Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away?

Seth Bloombaum · May 25th, 2018, 10:01 AM

At least it’s small!

I’m thinking about art projects made from obsolete video technology... I think I have a couple lesser DV converters to cast in resin or whatever. In the waning days of Firewire/DV, I couldn’t find my converter. I called people I’d previously loaned it to, looked in the garage, everything! Finally I bought another ADVC100. I did the job, then found the original converter a couple days later. That was my last such project... now I have two of them!

Is there a prize?

Andrew Smith · May 25th, 2018, 09:49 PM

[Oprah mode]

So, Chris, tell us how this profoundly changed your life.

[/Oprah mode]

Andrew

Chris Hurd · May 26th, 2018, 08:12 AM

Easy! With that DV-Rex M1, I said goodbye to non-linear analog tape-to-tape editing, and hello to real-time digital video editing on a computer.

Up to that point I had been doing assembly edits on 3/4" U-matic, Super VHS and Hi-8, and cringing at the 2nd-generation loss of what little quality VHS had to offer on the customer copies going out the door. Ouch!

Everything changed for me with the Canon XL1 and the Canopus DV-Rex M1. Suddenly the edit master was equal in quality to the camera master; customer copies went from second-generation to first which was a huge improvement, and editing became more enjoyable and a whole lot easier.

I had never paid attention to NLE before this as it all required rendering time, and for me it was just faster to build with crash edits from tape to tape. I didn't have time for rendering and didn't give a damn about Final Cut Slow. But then Canopus came out with this card that could do cuts in real time, on a PC platform like I wanted, and that was it for me. It changed everything.

I wound up working for Canopus at trade shows and I did their US website, and I helped with their forum moderation. All of which laid the groundwork for DV Info Net.

And that's why I can't find the nerve to throw away that breakout box!

Man, I hadn't thought about all that in a long time, so thanks for asking.

Kevin Lau · May 26th, 2018, 02:21 PM

Do we want to get started about my collection of obsolete video equipment ...

Sometimes you need to understand the past, to explain the technologies of today. Like drop-frame timecode.

David Banner · May 26th, 2018, 05:38 PM

Just yesterday I fired up my old $5,000 P4 workstation with the Matrox RT.X100 and Parhelia GPU only to discover my creative 5.1 sound system S700 has gone bad and is blowing fuses. Then I discovered my best s-VHS panasonic deck now had a terrible picture and my sony digital 8 deck with time Base corrector intermittently goes on and off.
Someone wanted a VHS to DVD transfer that would require editing and since it's still connected to most of my tape decks it would be easier to use the old system. Plus for nostalgia I wanted to use the old system I spent thousands of hours using but now sits unused.
Anyway using premier pro 2.x I captured the tape and was going to copy the avi off to my current workstation but after seeing the file was over 10GB decided hey, why don't I go ahead and do the whole project on the old system like I used to. So I plugged in some lesser speakers and got to work. So it took a minute to fumble through premiere but it all worked great, 4x3 monitors, 4x3 tv monitor and all.
Yeah it's hard to part with stuff.
I do not miss tape at all

Boyd Ostroff · May 26th, 2018, 08:01 PM

Unfortunately I learned that putting my old junk in the attic is easier than getting rid of it. I try to avoid the emotional attachment however - aside from a small trunk of vintage film cameras from my Dad's collection, going as far back as the early 1900's. Maybe once a year I look through those. Got out my old aluminum PowerBook G4 a couple years ago and was having fun playing with the old software for awhile (although my real reason was to access some very old MacDraw II files). Went out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back it was dead, never to be revived. The next day I dragged an ancient Power Macintosh G4 tower down from the attic and the exact same thing happened, but that time it only took a few minutes before it died. Of course, both went back to the attic anyway.

My first video system was a Power Macintosh 8100 with 48MB of RAM and a Radius VideoVision Studio board. But the $10,000 grant I got wasn't enough to also afford a disk array so I could only do something like 320x240 (the VideoVision board alone was almost $3000). This was 1995 and I was mainly using that machine for 3d modelling and CAD however. Was going to throw it away many years ago and a friend said he wanted it. Ran into him recently and he laughed and said it's still in *his* basement! :-)

Then there was my original Apple ][ that I got in 1978 (serial #4546). I left it in my shed in a second home. Everything in that shed was gradually ruined by the leaky roof and rodents, and finally it collapsed when a tree fell on it. I still have all the original manuals (part of them look like xerox copies stapled in the corner), and also the original software on cassette tapes. At least they don't take much room to store!

David Banner · May 26th, 2018, 08:40 PM

I may still have one of those big expensive old hi8 decks. It never worked right and my D8 decks were so much smaller and better with FireWire. Maybe I need to see if I can find it since maybe it's worth something Afterall???

May 25th, 2018, 10:01 AM	#46
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? At least it’s small! I’m thinking about art projects made from obsolete video technology... I think I have a couple lesser DV converters to cast in resin or whatever. In the waning days of Firewire/DV, I couldn’t find my converter. I called people I’d previously loaned it to, looked in the garage, everything! Finally I bought another ADVC100. I did the job, then found the original converter a couple days later. That was my last such project... now I have two of them! Is there a prize? __________________ 30 years of pro media production. Vegas user since 1.0. Webcaster since 1997. Freelancer since 2000. College instructor since 2001.

May 25th, 2018, 09:49 PM	#47
Andrew Smith Equal Opportunity Offender Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Brisbane, Australia Posts: 3,065	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? [Oprah mode] So, Chris, tell us how this profoundly changed your life. [/Oprah mode] Andrew

May 26th, 2018, 08:12 AM	#48
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? Easy! With that DV-Rex M1, I said goodbye to non-linear analog tape-to-tape editing, and hello to real-time digital video editing on a computer. Up to that point I had been doing assembly edits on 3/4" U-matic, Super VHS and Hi-8, and cringing at the 2nd-generation loss of what little quality VHS had to offer on the customer copies going out the door. Ouch! Everything changed for me with the Canon XL1 and the Canopus DV-Rex M1. Suddenly the edit master was equal in quality to the camera master; customer copies went from second-generation to first which was a huge improvement, and editing became more enjoyable and a whole lot easier. I had never paid attention to NLE before this as it all required rendering time, and for me it was just faster to build with crash edits from tape to tape. I didn't have time for rendering and didn't give a damn about Final Cut Slow. But then Canopus came out with this card that could do cuts in real time, on a PC platform like I wanted, and that was it for me. It changed everything. I wound up working for Canopus at trade shows and I did their US website, and I helped with their forum moderation. All of which laid the groundwork for DV Info Net. And that's why I can't find the nerve to throw away that breakout box! Man, I hadn't thought about all that in a long time, so thanks for asking. __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

May 26th, 2018, 02:21 PM	#49
Kevin Lau Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2016 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 46	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? Do we want to get started about my collection of obsolete video equipment ... Sometimes you need to understand the past, to explain the technologies of today. Like drop-frame timecode. Attached Thumbnails

May 26th, 2018, 05:38 PM	#50
David Banner Major Player Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Bentonville, AR Posts: 239	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? Just yesterday I fired up my old $5,000 P4 workstation with the Matrox RT.X100 and Parhelia GPU only to discover my creative 5.1 sound system S700 has gone bad and is blowing fuses. Then I discovered my best s-VHS panasonic deck now had a terrible picture and my sony digital 8 deck with time Base corrector intermittently goes on and off. Someone wanted a VHS to DVD transfer that would require editing and since it's still connected to most of my tape decks it would be easier to use the old system. Plus for nostalgia I wanted to use the old system I spent thousands of hours using but now sits unused. Anyway using premier pro 2.x I captured the tape and was going to copy the avi off to my current workstation but after seeing the file was over 10GB decided hey, why don't I go ahead and do the whole project on the old system like I used to. So I plugged in some lesser speakers and got to work. So it took a minute to fumble through premiere but it all worked great, 4x3 monitors, 4x3 tv monitor and all. Yeah it's hard to part with stuff. I do not miss tape at all

May 26th, 2018, 08:01 PM	#51
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? Unfortunately I learned that putting my old junk in the attic is easier than getting rid of it. I try to avoid the emotional attachment however - aside from a small trunk of vintage film cameras from my Dad's collection, going as far back as the early 1900's. Maybe once a year I look through those. Got out my old aluminum PowerBook G4 a couple years ago and was having fun playing with the old software for awhile (although my real reason was to access some very old MacDraw II files). Went out of the room for a few minutes and when I came back it was dead, never to be revived. The next day I dragged an ancient Power Macintosh G4 tower down from the attic and the exact same thing happened, but that time it only took a few minutes before it died. Of course, both went back to the attic anyway. My first video system was a Power Macintosh 8100 with 48MB of RAM and a Radius VideoVision Studio board. But the $10,000 grant I got wasn't enough to also afford a disk array so I could only do something like 320x240 (the VideoVision board alone was almost $3000). This was 1995 and I was mainly using that machine for 3d modelling and CAD however. Was going to throw it away many years ago and a friend said he wanted it. Ran into him recently and he laughed and said it's still in his basement! :-) Then there was my original Apple ][ that I got in 1978 (serial #4546). I left it in my shed in a second home. Everything in that shed was gradually ruined by the leaky roof and rodents, and finally it collapsed when a tree fell on it. I still have all the original manuals (part of them look like xerox copies stapled in the corner), and also the original software on cassette tapes. At least they don't take much room to store! Attached Thumbnails

May 26th, 2018, 08:40 PM	#52
David Banner Major Player Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Bentonville, AR Posts: 239	Re: Once expensive, now junk, but still hard to throw away? I may still have one of those big expensive old hi8 decks. It never worked right and my D8 decks were so much smaller and better with FireWire. Maybe I need to see if I can find it since maybe it's worth something Afterall???