technical if you want, or you can look at it simply and say "whoa, that's clipping" or "hmm, that's completely underexposed" etc.
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Will I be able to use these on two computers at the same time? The point is that if you have two cameras, then you need to instances of the software running on different laptops to capture the data. But will they allow you to do so, will it be legal?
 
The DVCPro update will be free to existing HDV Powerpak owners.

Serious Magic permits the activation of the software on two computers, with the common situation of one desktop and one notebook in mind:
Q: How many computers can I activate my software on?

A: When you purchase software from Serious Magic, you are buying a license for one person to use the software. Since many of our customers have both a desktop and a laptop system, we allow activation on 2 systems simultaneously.
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The desktop/notebook scenario usually doesn't involve concurrent use, but they do allow the activation on two computers. Do note that they say "a license for one person to use the software", however.
 
Erdiaz: The ball is rolling on providing a beta version of our codec to our beta testers. I'm on vacation this week, so I can't say how soon we'll be able to make it available.

Brian: To confirm what Barry asserted, the learning curve for at least basic analysis of the Wf Monitor and Vectorscope is quite short. I had no background in film/video when I signed on at Serious Magic, and learning to read those two components was not even close to my top priority in those early days, but within days I had a firm grasp on the fundamentals. A few weeks later when I was operating DV Rack for an indie shoot, I had a keen enough eye to alert the DP when levels were too high or low.
 
The other Mark,

So many people are interested in DVCRack not for its application like the monitor or vectorscope, though these are ground-breaking features. But they are simply interested in the transfer capability: The fact that this application can interface with HVX and copy the data into harddrive.

The reason they are interested in such application is because they do not want to spend lot of money on P2 cards but they think that by simply having a very small utility that captures HVX output and save it on harddrive, they will be able to afford the HVX and use it without P2.

There is already an application, NLE worth $700, that does this succesfully. But they are not looking for an NLE but for a small cheap reliable utility. Some even expected that such small utility be bundled for fee with the HVX.

Is Serious Magic planning to address the needs of such clients?
 
LearningVideo said:
Is Serious Magic planning to address the needs of such clients?
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Nice post.

My take on this is that Serious Magic probably will address the needs of these clients.

However, it will also address the economies of its target market.

I wish everything was less expensive. But it is always just a little too expensive.

:-)
 
brianluce said:
How difficult is it to use waveform and vectorscopes? These are two features needed to use dvrack as a monitor right? Do you need to be an engineer?
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One of my favorite uses of a waveform monitor and vectorscope to set up greenscreen shots. It's very easy to eyeball them to tell if the scene has consistent brightness (waveform trace is very thin, top to bottom), distribution (waveform trace is very level, left to right), and color (vectorscope trace is tightly concentrated around the key color).
 
LearningVideo said:
The other Mark,

So many people are interested in DVCRack ... [for its] transfer capability.... They do not want to spend lot of money on P2 cards....

They are not looking for an NLE but for a small cheap reliable utility. Some even expected that such small utility be bundled for fee with the HVX.

Is Serious Magic planning to address the needs of such clients?
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I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. If you want to know whether we're planning or at least hoping to work out a deal with Panasonic to bundle DVC Rack with the HVX, then I'm not the person to answer that--first because I work on the R&D side and often know nothing of such deals until they're public, and second because even if I did have a scoop I'm a grunt in the trenches who's not in a position to divulge anything until those far higher up the food chain make it official. I can tell you that I've discussed the idea of a bundle deal with other grunts in the office, and I'd be both surprised and disappointed if the real decision-makers weren't having similar discussions, but on a more substantial level as opposed to water cooler pipe dreams.

If you're asking whether we plan to offer DVC Rack or some stripped-down version of it for substantially less than the price we've talked about, I believe I can say with a high degree of certainty: No. If that's what you were hoping for, I'd be happy speak to the economics of the software industry and why programs aren't sold for a few bucks over the cost of burning the CD and stuffing it in a box.
 
Mark,

Thank you for the clarification. There is no doubt that DV-RACK is an excellent product and for those clients are who are interested in all the features of DV RACK, its more than worth its price. The fact that you allow clients to install this on two machines is certainly generous and flexible.

My personal feeling is that the majority of HVX owners would be greatly interested in small application whose purpose is simply to capture the dat from HVX and write them down on PC. Such very limited and focused utility would be completely different application than DV RACK. It is actually very stripped down DVC-RACK without the DV RACK. And therefore, logically, it will have different price range from the full fledge DV RACK with the optional DVC RACK. The licensing might be different as well.

Why would they be interested in such application? The reason for this is the cost and limitation of the P2 cards. P2 cards are not large enough and they are costly. So the answer for this is the small utility.

I am personaly still interested in DV-RACK especially for Wf Monitor and Vectorscope . The amount of savings that DV RACK will save you is considerable considering the price-tag of such hardware that can do this. Nevertheless, I do appologize to you for my initial wrong impressions. My initial impressions that Serious Magic was ALSO creating that small utility. But if it is not, then it will brings us back to square 1.
 
We do offer a stripped down version of DV Rack for DV only. DV Rack Express includes only the DVR, a limited feature Field Monitor, and the DV frame grabber. Its sales have been so paltry that I can't imagine that our sales and marketing folks are going to consider such an option with the Hi-Def version.
 
Mark, I don't recall seeing any instructions on how to report bugs with the beta -- should I use the Beta Software forum in the DV Rack section for that, or do you prefer a different method?
 
At the Sydney seminar Barry mentioned that he was looking forward to getting a (whatever Apple brings out next as the new intel laptop), so he could run DV Rack on the intel side and Final Cut on the mac side for his HVX.

Why, if you already have a laptop with Final cut loaded, would you not just capture straight into it using the log and capture window, with vectorscope and waveform monitor etc...? Why would you need to own another piece of software like DV Rack? Isn't it really only doing a very similar thing to direct capture into Final cut?

Thanks.
 
DVC Rack is embarrassingly superior to FCP's "log & capture". Just try it, you'll see. Log & Capture is better than nothing, but DVC Rack is fantastic. True full-speed monitoring, true full-speed waveform, ability to set the waveform for individual line or full spectrum, split-screen monitoring with the live feed, ability to customize the monitor for accurate color and contrast, ability to zoom in on the monitor for pixel-accurate or even closer-than-pixel-accurate display, full-screen monitoring, waveform & video clipping indicators, monitoring zebras (both light & dark), switchable aspect ratios, pre-roll, ability to capture files into any of many different file formats... so many features... once you see DVC Rack in action, you'll start to think of "Log & Capture" as more like "Log Of Crapture". :thumbsup:

(note: my praise of DVC Rack presupposes that they will fix it so that it runs as well with the HVX as DV Rack runs with the DVX. Currently it is in beta and is not as solid as one would hope, so there is some bit of prognostication in my effusive praise, in that I *expect* them to "get it right".)

As far as a stripped-down capture-only app, I doubt that would happen. First, DVC Rack is about the same price as a single 4GB P2 card, so it's not exactly an expensive tool. Second, once you work with it, it's hard to imagine what you would be okay living without. The waveform and monitor and digital disk recorder are just fantastic. The audio waveform monitor, eh, so-so. The "sureshot" module? Okay, I could do without that. But overall, there's no way I'd settle for less, and I would wager that after anyone works with it for more than a few hours, they'll feel the same way.
 
Barry, please will you tell me what to do in order to see and edit DVCRack vlips (vavi) in premieres pro 2?

Thanks

PS: I'm waiting for Panasonic release of your book!!!

:dankk2:
 
Thanks Barry.
But next time could you try and write with a bit more passion.:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)

By the way, do you ever sleep? I'm starting to think you might be some kind of cybernetic android. At least that would help explain your freakish knowledge base.


:dankk2:
 
Better yet, you can pick up the DV Rack + HDV Powerpak bundle for under $330 at B&H right now.


Availability : Out of Stock :crybaby:
 
erdiaz said:
Barry, please will you tell me what to do in order to see and edit DVCRack vlips (vavi) in premieres pro 2?
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I don't use Premiere Pro 2, so... hmm, I'll have to try it and see if it works with Edius. Frankly the capturing issues aren't 100% sorted out yet so I'm not using it in a production environment yet, although I wouldn't go into a DV production without DV Rack. So like I said in my last memo, I'm expecting that they will get DVC Rack 100% right.

But I'll try it with Edius and Raylight and see what happens. My main interest so far has been seeing all the pieces come together in time (FCP 5.1.1, DVC Rack, and a new Core 2 Duo MBP with *hopefully* a PCMCIA as well as an ExpressCard slot!) Then I'd use DVC Rack for capturing to QT, which would be drag 'n' drop editable in FCP.

PS: I'm waiting for Panasonic release of your book!!!
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Shouldn't be too much longer... :thumbsup:
 
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