Jim Arthurs
Well-known member
Hi SalaTar... Velocity software with Reality hardware is just an older generation of product from DPS/Leitch/now Harris. Same design people doing the software (they developed Video Action Pro NLE software which was purchased by DPS. When DPS merged with Leitch they were able to add a lot of server and router technology).
The folks that are still there feel very excited about the merge with Harris, so that's good news.
As to getting into the current VelocityHD/Altitude system, that's a tough call. If your HD goals are more filmmaking/documentary style with the HVX or any of the other HDV cameras, I'd say it's probably overkill and you should start with a software NLE solution and work up.
As Mcgeedigital pointed out, they have strong points. The compression codec is very flexible, and not limited to a few set data rates. For instance, you can choose to work in 1080, 720, SD, and all of those in either 8 or 10bit compressed or 8 or 10bit uncompressed. When working with compression, there's an unlimited range of data rates you can use to dial in what you want vrs. your hard drive time. For instance, I'm using 4 sata drives in RAID 0 and can do dissolves between two streams of 60 MB/sec 1080i with no issues. I can do a single stream of 1080i uncompressed and still stagger through dissolves for previews.
Downsides are several, it's not the software to support EDL's with rock solid batch recapture from other offlines, for instance. And the boardset is PCI-X, requiring server grade motherboards with PCI-X slots. Since the pricepoint is near the new Matrox, I'd be tempted to examine both very carefully, though I think you can only buy the Axio turnkey with a PC. Canopus hardware is cheaper and offers good things, and we haven't even talked about the BlackMagic stuff which is also very attractive now that they offer PCIe slot products that work with less expensive motherboards.
Even with VelocityHD I'm always poking around to see what else is offered, and use Vegas for a great number of projects and tasks.
Regards,
Jim Arthurs
The folks that are still there feel very excited about the merge with Harris, so that's good news.
As to getting into the current VelocityHD/Altitude system, that's a tough call. If your HD goals are more filmmaking/documentary style with the HVX or any of the other HDV cameras, I'd say it's probably overkill and you should start with a software NLE solution and work up.
As Mcgeedigital pointed out, they have strong points. The compression codec is very flexible, and not limited to a few set data rates. For instance, you can choose to work in 1080, 720, SD, and all of those in either 8 or 10bit compressed or 8 or 10bit uncompressed. When working with compression, there's an unlimited range of data rates you can use to dial in what you want vrs. your hard drive time. For instance, I'm using 4 sata drives in RAID 0 and can do dissolves between two streams of 60 MB/sec 1080i with no issues. I can do a single stream of 1080i uncompressed and still stagger through dissolves for previews.
Downsides are several, it's not the software to support EDL's with rock solid batch recapture from other offlines, for instance. And the boardset is PCI-X, requiring server grade motherboards with PCI-X slots. Since the pricepoint is near the new Matrox, I'd be tempted to examine both very carefully, though I think you can only buy the Axio turnkey with a PC. Canopus hardware is cheaper and offers good things, and we haven't even talked about the BlackMagic stuff which is also very attractive now that they offer PCIe slot products that work with less expensive motherboards.
Even with VelocityHD I'm always poking around to see what else is offered, and use Vegas for a great number of projects and tasks.
Regards,
Jim Arthurs