NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2002

[Jeff Donald]

These all involve freeware etc. The tutorial link includes the software and instructions on it's use. If you want to purchase commercial software Heuris is about it http://www.heuris.com/MPEGProducts/ They make a product called Xtractor that will do the job ($150). A new product 0SEx http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=osex
is freeware that several friends are using with good results.

Easiest is Heuris, cheapest is 0SEx and software linked below.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html

http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/

http://www.opuscc.com/download/index.shtml

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/al...g_tutorial.cfm

http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/download.html

Jeff

[Jeff Donald]

You're absolutly correct about the Sonic boards. But probably a bit pricey for most people. The last I checked the SD-1000 was around $9,000 (USD). If Apple is going to make one (long rumored since they purchased Spruce) I think we'll see it in the next 6 to 8 months or not at all.

Jeff

[Scott Shuster]

Fabulous reply Jeff -- a real award winner. Thank you SO MUCH!
Scott

[Jake Russell]

Yep def out of the majorities budget and I do hope apple make a move with the Spruce thing soon.

Jake.

[Mike Finnerty]

I updated mine earlier this week. Now I can keep on burning!

Thank you to all who contributed to this thread.
I saw an ad for that WD 120GB w/ 8MB cache hard drive mentioned in this weeks CompUSA newspaper ad (Nov 10th). The price is $219.99 less $20 instant rebate less $50 mail rebate. Please let me know if that is a good deal.

Also, in the same ad they are selling a Firewire only kit for that HD for $49.99 (again after all the discounts and rebates).

I did check the Granite and WiebeTech (zero GB) Firewire/USB kits/boxes and they are both more than $49.99 by a long shot. Are the two, Granite and WiebeTech, that much better than the generics? Granite does have this fancy digital display. And I did find out that these have internal power supplies and cooling fans built in. Does anyone else have thoughts about either the Granite, WiebeTech, or generic Firewire kits (zero GB)?

Thanks,

Gilbert Lew

Hello again, sorry I forgot to add the specification to that generic drive kit that I mentioned in my earlier post.

Manufacturer ADS Technologies
Manu # API-800
The box description is Pyro 1394 Drive kit.

So has anyone hear or have used this? How does it stack up to the Granite or WiebeTech kits?

Thanks again,

Gilbert Lew

[Linc Kesler]

Thanks for all the great feedback to my original question. I ended up buying an EZquest 120 drive and so far it works great. It is a 7200/2MB buffer drive and seemed to have performed very well in the test reviews I was able to find. As a one-drive purchase, it was also cheaper than the Granite+drive option, though if I anticipated needing more storage soon, I'd definitely go with the Granite option, since the bare drives are cheaper and swappable. For now, this works fine. The other issue was availability: I'm working to deadline, and the local Apple shop had this drive in stock (LaCie drives were also available, with a bit longer commute, in my area).

Linc Kesler

[Jeff Donald]

Gilbert,

Make sure the FireWire enclosure uses the Oxford 911 chip set. If not, or you can't confirm with 100% assurances, pass on it. In the days before the 911 chip set, dropped frames were fairly common on FireWire drives. If it does have the Oxford 911 chips, $50 is a good price. The WD drive varies in price from a high of $180 to a low of $130, after all the rebates. So the current offer of $150 after rebates is a fair price.

Jeff

[Ken Tanaka]

Gilbert,
The PYRO kit looks fine to me. But understand that you must also buy a drive (such as the WD120) to plug into the enclosure. The combination should be a good one and quite economical if you can really get that WD120 for net $150.

Good luck.

p.s. The PYRO does, indeed, feature the Oxford 911 chip.
http://www.adstech.com/products/PYRO...sp?pid=API-800

[Blake Barratt]

Yeah its fantastic that they brought out new machines and dropped the price
right after i bought my new Ti800
Was i pissed you could say that.
I do know for sure that upgrades are not possible for the Ti's at least thats what a few experts tell me.
It is a bit annoying to have lost the value of my new machine overnight and one has to wonder why apple's products are so inflated in price.
I cant even upgrade to the new machine as my new powerbooks' reselling price has crashed who wants an 800 when you can get a 1gig for less than what i payed for the 800.

cheers blake

[Linc Kesler]

Back to the capacity issue for a minute, on my afternoon trip to Staples I noticed that they are now carrying double-sided 9 GB DVD-RAMs. They are expensive for the moment, but the bigger question is what drives they work in, both on the read and write end. Is this how commercial disks reach the higher capacity? Thanks in advance for any enlightenment.

Linc Kesler

[Jake Russell]

DVD-RAM is fine for achiving data and backing up but not really for dvd-video.

With dvd-r, yep as mentioned before dvd-9's(single side, dual layer) discs have to be replicated. You'd submit two dlt tapes one for each layer. So this has something to do with how they get more on a disc as they have 7.95GB to play with and not 4.37GB as with dvd-5(single side, single layer). Another factor is the encoder. With some encoders you can get excellent footage at 4.5Mbps and lower, so bandwidth is freed up for audio, alternate-angles etc.

HTH

But commercial dvd's are most def not dvd-RAM. You can also have dvd-10 and 18.

[Jeff Donald]

DVD-RAM can only be played in other computers. There are no home DVD-RAM players.

Jeff

[Mac Daddy]

Okay-
what about DVD- ROM? That is, burning the information to the disc without formatting as a video DVD. Simply back up the information and deliver it to the replicator.

Jeff Patnaude