CompuServe Thread

Mark, Have you looked into the PAR? The Personal Animation Recorder from DPS, is an ISA solution, which also costs much less – about 1/2. IT too requires certain hard drives but they are not hard to get and cost anywhere from $600 to $900 depending on which one etc. The output is fantastic, broadcast quality in many peoples opinion – if put to a betacam deck. ANyway, you should really check it out, I've had one for about 3 months and just love it. It's definately changed the way I work. You can get a full PAR setup starting at around $3K, for another $800 you can get a TBC which will allow you to record video in real time to the PAR for use in rotoscoping etc. I'm sure there's a dealer in your area that would give you a demo. DM

Mark, Although, I own neither, I have been making a purchasing review of both Matrox and Personal Annimation Recorder (PAR). There are several threads on the PAR vs Matrox issue worth reading in the library. The products differ in price by $ 1500-2500 depending upon your present equipment. From your previous message you stated that you thought EISA was "Over Kill" , although after review, I think you will find the demands of video are far greater than your original impression. PAR has a basic system at $1995 Plus Dedicated IDE hard drive. That drive is only for annimation and cannot be used for storage of anything other than TGA, AVI files. PAR makes recomendations on which IDE drives to purchase, and supports only those recommended. Those drives are usually from Micropolis or Conner, and are special in that they don't do thermal recalibration during record or playback, thus they do not drop frames. PAR at present only supports IDE, however its probably a matter of time before they adopt SCSI wide. This is a personal opinion, based upon the superior transfer rates (20 Mbs) available to the Wide (68 pin) format. As to whether that will be EISA or PCI, good guess. Personally, I would buy PAR in a second if they supported SCSI, because of my recent investments in Quantum's 4.2 Gig 8ms Wide SCSI drive to support work on ACAD and 3DS. Nevertheless, it will be a dedicated drive what ever you buy for either system. I purchased a 486 EISA board in anticipation of doing video work, and will purchase a PCI/EISA board in the next quarter just to keep my hardware options open. The Matrox system offers more options if you are looking to intregrate in the future into a studio and some say the quailty is better, this is very subjective and will reveal itself on a large 32 inch monitor. The Matrox system supports high end VCRs for editing and mixing. The $4500 price tag may sound steep as your comments suggest however it depends where you are going tommorrow. Most of the users report that they like what they have, and are commited to the systems. If you are only interested in annimations created in 3DS, and or importing Video via PARs $995 additional board, I suspect you will be happy with PAR. So much of the DV world is changing monthly that many of the items only available in hardware are moving to Software that your future needs will be covered with PAR. On the other hand the Matrox line extends into the professional arena that they will surly have a product to cover your needs now. Only an analysis of your needs will tell you what to buy. Cordially, Douglas Campbell Propose Software