News posts from 2002

[Don Parrish]

I have looked and didn't see any information on DV / DVD decks. Mini DV decks in the past have been married with VHS decks, isn't it reasonable someone will come out with a DV/DVD deck, or have they already done so and I haven't found out yet. I am trying not to abuse my XL1S when a simple deck might be used instead, and if I am going to buy a deck why not have it burn DVD's.
Thanks
Don

[Ken Tanaka]

Makes sense to me, Don. Check again in, say, 2-3 years. Perhaps such a unit will be introduced when DVD recorders and blank media come down in price and are more accepted in the market.

[Jeff Donald]

Ken's right. Look at the price of a stand alone DVD recorder and the price of a mini DV player recorder. Historically these combo units cost more the sum of their parts. You paid for the convenience. An all-in-one unit would probably cost $2,500 or more.

Jeff

[Joe Carney]

I've heard nothing but great things about the
escalade raid controllers from 3ware.

Here's a quote from their site

"3ware Escalade 8500 Serial ATA RAID controllers deliver full-featured hardware RAID for PC servers and workstations. With 3ware’s point-to-point packet switching architecture, each disk drive has its own dedicated port, increasing throughput and enhancing reliability. 3ware delivers unmatched capacity, scalability and performance using inexpensive Serial ATA disk drives. The Escalade 8500 Serial ATA controllers set the standard for Serial ATA RAID. ."

In raid 0 for either paralell or serial ata drives, they are claiming up to 190MB throughput. People I know in the pro audio and high end Home Theater PC crowd use these for video/audio serving.

http://www.3ware.com

When my budget can afford it, I plan on getting one those babies.


they're expensive, but still less expensive than SCSI.
They are nothing like the Promise or Highpoint raid controllers.

[Don Parrish]

-R -RW +R +RW , I read an article that stated 76% of sales were (-) type. the good thing about a well engineered combo unit would be to drop in a tape and a DVD disc, push a button and walk away. But I am up against a wall. I don't know about everyone elses neighborhood but in mine the local stores only stock a few VHS decks and the quality is garbage. I also have heard Blockbuster is going 100% DVD on future movie releases. Your average Grandparents have a DVD in their cabinet and a mini DV in their palm. I have looked into outsourcing dvd burning and it looks expensive, 30$ per 30 minutes plus the disc. I might as well start a little conversion business.

[Charles Papert]

The films from the Halloween Instant Films are now up on our site at instantfilms.com. It was our best festival yet, some really great pieces of work. Check 'em out and enjoy...

(Mac users, we are still trying to get a Quicktime sponsor. In the meantime, option-click on the "watch" button and download the files to disk, then watch on Windows Media Player. The image quality is not great. We are hoping to have this improved by the next festival in December).

[Hagop Matossian]

I can't see cost as a factor, not when u have £100,000 beta recorders with hard drives built in etc.

Especially when it would save time in a professional situation. why tie up your computer for half a day or more when u could pop it in a machine, and as CentralFla said, push a button and walk away.

hopefully the manufacturers read these forums...

[Paul Tauger]

MainConcept sent me an email announcing that it is once again permitting downloading of its texture loops. These are loopable AVIs with moving, abstract patterns that are good for backgrounds for titling, etc. MainConcept put up two a week last year, and I snagged most of them -- found them quite useful.

Apparently, they're doing it again (you can also buy a CD with all of them for $15).

I have no connection with MainConcept, except that I found their loops useful.

Here's the website address:

http://www.mainconcept.com/texture_loops.shtml

[Ken Tanaka]

Thanks very much for sharing this with us, Paul. I've never seen their site or products so this is a good intro to a new resource for me!

[Jeff Donald]

From: Panasonic Broadcast Newsletter <PanasonicBroadcastNewsletter@list.panasonic.com>
Date: Mon Nov 4, 2002 2:07:59 PM US/Eastern
To: ProductionNews <ProductionNews@list.panasonic.com>
Subject: "Carrie" Shot with Panasonic VariCam HD Camera, Airs Tonight on N BC

========================================
PANASONIC PRODUCTION E-NEWSLETTER
========================================
November 4, 2002
========================================


MGM & NBC'S NEW TV MOVIE BASED ON STEPHEN KING'S CLASSIC NOVEL, "CARRIE,"
SHOT WITH PANASONIC VARICAM(tm) HD CAMERAS

Horror Saga Airs Tonight on NBC

MGM & NBC's new, three-hour version of "Carrie," based on Stephen King's
classic horror novel, starring Angela Bettis ("The Crucible," "Girl
Interrupted") in the title role, was shot this past summer on location in
Vancouver with Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 VariCam(tm) HD Cinema(tm) cameras. The
movie will be telecast by NBC tonight (8-11 p.m. ET) in standard definition
and high definition.

King's chilling tale of a teenaged girl, shunned by her peers, who discovers
she has inexplicable telekinetic powers has been powerfully adapted for
today's audiences in Bryan Fuller's compelling three-hour teleplay, which
includes scenes from the novel that didn't appear in the original 1976 film.
Victor Goss ASC served as Director of Photography.

Additional cast members include Emmy winner Patricia Clarkson starring as
Margaret White, Carrie's mother, whose religious fanaticism has made an
outcast of her daughter. Also starring are David Keith, Rena Sofer, Kandyse
McClure and Emilie de Ravin. David Carson ("Star Trek: Generations," "In His
Life: The John Lennon Story") directs; screenwriter Fuller executive
produces along with Mark Stern, Pen Densham & John Watson, partners in
Trilogy Entertainment Group. The movie event will be distributed by MGM
Worldwide Television Distribution. Lab and post-production services were
provided by Rainmaker Entertainment Group, Ltd. (Vancouver, Canada), and
Stargate Films created the visual effects.

Five VariCams were utilized for first and second unit photography on the
seven-week "Carrie" shoot. The AJ-HDC27 VariCam replicates many of the key
features of film-based image acquisition, including 24-frame progressive
scan images, and offers a wide range of variable frame rates (4- to 60-fps
in single-frame increments) for "overcranked" and "undercranked" off-speed
in-camera effects achieving fast or slow-motion, plus programmable
time-lapse recording. The AJ-HDC27 VariCam also offers CineGamma(tm)
extended dynamic range software that permits Panasonic's HD Cinema recording
systems to more closely match the dynamic range of film stocks.

DP Goss, a veteran of television production acquisition, recently completed
another high-profile project with Panasonic's VariCam, the pilot for "Oliver
Beene," a half-hour comedy that was picked up for Fox Television's
mid-season line-up.

"I was totally pleased with the performance of the VariCams on this
project," said Goss. "I like the way the AJ-HDC27 photographs and consider
it the most film-like of the digital cinema cameras, which is why I lobbied
hard to use it for 'Carrie.'"

He continued, "I've now used Sony's CineAlta HD cameras and the VariCam
quite extensively, and while they are both good cameras I prefer the way the
VariCam handles color. It has a way of interpreting greens with greater
depth and subtlety, especially khaki and autumn tones. It represents skin
tones very pleasingly. These are critical factors to me.... plus the fact
that the AJ-HDC27 handles overexposure a lot like film does, achieving, for
instance, gently washed highlights rather than creating a lot of compression
artifacts in overexposed areas of a shot, common in exterior daylight work."

Goss added, "Ultimately, I chose VariCam because of its ability to create
really beautiful images, with sparking highlights. We also made use of the
camera's off-speed capabilities, and did a fair amount of shooting at
60-fps, both for slow motion sequences and to give the effects guys extra
frames to work with. But the majority of time we shot at 24-frames."

Goss approximated that he shot close to 125 hours of material with the
VariCams, and estimated the savings compared to film stock and developing
were significant. "We were able to shoot twice as much material on tape for
action and effects sequence," he said.

Director David Carson commented, "I'm most enthusiastic about how quickly we
were able to move about the set. The cameras are flexible -- most of our
work was hand-held, and the VariCams are somewhat more rugged and better
suited to that style than film cameras are. I didn't miss worrying about
film stock, and was able to get much more coverage from many more angles
than on a comparable film schedule.

"I love Victor's work, and have collaborated with him previously in HD. The
look he achieved on 'Carrie' is tremendous, softer than I've ever seen
shooting digital, and he was able to attain different atmospheres
throughout, with many different color codes, which was integral to the
narrative. While I love working with film, I am convinced that HD is
becoming increasingly important to the future of global entertainment, and
as a director, I'm extremely interested in getting on board with the
technology."

Goss characterized the shoot as having considerable outdoors work, with many
night exteriors, as well as stunts such as crashing a truck and blowing up a
gas station. He said, "The VariCams are pretty sturdy, and didn't react to
vibration, dust or moisture. We shot almost entirely hand-held, with
occasional Steadicam work, where the lightweight cameras performed quite
well."

The DP noted that, for green screen work, the output of the AJ-HDC27 VariCam
was line recorded via the camera's high definition Serial Digital Interface
(HD-SDI) to a Panasonic AJ-HD3700 HD Cinema mastering recorder, providing a
10-bit, full bandwidth recording for high-quality compositing.

"Carrie" was post-produced at Rainmaker, Western Canada's premiere post
production facility. According to general manager Barry Chambers, who
supervised the "Carrie" work along with chief engineer Bill Hammond, the
Panasonic HD Cinema equipment, including the AJ-HD3700 mastering VTR,
AJ-HD150 deck, AJ-FRC27 frame rate converter and AJ-UFC1800 format
converter, performed well in the post-production process.

"Our first step was to make a 720p/60 selects master, which we then
converted to 1080p/24, a D-5 master, which was then down converted for
off-line," Chambers explained. "We did our on-line assembly in 24p, D-5 to
D-5, and implemented color correction and titling all in 1080p/24. Once we
got procedures established, post was fairly seamless, and we see no reason
to think that originating in 720p inevitably leads to excessive costs in
post."

========================================

To learn more about the world of HD, please visit:
http://www.panasonic.com/hdworld

========================================

[Mark Moore]

Yes, thanks for the link. I visited the site and thought the CD version (100 loops for $15).

I'm sure I can find some use for them!

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

Thanks for posting that, Jeff. I only watched it on a Standard Def TV, so I couldn't really evaluate the capture medium. But I confess I thought the movie as a whole was ridiculously incompetent. Unmotivated camera dutching in half the shots, crazy editing, ineffective reusing of footage over and over in "tension" scenes: everything about the shooting and cutting evinced the feeling one was watching amateurs at work, and resulted in an overlong mess of a film that I'm suprised NBC accepted.

[Dan Holly]

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : I wouldn't use SCSI unless I was doing uncompressed video. It is totally uncalled for in mini DV applications. SCSI is too costly, too high maintenance costs, and too complicated for most users. Many of the SCSI controllers are problematic with the newer operating systems.

Instead I would use an ATA RAID 0. It could be put together for less than 1/2 the price, with nearly equal performance.<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald

I would have to agree with Jeff.........

Although not directed towards DV "stuff" I just setup 2 dual CPU servers on a RAID 0 config.
#1 for a business system of record/order processing that gets hammered by 50 users at a time with 2 branch offices via a VPN.
#2 for a SQL server 2000 setup and a few other nominal applications.

Both are running Windows 2000 advanced server as an OS.

For the amount of money saved, and the overhead SCSI creates, it was a good way to go since SQL and advanced server 2000 are so pricey(SQL also requires a separate license for each CPU cough/cough/spit).

I'm still impressed with the WD drives, but I'm migrating to the Seagate Barracudas (currently have 100gig in my Vegas Video editing box, and both of the above servers are running them).

I'll keep this board updated if the barracudas don’t live up to my expectations, but they are currently singing along just fine.

[Joe Carney]

>>For the amount of money saved, and the overhead SCSI creates, it was a good way to go since SQL and advanced server 2000 are so pricey(SQL also requires a separate license for each CPU cough/cough/spit).
<<

Try firebird, it's the free open source version of Interbase, and I can say it works great. The company I worked for uses it on just about everything. It's commercial strength, and works on several platforms,... windows, Linux, BSD, MacOs10.x, and a few others. I've been writing high performance security software with it for over 3 years. Has ODBC, ADO and other 3rd party drivers.
I've been using Delphi C/S for development. I've also used it for creating custom market research systems.

Firebird also works with various multi-tier technologies.

check it out at http://www.ibphoenix.com, follow the links for downloading. won't cost you a thing except time.

[Dan Holly]

jojo,
To make it even worse.........I'm stuck in VAR hell.......

The software producer (Macola, now owned by exact software out of Denmark), only sells this software through VAR's and has support specs like "you must use this and that OS" to not void your support warranty. The spec sheet is annoying to say the least.

It's unfortunate, but the decision to buy this software was Y2K related and was bought at the end of 1998.....just before I was employed here and took over Operations & IT....

For the business model, Oracle came out with a proggie that meets our needs, but they waited until after Y2K to release it.

Otherwise, SAP's R3 is the best (again, for our business model) but the problem with SAP is that you need to lay a million dollars on the table so they will even talk to you (slight exaggeration =) as a per sey small business.

Thanks for the info though.........I'm always "sniffing" out new or existing products.