http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3506803.stm

25 Cameras? Ummm...what does a director need 25 cameras for? How do you keep people from tripping over that many tripods?

25 cameras, pocket change. Lars von Trier used 100 camcorders for a scene in the the Bjork musical "Dancer in the Dark" a couple of years ago.

While on the subject though, the fact that a film using this camera got best cinematography at Sundance is absolutely thrilling. I just went through a week of shooting for my first field use of the DVX100A for a short film I wrote and am directing, and while I have nowhere near the talent of the lighting/shooting crew of November, it was amazing how beautiful the footage from this camera can be. It's just MADE for no and low-budget filmmakers.

I am pleased as punch that I stretched my budget to buy this camera. It's been a pretty grueling production because of there being just under a dozen locations, but the last thing I had to worry about was tinkering for hours with the camera. I just decided what I wanted before-hand, saved all my settings, and shoot, shoot, shoot! And I'm especially happy with the way that it handles blown out light - in the occasionally improvised scenario where you just can't fix a blowout somewhere in the background but you don't want to lose the shot, it really controls and encapsulates the blowout in a very satisfactory and almost pleasing way.

Learn by doing! Check out this hands-on Shoot & Edit workshop slated for March 20-21 at the Berkeley Hall School, 16000 W. Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90049. Learn to make a short film with insider tips and tricks taught by working Hollywood professionals using all the latest tools and digital technology including the XL1S, DVX100 and FCP 4. For more info visit www.DVCamps.com
Course fee $349

if you do have a highlight "blowout' you can fix it very well in post and make it look like a "film" blowout with a "glow" filter tweaked just right ;) I do it all the time! BUT I really find that cine-gama is for FILMOUT only because normal gama looks so much better and is easer to use for "video" or 24P projects or commercial spots...

Please stay on-topic for this thread.

Compression Engine 1.5 OS X
STOCKHOLM – February 18 – Popwire Technology ships Compression Engine 1.5 OS X, a high performance server based media coding system for Broadcasting companies, media houses, ISP’s and mobile operators who deal with large amounts of content.

Popwire releases Compression Master 2.2
STOCKHOLM - February 10 – Popwire announces the release of its new Compression Master 2.2, an unrivalled Mac OS X-based encoder.

For more information please visit http://www.popwire.com or contact:

Robert Ekstrom, CEO
robert.ekstrom@popwire.com

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5166786.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed

In December the Chimera Production Department received a huge Christmas present - a computerized blade cutting table. This new machine can cut one or one hundred pieces quickly and efficiently. Each piece is cut with flawless precision, uniformly producing a better product. The cutter ensures better use of our special Chimera fabrics.

Becky Brewer, Chimera Production Manager for the past 18 years says, "To get great sewing you have to start with an accurate cut. The old way of cutting was done with stacks of fabric many layers deep, now each piece is precision cut. With a good cut, a seamstress produces a better quality product. Not only is fabric saved by eliminating poor cuts, the computer also maps out the best arrangement of patterns and makes cuts which are impossible manually. Our home-based sewers are thrilled!"

Our new cutter was purchased from the Eastman Machine Company based in Buffalo, New York. Coincidentally, Eastman Machine was featured in the November 2003 issue of Fortune Magazine as one of America's best manufacturers. (This article is a fascinating read for anyone who has an interest in manufacturing in the USA.)

This new computerized cutting machine is just another example of our commitment to keep our manufacturing here in the USA where we can ensure top quality production and respond quickly to what the market needs.

Image note: Eastman Machine's Charles Tirone works on manufacturing a cutting machine. Image copyright Greg Miller, 2003. www.gregmiller.com

Quick Release Rings: redefining the word "Speed Ring" This revolutionary ring allows you to release the tension of Lightbank poles with the flip of a lever. Now setting up and tearing down Lightbanks is truly quick and easy. This new design also allows the Lightbanks to be collapsed without disassembly which also it makes it convenient to move Lightbanks through doorways or narrow sets. The rings are constructed of high-grade aircraft aluminum anodized in a beautiful blue cast. Sizes will include a full range of Chimera Speed Rings beginning with the popular 6.0" series and then on to the 7.5" as well as the Quartz, Daylite and Daylite Senior Rings.

The 6.0 Quick Release Ring will be available in June 2004. It will be sold with a variety of inserts fitting a majority of strobe lights and some smaller continuous lights. It will also be sold separately for the customer to convert their existing Chimera Speed Rings to the new Quick Release style. Call for details. Chimera 888-444-1812, 303-444-8000 or check the web site for updates: www.chimeralighting.com OctaPlus Banks: We received numerous rave reviews for our new OctaPlus Banks when we showed it at PhotoPlus in November, but we were not 100% satisfied that it lived up to Chimera standards. We decided to delay the release until summer and allow the engineers more time to fine-tune the design. While we understand that it is disappointing that the OctaPlus is not available immediately, we know once you use the improved version you'll appreciate the wait.

Come visit us!!!!!

NAB
Las Vegas Convention Center
Starts: April 19 Ends: April 22, 2004
Booth Number: 9730 www.nab.org

THIS SHOW IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Huge" doesn't begin to describe NAB; it takes me 3 days to get through it, and I'm probably only checking out 5% of the booths in depth!

See ya there, Richard.

We have to talk.....

YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


R

For you NAB-er's.....
We're holding an NAB breakfast, so come by and have breakfast on us. This is a VASST breakfast, we're announcing the new book series, we'll have some fun giveaway stuff from Artbeats, ADS, M-Audio, and other companies. Even if you're not a breakfast-eater, c'mon by and grab a cup of coffee on your way to the convention. Maybe you'll win somethin'....
Details:
Place: Stardust Resort & Casino (In the hospitality suite by the pool. I don’t know the name of the room)
Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Time: 7:30- 9:30AM
Details: Coffee To Go! (we will supply paper cups for those on the run) Tea, Juices, Pastries, and Fruit.
Please drop me or Mannie an email if you'd like to know more, or if you'll be planning on attending. dse at sundancemediagroup dot com or mannie at sundancemediagroup dot com

http://www.research.philips.com/InformationCenter/Global/FNewPressRelease.asp?lArticleId=2904&lNodeId=13At this year’s CeBIT Exhibition in Hannover Germany, Philips Research is demonstrating a unique variable-focus lens system that has no mechanical moving parts. Suited to a wide range of optical imaging applications, including such things as digital cameras, camera phones, endoscopes, home security systems and optical storage drives, Philips’ FluidFocus system mimics the action of the human eye using a fluid lens that alters its focal length by changing its shape. The new lens, which lends itself to high volume manufacturing, overcomes the fixed-focus disadvantages of many of today’s low-cost imaging systems.

Encodes and Decodes everything from Mpeg1/2/4 to Windows Media files on the graphics card GPU and memory. Not the way we do it now, with our system CPU and system memory.

Also, HDTV and PVR capabilities. There are even rumors of Doom III being bundled with the video card.

Where will this card rank when compared to Avid/Matrox/Canopus video solutions? Will it cost a $1,000 like Avid/Matrox/Canopus video cards? This could get interesting.

Yep! Good news for us, if true.

Here's the link http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14524

ATI has had many of these features for some time. The latest all-in wonder supports hdtv and wm9 and mpeg4.

It's just another graphics chips family. For example pricing, look at the previous generation of nVidia graphics: GeForce FX , and the 5000 series boards.

Correct. This is just another chipset family. But a better one.

Yes, ATI has some of these features. HDTV and PVR, I have used them both. IMHO TiVO is better and more enjoyable.

However, if you understand video, CPUs, memory, system bus', encoding and decoding processes you realize this is something of importance.

Quoting the article from theinquirer.net "This means that all decoding and encoding operation previously done by software and very CPU dependant will be able to be processed on NV4X chips. We are not aware specifically how Nvidia plans to do that but it sounds promising."

Simply put, NVidia will be relieving most if not all of the video stress in your/my computer system CPU, memory and bus. And I haven't even touched on the PCI Express versions coming.

I am sure this forum will light up about these new video cards after they are out.

Till then, enjoy what you have. What a far way we have come in such a short amount of time.

nVidia's processors have also included MPEG and video decode acceleration functions for several years now.

BTW, I *am* excited about nVidia's nv4x family of graphics processors, particularly because I work there.

I just came from spending a day at the New York Showbiz Expo (which replaced last year's DV Expo)

IMHO, the show tried to spread itself too thin, covering a number of specialties and formats, but not doing a good job of any of them. That said, I attended some excellent free sessions - most notably a dynamite session on Effective Location Sound, by John Goolsby, who specializes in weddings, but offered real world practical tips for anyone who does any live event.

I have to say I was most disappointed with the turnout (or lack thereof) of vendors. The big boys were all there, with the high ticket toys. But the main thing missing, that was available last year, were vendors with small items, tapes, camera accessories, mic's etc. I went prepared with a list of things to shop for such as tapes, filters, shotgun mic, camera bag, inexpensive camera stabilizers etc. After visiting the expo floor(s) (They had exhibitors on the 2nd and 18th floors!) a couple of time, I bought a $15 DV tape rack. I wanted tapes, but there was only one or two vendors and neither carried Fuji. I had about $500 cash and some plastic with me and was prepared to go home broke - Maybe I should be grateful!

One brief highlight, the one and only Chris Hurd was helping out at the Canon booth and we had a chance to very briefly chat!

Mike, I wish we'd had longer to converse! Maybe not about the cameras on the counter, but about what you're doing and things in general.

I didn't get a chance to post in my "Meet you at these events" thread for this particular show because I was only there for two of the days and it was a pretty small little thing. It was kinda strange that they broke up the show over two separate floors far apart from each other. You're right, it's a different scene than it was last year. By the way, this one was formerly known as The New York DV Show. DV Expo is a different show which is still on for July at Javitts Center. There's too many of these things to keep 'em straight anymore.

Didn't get to see my friend Chris Ward; he was too busy giving seminars the whole time and I couldn't leave the show floor. Had some excellent Indian food tonight in Queens with some buddies, though. That was my highlight of the trip.

Stick around a bit longer next time, Mike! Ya won't have to buy anything!

;-)

Pentagon to offer direct news service from Iraq and Afghanistan

More here:

"The U.S. military will launch its own news service in Iraq and Afghanistan to send military video, text and photos directly to the Internet or news outlets."

The story further talks about how Army camera teams equipped with DV cameras, laptops and satellite will be able to get on scene in areas restricted to other press and broadcast 'focused' material to small and medium markets.

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1675781

This is really interesting, i can think of the beneift and wide range of applications this can have. This will solve the problems many FIXED lens systems have such as those Solid state "pocket" camcorders which although usually have really bad resolution (320*240) and very slow frame rates, they are cathing up and when the frame size and frame rate are good enough they will kill of the tape, solid state camcorders for consumers are becoming a reality, the whole idea of capturing your family memories and then being able to edit it immediatley just by inserting it into t a card reader, no need for firewire, and when your finished just save back to the card!

Sorry to take so long to respond.

Vincent, average access time isn't the issue. Average access time is a measure of how fast the disk system can respond once it is given the address of the desired data. Once found, the performance characteristic that matters is transfer speed and, ultimately, throughput. For video, where streaming a large amount of data is a typical practice, the NetCell RAID XL (3) approach yields much better throughput.

The article acknowledges the limitation of the NetCell approach, which is the total number of IO operations per second. NetCell does poorly in this respect. However, NetCell makes it clear that its best application is for larger files, like video, where overall throughput is more important than how many different accesses per second or per hour are possible. NetCell clearly states that XL is not suitable for server operations where lots of small files are being handled.

Rob, as for why to use RAID at all, my personal issue is safety. However, the price for safety would be too high if I had to contend with lower performance. When I started looking at RAID solutions I was taken by the fact that I could have maximum safety in RAID 1 (mirroring) but that RAID 1 generally performs less well. NetCell's diagrams (duplicated at THG) make this clear. For a 2-disk RAID 1 array, the data must be written once to each disk. For a 3-disk RAID XL array, half the data is written to one disk, half to the other, and parity to the third; all these operations happen in parallel. So just considering the streams going to the disk, the size of the stream is half the size of the stream going to RAID 1. XL delivers parallelism that RAID 1 doesn't have.

Use of space is more efficient, too. Consider using 200MB disks. In a 2-drive RAID 1 array the total storage is 200MB (100% overhead). In a 3-drive RAID XL array the total storage is 400MB (50%). In a 5-drive XL, it's 800MB (25%).

As for why safety is important, it's really a question of time. It takes a lot of time to capture video and a lot of time to render video. Loss of those files means spending all that time over again. Because the sheer volume of data is so great with video, the lost time can be significant. I'm interested in protecting my investment of time. It's not that I can't recover, it's that the hit to my time (in a one-man shop) is a major risk.

Will

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20040310030245.html

I've been using a FW800 400Gb Lacie Big Disk for a couple of months now.
$449 from the Lacie website. So far this has been solid, BUT I've
had issues with their 160Gb Porsche and D2 drives.

I was wondering, is the Lacie drive one 400gb drive? or two 200gb HDs Raided together?

AFAIK there are two platters in the Lacie 400 big disk. To get 800 mbps they
are probably strip together, but I am not sure about that.

http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20040309S0029

"Matsushita showed a prototype of its Blu-ray DVD-RAM recorder on Tuesday (March 9) that uses a two-layer 50 Gbyte disk"

Wondering why they call it DVD in that article. Probably a mixup.

HD is doing R&D on HD cameras and is looking to get into the market in a big way, starting with cameras.

Does anyone have any word on the specs of these cameras? Has anyone heard? I know about what they wan to do because they've approached people I know about sponsoring some shows, but I don't know any specifics.

I dont think that counts as news, but were all < including the moderators> so excited about HDV, so i think theyll let it slide.

Also these people you know who are potential sponsors might be in a position to beg details... atleast a release date?

SAN JOSE, Calif., (Mar. 17, 2004) -- Sony Electronics is adding two DVD+R Double Layer (DL) DVD drives to its family of Dual RW burners. The internal DRU-700A and external DRX-700UL drives mark Sony's entry into Double Layer recording.

full:
http://www.digitalproducer.com/2004/03_mar/news/03_16/e3jpa3wb.htm

Wow! And only $230 for an internal.

I don't understand the software bundle, though. I've the full Ahead Nero product (not SE), and I'm not aware of any ability that it has to author for double-sided disks. I wonder if this is a special version?

Will it work in a Mac?

http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.html?i=21731

I'm just providing a link over to the HD10/HD1 page:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23142

heath

And of course, we'll post more info here as well, as it becomes available.

Ya know, Chris, JVC wants to one-up Sony with a pre-NAB announcement, but the lack of photos and info leaves us dry. I can't believe none of us are speculating. Then again, HDV is old hat now, compared to last year, and Sony has info out via Cebit (is that right)?

C'mon, JVC, send us info and pix!

heath

I opened this thread hoping to see a pic!

Yeah, I know. C'mon, JVC! :-)

hwm

bugger a pic... i want specs ;) lol

Someone emailed me a link.

http://www.uemedia.net/CPC/2-pop/article_7381.shtml

heath

ps-thanks to Ilya for the heads up!

The Hitachi camera is a studio/POV camera, not a HDV solution. In fact Hitachi is not part of the JVC, Sony, Canon & Sharp HDV group. However, it is interesting how quite Canon has been in the HD/HDV world.

Thanks for pointing that out. My bad there! I'll correct this post ASAP! I forgot it was SHARP, not HITACHI!

As usual, you are very wise, Mr. Newman! ;-)

heath