This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (48 messages)
Just to jump in… I recently had a problem with a GVP board and found the tech support far superior to that that of the numerous other amiga oriented companies I've dealt with. They spent a considerable amount of time with me on the phone and fedex'ed a replacement board…
Tom, I'm on my fourth call as well. Soon, it'll be time to employ the bulldozer method. What was the Presidents name? Bill.
Tom, Thanks for the reply! I'll get on the phone to NewTek today and get that upgrade. In the meantime, thanks for the tip about saving the framestore to ram. I don't think I would have thought of that myself. It was getting very frustrating having to save a framestore…
#lines in framestores?!
Message #20918
I just installed System 2.0 toaster software a few days ago–and now I seem to be plagued by horizontal lines in framestores. Not in frozen images but only after they've been stored and retreived. It occurs from both live and tape sources. If I keep saving the image, I'll eventually…
Ranjeet– I hate to be unhelpful but generally questions as broad as yours are unanswerable. The system you described could cost a few thousand dollars for a few million. If you're looking for general information you should get hold of some of the many trade magazines such as AV Video,…
John, AV Video's address is: Montage Publishing 25550 Hawthorne Blvd Suite 314 Torrance, CA 90505 213-373-9993
Pete, Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to give BT a second look, even if somewhat reluctantly. Thanks for the info Bill.
Frank, Thanks for the insight on BT 2.0, but I was so frustrated with the old version and with whoever makes the thing that I would be hard pressed to try ANY of their products. Besides I much prefer Pro-Video–and I HATE MENUS! Ah yes, I remember the good ol'…
John, As a hobby video is alot of fun, and you don't necessarily need alot of equipment. The more the merrier but you can experiment with just about anything. My first couple of production were made with a black and white security camera that I… sort of liberated from a…
[Continued] But even more important than the numbers is the knowledge of how to use this stuff. Editing takes alot of proctice, working a camera and directing is complicated, audio recording is a science, and sometimes lighting seems like a job for mystics and magicians. It take years to learn…
John, I have never responded to a message this way, I promised myself I would never discourage anyone, but I'm afraid I have to. What you need most is a little more experience. I know that was the point of your message, but questions like "should I use S-VHS or…
Chris, I have some difficuly answering your questions since all your jobs are live-mix down whereas all my jobs are shoot & post. For what you doing the toaster is ideal but, as you say, budgetary considerations make it unfeasable. My original A500 setup was an Amiga 500 (big surprise)…
Pete, I know what you mean. I'm using one 1950 for a home VCR and the other is in my office hooked up to a JVC BP-5300, a dinosaur of a VHS deck, for when friends ask me to make dubs of tapes I'd rather not put into my S…
(reply to both messages) Pete, I agree with everything you say. I too can spot the difference between programs originally shot in film and video. I've crewed on an HDTV productions and have seen how good video can get. In fact (don't tell this to any of my clients) I…
Pete, Yes, you've caught me on that–both VHS and S-VHS are color under with the only difference being recording bandwith and frequencies. However your statement that keeping the signal always separate makes a "significant" difference really depends on your perception of "significant". This was one question I had to seriously…
Pete, I'm not saying your wrong but I've experienced a good deal of flagging at edit points that, in my opinion, were caused by time based errors. Before I had a TBC I fixed them by duplication through a TBC. Now that I have a TBC the problem no longer…
Steven, Yes, editing to VHS even without Y/C output is better than VHS. In fact, since we've installed the toaster (which doesn't offer Y/C) we've been doing everything in composite. The real advantage of S-VHS is the separation of signals on the tape. Keeping the signals always separate does help…
Steven, One thing you might try is having your VHS dubs made by a dub house. Some won't even talk to you about small quantities but many will. If it is a time base problem, all dub houses use TBCs and that will solve your problem (if your in the…
Art, We have a toasted 2000 and we also use a 500 with a supergen & DPaint, Pro-video Gold and others. We frequently employ 2 set-ups. 1) The supergen output goes the the second video input on the toaster _and_ to the sync in on our Personal TBC (the Sync…
Laurie, The fact that it's S-VHS is only the beginning of the story. S-VHS performance can vary widely from machine to machine. But the problem with the 1950's that eventually caused me to scrap them was their inability to edit videotape properly. Perhaps for editing wedding and sports video or…
Paul, I'm not very familiar with community access programs–in my area they're not offered. Your best bet may be just to find out who's in charge of your local program and level with him. Chances are, the equipment is just sitting there underused they may jump at the chance to…
This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but we've solved the problem by using an old A500 and a supergen which we feed into the toaster as another video source. This lets us have the advantages of both the toaster and DP4 and PVP. Also, part of your disatisfaction…
Laurie, I've never used the 1960 but I have a good deal of experience with the AG-1950–boy could I tell you stories! But I summarize it this way: I paid $1250 for my 1950–it recorded in SP & EP, was cable ready, super OTR programs, simulcast recording, Hi-Fi, AGC, 2…
Tim, I know the exact problem you're having–I fought with it for quite some time. More than likely what you're seeing is time base errors. All VCR's will create TBE's. Generally, the problem is more severe in consumer and pro-sumer level equipment. What can you do about it? Short of…
Vic, You may be able to solve all of your problems with the yellow pages. In the NYC area at least you could easily find a small post house with VHS editing equipment and an amiga–do your graphics at home, bring a disk and the video footage you need on…
Tim, The most important thing in any training presentation is the quality of the script. A great training video could be done with a pad and paper–the Amiga is a tool that makes is easier. You can do some very impressive animation with DP4, you're only limitation will be memory–keep…
Michael, I'll have to dig arounf for the issue of AVID you mentioned–I'm a couple of months behind on the trades I subscribe to but I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Thanks for mentioning it! Bill.
Michael, No, most mixers/multitracks don't offer limiters. I don't use the multitrack for location work. All audio goes directly into the portable VTR. The problem arises in post. With the levels set (on the multitrack) for optimum audio recording, the occasional peak gets distorted heavily. I pulled the multitrack out…
Jorge, I must admit that I can't recall why I asked for your application (oops!). If I wasn't able to answer one of your question (and that's why I asked you for your application) could you please remind me what it was? If someone else already answered it, then don't…
Wayne, Sorry for this late reply–we closed down for a few days. I'm glad to see my Panicsonic/JVC adventures may benefit someone. I learned the hard way. As I mentioned I really don't know which machine is better but our policy is if it says "Panisonic" we don't buy it–period.…
Jorge, I don't know the numbers or prices on the A/B Roll stuff–when you get to that point there are many options. As far as cuts only JCV has two controller, the RM86U which I paid $1144 for about 2 years ago and there's another on that goes RMG10XU or…
Jorge, I'm jumping into this thread a bit late but have some direct experience with your JVC/Panasonic question. Although I can't compare to 7750 with the 811 I have had experience with both companies. I started out in Pre-S-VHS days with all Panasonic VHS stuff (3 decks, camera, controller). I…
Doug – Thanks again for the advice. The time frame on this project is so tight I won't have any time to screw around so I think we'll start out of the gate with 9 Meg (So much for the little bit that was left in my savings accoung ).…
I'm picking up on this thread a few days late but thought I'd jump in anyway. From what I've read of your mesages, you are in much the same position I was in a few years ago. At that time I made alot of very expensive mistakes and now have…
You say "7 meg is limiting". What do you mean by "limiting"? What, if anything, won't I be able to accomplish?
Doug, thanks for your comments. A Newtek rep told me that the lack of S-VHS compatability mode little or no difference. I didn't buy it. Right now I think we'll sacrafice some picture quality for the functionality of the toaster. We've been using composite for most editing anyway (we're currently…
#S-VHS & Toaster!
Message #13137
Well, it's finally time to trash my old supergen (someone spilled soda into it) and get a new genlock. The Toaster seems like a good direction to go in but the fact that it doesn't support S-VHS makes me very hesitant. Half of me says "go with the toaster" and…
Bill, I guess I'll have rumage through my boxes of diskettes to see if I can locate the app starter kit. Thanks for the address/tel #, I'll give them a call. Bill.
Bill, I was hoping to stumble across some vast resource of Pro-software. But I wasn't expecting it. As far as I know I had received all verions versions of the applications starter kit (I was involved in a beta test site) but I recall nothing resembling a database manager. In…
#New Member – Help w/pro
Message #57065
About six years ago I was a system operator on a PDP-11/24. It was a constant struggle keeping it up and running with sixteen terminals and a tempramental Mostek memory board (remember when 124K seemed like alot). I had the distinct displeasure of watching that machine die. It's terminals were…
Pete: My 810U is less than a year old! As far as making a lot of noise–I tried that once at Panasonic with a much more demonstrable problem. I got satisfaction but it took six months and many hours of phone calls (did you know that Panasonics AV/SG's consumer affairs…
George: The first choice you have to make is whether to get a printer with a Postscript (PS) interpretor built-in, or a non-PS printer with add-on cards. Usually, the motivational factor here is price. As far as I know the least expensive PS printer is the NEC LC-890 Silentwriter. They…
Mike: Thanks for the hints but I don't think it's related to the genlock. Past productions always looked fine. I think the problems involve either head alignment or a problem with the decks servo control. The biggest problem is JVC factory service. I keep hearing horror stories. So it goes.…
Pete: Lots of good advice, thanks. And, yes–we are still using a one chip camera. I guess my overall expectations were too high. I have to rethink them a little. I am still having a problem with my BRS-810U. As I mentioned, factory service had "no problem found". What are…
Pete: I also prefer not going to factory service center, in fact an engineer at Panasonic recommended that I don't use them! However, the only authorized non-factory service center in my area did not instill confidence when I spoke to them, and since the machine is still within the warranty…
S-VHS BLUES
Message #32979
I began producing industrials about three years ago in VHS (Panasonic AG-1950's & AG-2400). Over the years I have upgraded to S-VHS (JVC BRS-411U, BRS-611U, & BRS-810U). Although this arrangement worked at first I am now experiencing problems. Upon playback of recorded material there are black bars of about 5…
Pete: Actually, compared to my problems with Pansonic service people the JVC crew has been great. As a result I become ill at the thought of owning anymore Panasonic equipment. As far as dropouts–I wish it were that simple. I've tried many tapes (mostly Fuji & TDK) with no apparent…
S-VHS Blues
Message #102064
I began producing industrials about three years ago in VHS (Panasonic AG-1950's & AG-2400). Over the years I have upgraded to S-VHS (JVC BRS-411U, BRS-611U, & BRS-810U). Although this arrangement worked at first I am now experiencing problems. Upon playback of recorded material there are black bars of about 5…