<<<-- Originally posted by Ed Frazier :

Your total cost to utilize the product would be $279.95 http://www.videoguys.com/dvrack.html, and an additional benefit would be that you no longer need to lug that 5" monitor around anymore.

I don't like dealing with rebates either, but for $200, I'll spend 5 minutes filling out the form and addressing an envelope any day. -->>>

Congrats to you! You have convinced me. I just purchased DVRAck from Videoguys. I didn't know they had it for that price.

Serious Magic's web page doesn't seem to list online sellers that sell DVRack. At least I didn't find it. I saw a list of different places in different states but not online stores. Could this be an ommision?

Oh well, at least I can now really find out how useful DVRack will be.

I called Videoguys and asked about their return policy and they told me 30 days. So if I find I don't find DVRack to be useful during the 30 days, I can return it for a refund. Minus shipping of course.

Thanks,
Danny Fye

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Randall : DV Rack permits two activations on two different machines.

--- Mark -->>>

So what happens if one machine breaks down and/or needs a complete re-install or I get a new machine. What would be the procedure for the activation at that point.

I forgot to ask earlier, will DVRack work with my ATI All-In Wonder Radion with 16 meg of memory on it?

I noticed a discrepency on the rebate forms. On one it says, "May not be combined with any other offer or
used for purchases made through Broadfield Distributing, Inc., Wynit, Inc. or direct from Serious Magic, Inc." and on the other it says, "May not be combined with any other offer or used for
purchases made through Broadfield Distributing, Inc. or Wynit, Inc."

So, on one I can't buy it direct from Serious Magic and on the other I can. Since I already bought it, it no longer matters to me but to someone else it might.

I printed out the rebate form and it prints rather small. I can't possibly write in those teeny tiny little boxes. Would you allow that a label be placed on it instead?

I am not trying to nit-pick away at all this, I just wanted to get some answers and point out a few things that I noticed.

Thanks very much,
Danny Fye

Just playing with the demo, for two cam operation with two firewire ports ( built-in and IBM cardbus) on max screen resolution of 1024.

My question is how to get the two field monitors side by side?

Are you sure it supports that? I thought it grabbed the first
firewire camera it sees, but I could be wrong in that. For that to
work you need to have an option to pick the device it is working
with and be able to open a second instance of DV Rack.

Rob 4 U >>>Setting Up More Than One Camera
DV Rack does support multiple cameras but your system must have one FireWire card for each camera installed. DV Rack does not support multiple cameras connected to one Firewire card. To switch between cameras:

Connect each camera to your computer. Then, in DV Rack, right-click and select the camera that you would like to record from from the pop-up menu.


Anyone >>>

My question is how to get the two field monitors side by side?

Wow! That's a pretty nice feature, cool!!

Here's a response from serious magic on their forum from a few days ago with a similar question. Karl Soule said:

"It is possible right now to have multiple cameras hooked up to DV Rack, but DV Rack can only monitor/record from one camera at a time. You can use this to match cameras, for example. Record a small clip from Cam 1, Stop, switch to Cam 2, and compare Cam 2 to the recorded Cam 1 clip. Adjust Cam 2 as necessary. Repeat for Cam 3.

Are you looking for ISO feeds from multiple sources simultaneously, or a single feed that switches from camera to camera? Right now, DV Rack does neither, but I'm looking for feedback which way you'd like to see us develop toward. "

Hmmm <amused to death>

Think I'll wait for the F50 .......

Thank you Mark,
I contacted Mike on Friday, still hope he gets back to me before the end of the month

I hooked up my 950 to DV Rack and switched the camera to still camera mode. It appears the entire CCD is used as opposed to the cropped image when using it in video mode.
Is there any reason I shouldn't use the camera with DV Rack this way to take advantage of the entire CCD? My goal is to crop it down to 16:9 in post production.
thx
-Cjh

I have never tried it. However similar setups have been discussed before. It seems that what you get in that mode through Firewire is a less than optimal deinterlaced, downscaled DV image. The deinterlacing algorithm reduces resolution, and then you will lose even more if you crop the image for 16:9. It's not the same as being able to access 30 still frames per seconds from the camera's photo mode, that would be great and you would have enough resolution to work with in native 16:9 DV afterwards. But this camera can't do that. You are better of using the camera in 16:9 DV mode, which is actually very good. I have not used DV Rack but I imagine it must be able to deal with 16:9 DV.

Yeah, originally some people thought they were getting 30p full resolution images, but that turned out to be optimistic. I tried this myself, and even though I didn't study the captured results, I could tell on the monitor that they were pretty bad. I think I was seeing the same low res image the camera displays on its LCD screen. For example, if you went into the photo mode menus the image shown via the firewire port was identical to the LCD screen, complete with text and menus. I'd guess it was 640x480, and possibly at a low frame rate also. Right away I decided it wasn't worth further exploration. But if you liked what you saw then give it a shot and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks, I thought I was onto something, guess not.

Interesting thread. I am a real newbie at video. However, I have been playing around with capture from my Canon Optura 300 direct to my new computer I put together. I put the Optura on still photo mode and use Vegas to capture to disk in Dv format. My family actually looked at some video transfered from the Canon to the hard drive via firewire then at some video captured to disk with the 300 on still photo mode with the SD card out of the camera. Many people asked me why the direct to disk in still camera mode looks so vivid, clear and sharp looking. I wanted to put a firewire card in my wife's laptop and use the camera on the go like that. One big problem I have is finding the best program or encoder to encode Mpeg2. My DVD renders lose quality from the original. Especially when viewing a moving subject. This is the biggest issue I see with the consumer market for archiving DV or even older home video to DVD.

testing

no way to see camera menus on dv rack?

<<<-- Originally posted by Kent Dammand : testing

no way to see camera menus on dv rack? -->>>

Depending on the camera, I think there is, but why would you want to?

If you do, then the menus could get recorded as well as the video.

There should be a menu item to send it out.

Danny Fye

Camera menus, at least on my XL1S, can be sent out on the analog outputs, but not on the firewire output. I don't know if that is the same with all camreas though.

On the DVX you can't send the menus out the firewire either. I can't think of a camera that does allow it, so I'm guessing that no, there will be no way to see the menus on the DV Rack monitor...

<<<-- Originally posted by Barry Green : On the DVX you can't send the menus out the firewire either. I can't think of a camera that does allow it, so I'm guessing that no, there will be no way to see the menus on the DV Rack monitor... -->>>

I guess the question now is why would one want to?

Danny Fye

We are currently in heavy testing of Serious Magic's DV Rack. The software loads on any PC Laptop (over 1.2 GHz) and enables you to record from a DV camcoder and monitor the following:

Monitor with safe area, zebra patterns, 16x9 mask, undescan, and calibrated brightness, chroma, phase, and contrast. The software also provides the ability to frame grab, view time code and view waveform monitor and vector scope. It also contains a video analyzer (5 color spaces).

The recorder saves in avi1, avi2, QT, Canopus, and Matrox DV formats. it supports PAL and NTSC video standards, but does not support HDV strams at this time.

2 week trial is available by download. Price is $500 US

http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

Very interesting.

Even more interesting is that they've announced a "lite" version of DV Rack, which primarily gives the field monitor and disk recorder, for just $99. A lot of features are stripped down, but for $99, it's very interesting indeed.

Ahh, DV rack looks like such a great program. Now, all I need is a laptop....Ehh, and 500$. :\

The program has been discussed quite a lot here on DVInfo
already, check out the following threads:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35171
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25742

Does DV Rack or any other software has a buffer? (That is, when you start to record, it will store also the previous 5-30 seconds)

The DV Racks feature page clearly states:Never miss the beginning of a shot again with the Pre-record Buffer in the DVR. It can be be set to start the clip up to 30 seconds before you hit the Record button on your cameraSource: http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack/features%20and%20benefits.cfm

Just curious if anyone that purchased DVRack during the rebate period has received a check? I posted this question over on the SeriousMagic site and received no (useful) response. It's been at least six weeks since my request was submitted and still nothing.

I got a confirmation by e-mail before Christmas confirming my submission was valid and in the final stages of processing but no check as of yet.

Ed,

Sorry that no one here at Serious Magic addressed your post on our forum two weeks ago. You caught us during an extraordinarily busy time--three product releases in a week followed by the usual scramble to tie up loose ends. That's no excuse for dropping the ball with a paying customer, though.

In any case, someone here contact the third party that handles rebates for us tomorrow to check on the status of yours. You should hear something from them or from us before the end of business tomorrow.

Thanks for looking into it Mark. I notice that Hart received a confirmation email after submitting his rebate request. I don't recall ever getting anything like that.

Sorry if you thought I was saying I had posted on your forum six weeks ago with no reply. What I meant was that I submitted the rebate request six weeks ago. That might not have been clear from reading my post.

The winners of Serious Magic's DV Rack "Give Us Your Best Shot" Contest have been announced! The winners are viewable online now at:
http://www.seriousmagic.com/bestshotresults.cfm

Along with production stills and notes.

Congrats to all the winners and thanks to the many excellent entrants.

--- Mark

Hello, all!

During a shoot using the demo version of the DVRack software from Serious Magic, we ran into a possible problem.

We're shooting on a DVX-100A and were configured to be in 24 frames, progressive, advanced pulldown. The DVRack was acting as our hard disk recorder.

When we pulled the AVI files into Final Cut Pro HD for editing, FCP saw all the files as being NTSC standard 29.97 fps. Selecting the file and choosing "Tools->Advanced Pulldown Removal" got the error "there is no advanced pulldown to remove!"

Cinema Tools wouldn't even recognize the AVI files to open them at all.

Any ideas on how to get 24PA to work from DVRack into FCP?

Thanks,

I've used DV Rack/24PA in Vegas and it works perfectly. DV Rack records what's coming out the firewire port, which should be an identical clone of what's on the DV tape.

I'd recommend posting this in the FCP forum, as I'm 110% certain that the files DV Rack records are perfectly DV-compliant 24PA files.

Hi Doug,

DV Rack records whatever the camera is feeding it, which will be a 29.97fps "pulldown" of the 24PA footage. It doesn't write anything special in the file header "flagging" the footage as 24PA.

Does FCP have any special "capture mode" when capturing 24PA footage, like a special setting you have to make to inform FCP you are capturing 24PA?

how does FCP handle 24PA footage captured in other programs, like iMovie?

Do you have any 24PA footage from a previous shoot on tape you can test with? Try playing back the tape, and capture with DV Rack in Quicktime format, and import the footage. Does it also give you the error message?

<<<-- Originally posted by Karl Soule : Does FCP have any special "capture mode" when capturing 24PA footage, like a special setting you have to make to inform FCP you are capturing 24PA? -->>>

It does have a setting which will instruct it to remove advanced pulldown when pulling from tape, yes.

<<<-- Originally posted by Karl Soule : how does FCP handle 24PA footage captured in other programs, like iMovie? -->>>

Hmmm... I have never used another program to capture footage. I can give it a shot in Combustion and see what happens!

<<<-- Originally posted by Karl Soule : Do you have any 24PA footage from a previous shoot on tape you can test with? Try playing back the tape, and capture with DV Rack in Quicktime format, and import the footage. Does it also give you the error message? -->>>

DVRack can capture in QuickTime format? That is also helpful to know.

The trouble seems to be in that there is no option to remove advanced pulldown during an import session, only during a capture from tape session. There is a menu command for "Remove Advanced Pulldown" but that's where the error message comes up.

I'll do some more poking around and see what I can find. Thanks for your help!

Hi Doug,

If you are editing in FCP, you should definitely be capturing in QuickTime format. FCP prefers QuickTime, and it could be that the "Remove Advanced Pulldown" option only works with native QuickTime files.

just wondered, can the incoming video be "FLIPPED" and recorded that way? reason being anyone using the adapters (like the micro35 or other "homemade" adapters) to get better DOF using 35mm lenses for a "film' look has the problem of the image being upside down(others can describe this more acurately than me) . this requires us to "flip" it in post. (unless they have used a prism device or other relatively expensive approach) it would be great to have a program like this that would record the image directly from the camera (with this adapter) already flipped.

any chance this is already something that can be adjusted in Dv Rack?

if not, please put it on the list. there is a large number of people out there trying to achieve a more filmic look using these adapters and would find your product an invaluable tool if this were part of it (see the alternate imaging forum).

thank you,
Marc
www.zenimage.com

Not with DV Rack, no. DV Rack records the raw unmodified signal, and only the raw unmodified signal. It can't and won't do anything to the signal. DV Rack's tools let you monitor the signal in all sorts of ways, but not modify the signal.

Marc,
That's a new one on me. I've added it to the list. As Barry explained, DV Rack records the DV stream directly without touching it in any way, so I seriously doubt we will be changing anything in the recorded clip. However, we may at least be able to flip the image for display in the Field Monitor.

Thanks,

Just flip it in your NLE. You're gonna' stick it in your NLE anyway.
That's how I do it.

yes thats how i (we) do it now but it requires that the footgae be rendered. if im shooting a whole feature with a 35mm adapter then im going to have a lot of footage that will need to be rendered before editing. i am looking for an easier way to manipulate the image without having to waste all that render time in edit. it would be easier for us (adapter users) to be able to record the flipped image directly to hard drive during the shoot. it would be nice to have that option in a program like Dv Rack.

but having Dv Rack at least be able to flip the field monitor image would be nice though.

maybe someone out there will be able to write a HD recording program that can simply flip the image as it records. ;}

thanks, i like the program and will get it and the ultra program for my next project that needs it.

thanks, marc
www.zenimage.com

I would think that since the Panasonic HDC27F can do it "in-camera" someone could write something to do it as you captured the footage to avoid re-rendering everything. Of course that ability may help explain some of the price of this camera and a stand alone program may not be cost effective to produce since there aren't that many people shooting DV with Ultra Primes.

Good question though.

yes Rhett, good point! i hadnt thought about the "in camera" route! it would be nice to have that as a feature on many of the Dv cameras (i use the canon xl1s myself) we are working with so we could be more creative with many other shots as well. (for example, shooting into a mirror for safety or effect you could dial in a horizontal or vertical flip and get a corrected image without rendering it in post. or a difficult camera position that would be easier to acheive if the camera were say mounted upside down would benefit from an in camera flip as well.) so it would be utilized by more people than just the adapter folks using 35mm lenses and could be a nice feature to have. (maybe canon can add that to their menu for me? <g>)

Marc
www.zenimage.com

Why would the footage need rendering *BEFORE* editing when
flipped? When you add footage to the timeline just flip it then.
You usually need rendering anyway (titles, effects, color correction,
letterboxing etc.) and a flip should barely add to the render time
(if you do it all in one go!)

Rob,
efficiency is the name of the game! when you are editing a short or feature or other long form project it is nice to be able to edit the rough cut without having to render anything. (thats how i work at least. i like to slap a rough cut together to see how its working and whats missing first and then begin to fine tune it until i need to add effects and color modifications and audio sweetening, etc.) yes, later when you add effects, color correction, etc it needs to be rendered and does take time and should be done in as few passes a possible. but i dont want to have to view upside down footage to determine which scenes i want to rough cut and i dont want to lay down all of my takes, add an image flip,export them to a new file, and re import them into my project just for a rough cut. it is very inefficient! if i am shooting with a 35mm adaptor and can flip a switch in camera to correct my image then i can import it into my NLE as correct footage and begin immediate editing. (or better yet, if my DV Rack flipped it before storing it then i could just begin editing in my NLE!)

thats all i want...oh and world peace too! <g>

marc

Thanks for the explenation Marc! Makes sense, but I guess that's
the price your gonna have to pay for using such a "device". No
way around it, yet.....

Has anybody actually used this product and is it worth the money?

http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

Hugh: please do a search on "DV Rack" (see button in upper right
corner or link in my signature), it has been discussed often here
and lots of people are using it.

Thanks!

Rob! The search told me there were no matches! Any other key words I can use? I even tried "Serious Magic DV Rack".

DUHHH! Sorry, I typed the request in the wrong place. I found it!

DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This is Ron Burghundy, Good Night, San Diego!

Just curious if anyone has used DV Rack and then dropped the files in Vegas? And if so, how do you like using DV Rack with a notebook as opposed to a field monitor?

http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

I noticed that Serious Magic has a new $200.00 rebate for DV Rack until the end of February.

I wonder if those who took advantage of the last rebate have received their rebates yet?

Danny Fye