Too Bad No Mac Software Option Offered with New DVX100A Purchase

H

Harrington

New member
I've been lurking here for a month or so and decided tonight was time to post. First want to thank Jarred for bringing together a great group of diverse video folks. This site is now my net addiction of choice.

Been an XL1 shooter for a few years and am about to buy a DVX100A - I think. Haven't completely ruled out the XL2. Just finished a shoot where I needed all of my 16X zoom. Don't need it often, but when you do...
Been waffling, wondering if I should wait until after the NAB before making the purchase leap and buy. Whatever it is. Hmm...

This isn't quite my inaugural post. (My first, earlier this evening, was a question comparing the Century Optics .7 to the Panasonic .8 wide angle. So is the Century model worth almost double the price? Is it the that much better?)

I digress, too bad Jan & Panasonic don't offer a Mac Software option in their generously bundled DVX package. Instead of the Magic Bullet software, why couldn't we choose or swap it out for a similarly priced Final Cut Express HD? Aren't there any Mac video editors out there wanting to buy the DVX? And get an included upgrade to the latest FCP Express HD? Would make us Mac users feel all warm and fuzzy. Granted, not having to worry about a gizillion/trillion viruses plaguing our computer is probably already more than a fair trade-off.

It is great that we have a rep like Jan so active on the board. Sure doesn't appear the Canadian Panasonic people are offering anything on this board or at least I sure haven't seen it. As a result, I will buy in the States and have my warranty there. Be it Canon or Panasonic. Pretty sure at this point, it is the latter. Exercise the only power a consumer has to reward the vendor who cares... with your business.

This site once again underlines the power of the internet as our Gutenberg press.
 
Harrington,

I think your getting confused about what's bundled with the DVX (if you're living in the US anyway). Magic Bullet Software is not an editor and it works on the Mac as well as PC. I'm a Mac user with FCP, but you can use iMovie (granted, not in 24PA mode) if you want something cheap. But that defeats the purpose of getting a DVX.
 
yes... you gotta get your own editor, but this level of camera most free apps just wouldnt do anyways... NLE's are so user sensitive people will argue to the death which one is best. If your on Apple you pretty much gotta learn Final cut at one point anyways so might as well pick it up now.

its almost as hot as the apple vs pc debate... although 82.4% of visitors to DVXuser.com use PC's.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. You're right. I didn't realize Magic Bullet wasn't editing software. And I stand corrected about it being cross-platform. You're absolutely right Jarred, I do have both FCP Express 2.03 and FCP HD 4.5. and have used FCP for years. I was thinking I could bequeath a more recent version of FCP Express HD to my son if it was offered as an option. I didn't mean to start any NLE editing debate. Everybody chooses their own poison.
 
Doh! What colour is my red face? I was just reading up on Magic bullet. I foolishly assumed it was PC only. Probably because, as Jarred mentioned, the overwhelming majority on the site are PC user's and the slant is decidedly PC. Hence any of the posts I read about it were PC related and I assumed it was a PC only software.
Thank-you Jan & Panasonic for providing a real nice bundle for us Mac user's if and when I decide to go DVX route. Obviously, I am going to have to get out more often.
 
I have said the very same thing to the DV Rack Guys. So at NAB, all the Mac guys should swig by their booth and say, too bad it doesn't work on a Mac. Sometimes it just takes a customer or two thousand to persuade a software guy into working on the other platform.

I have a question for the Mac folks here though; I use to have a Power PC Mac and I sort set it up as a split personality, half my drive thought it to be a Macintosh and the other half thought it was a PC. Is this still possible? If so maybe this is one way? Curious as it is a cool program and I would love to see it as a cross-platform product.

Best,

Jan
 
I'm guessing that you partitioned the hard dirve into two parts and loaded you Mac OS onto one and the Windows OS onto the other. Or maybe you used a windows emulator on the second partition - this (windows emulator) can still be done with current Mac's. There are windows emulators that you can buy and then run windows programs on your mac. Although I have to admit I have never tried this, and I don't know if DV Rack will run on the emulator. It does sound like an interesting work around. (Although I'm not sure that I would want to spend and attitional $200 for an emulator)

Anyway, just some thoughts.
 
Yes, that is what I did, must say it was 5-6 years ago and no longer have time to do both platforms. But I wonder, if any body out there has an emulator for their Mac. I am curious if the emulator will work. If anybody in the US has a Windows emulator for their Mac and a DVX, and are willing to run an expriment, please send me a private message.

Best,

Jan
 
DV Rack will Not run through a Windows emulator. As I have read, DVRack uses a lot of power from the graphics card, and the emulator only simulates a 2mb video card, so anything past solitare will not run through the emulator.

Also, if you partioned a drive with both OS X and windows, only OS X will run, because windows doesnt have PowerPC support. (yet)
 
Must be the OSX takes up much more of the graphics card than did OS9? That was the last OS I ran my Mac with and I used to be able to do PowerPoint and Photoshop on the Windows side and move them to the OS side for distribution to the dealers I had which were MAC based.

That's too bad. Have you tried it?
 
There are many Windows Emulator software packages, where Photoshop & Business apps like Powerpoint work fine, on OS X. DV Rack, though, seems like it would be too graphic card intensive for those emulators.

-CJ
www.arkhamfilms.com
 
ArkhamFilms said:
There are many Windows Emulator software packages, where Photoshop & Business apps like Powerpoint work fine, on OS X. DV Rack, though, seems like it would be too graphic card intensive for those emulators.
www.arkhamfilms.com
Click to expand...

There are some fundamental differences between Macs and PC’s that require more than simply recompiling the software to run on OSX. Much in the same way that you could develop applications that used OpenGL on SGI’s, that wouldn’t run as efficiently on a PC, I imagine DVRack is using something like DirectShow graphic libraries that are not available in OSX.

It does not matter which graphics card you had or even if there was an emulator it won’t work. I believe that DVRack will capture Quicktime files that would be fully compatible with FCP, so why not purchase an inexpensive laptop and move beyond the Mac vs. PC thing and start making pictures…
 
From the DVRack.com FAQ:

Will DV Rack work with a Windows emulator like Virtual PC?

Unfortunately not, DV Rack makes extensive use of Microsoft’s DirectShow technology which is only available on Windows itself at this time. There is no emulator on the market or planned that fully supports DirectShow. Fortunately, laptop PCs are quite inexpensive and DV Rack is designed to work in a multi-platform environment. It supports writing files that are compatible with popular Mac software such as Final Cut Pro, Avid and Media 100.
 
Chuck wrote:
It does not matter which graphics card you had or even if there was an emulator it won’t work. I believe that DVRack will capture Quicktime files that would be fully compatible with FCP, so why not purchase an inexpensive laptop and move beyond the Mac vs. PC thing and start making pictures.

It was me asking the question about this application running under simulation. I am not a filmmaker, just a techie that wanted to know the answer.

Thanks all for answering the question.

Best,

Jan
 
Dual Personalities

Dual Personalities

Actually, Jan, I'm pretty sure in that range of time (5-6 years ago) Apple and others were still offering Macs with an actual PC (e. g., a second, Intel processor) inside... I think the PC could run in a window on the Mac desktop....

Anyway, I have access to a variety of Macs with Windows emulation software, but no DVRack...

-Barry
 
Good to know it does not work with the emulator. I was sure this would be the great workaround to still use a mac. Although, when you think about how many different programs you are getting with the DV Rack (basically becoming a storage device, monitor, waveform and vectroscope) it almost justifies buying an inexpensive laptop....almost.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top