#Software VTR Controller
12 messages in this thread
Well, never let it be said that I was too proud to admit when I was wrong.
In a recent letter/file combination, I chose to tease many of you with the
proposition of using a 100% software product to drive your single-frame
animation requirements. I was a bit premature. The product DOES exist,
and works with most every operating system except Amiga. The company which
manufactures the software does have plans to ultimately port their software
to the Amiga platform, but now is NOT the time to begin selling it {:-)
Again, let me apologize to the Forum. The mistake was purely mine and was
in no way prompted by the manufacturer of the software (who shall remain
mercifully unnamed by me <grin>) Those of you who had asked for
literature, if you will Easyplex me again I will assume that you are STILL
interested and forward the literature to you right away.
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
There IS a product for the Amiga which functions much as you describe.
It's an almost all-software product (there is a hardware adapter cable
included) which will single-frame professional 3/4", SVHS and BetaCam
decks, and it costs about $400. It's called the Personal SFC (Single Frame
Controller) and it's produced by a company in Canada (available through
MicroPace and the other major distributors). I've ordered one from Briwall
to try out on our Beta-SP editing system & will let you know the results.
Pete
Pete, Thanks for the info! I would be VERY interested in the results of
your tests. I have not heard of this product. How can I get some
literature?
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
Unfortunately, the data about the Personal SFC is at my office, and my
modem is at home. There's a capsule review of the unit in this month's
AVID, if you have a copy (mine's also at the office). I should have my
unit soon & will release a review as soon as it arrives.
Best regards,
Pete
Pete:
I saw a Personal SFC writeup in a Dallas computer rag. There are a few
tradeoffs for the price, of course. Like you have to have a deck that
generates its own SMPTE if you need to use timecode. It will not capture,
so no rotoscoping is possible yet. It will soon support Firecracker and
some other buffers/formats but still is limited to the NewTek 3D product.
The price, though, is right! I am forwarding the description, etc. to the
SoftVTR people so they can "evaluate the competiton". Thanks for bringing
it to my attention.
Ken Loss-Cutler
Ken,
Support for Firecracker is already available (that's what I've got — a
Firecracker and Imagine). And the units I'll be connecting to are Sony
Betacam-SP decks, which do have built-in SMPTE generators, so I'm all set
there as well. I'll let you know how I make out — my unit's on backorder.
Pete
Pete, I haven't been following this thread so far, but your message
intrigues me….
are you saying that there is a version of Imagine that uses the
FireCracker24 directly? For viewing from within Imagine? My 'FireCracker'
button is always ghosted in my Imagine…..
–jp–seattle–
John,
No, they still haven't released a copy of Imagine that will do that. With
a third-party product called the "Personal SFC", though, I can do single
frame animation on our Beta-SP editing system, and the Personal SFC will
take care of loading the frames into the FC-24 prior to triggering each
edit. It is still necessary to render the animation into a series of
24-bit images.
Pete
Thanks Pete. Still rendering 24bit images…. and then going elsewhere to
view them on FireCracker24.
You'd THINK that if Virtual Realities can program VistaPro to use use the
FireCracker24 as a display device, that Impulse could do the same for
Imagine? After all, they make both of them. Sheesh.
–jp–seattle–
Can't say I haven't wondered about that myself…….
Still, if I'm going to do single frame animation, it's easier on the record
deck to run all the frames out to disk and then run the tape off in one
shot. Otherwise it has to sit in pause while the next frame is rendered,
which is harder on the deck and the tape. So in my case, I'd just as soon
use Imagine to render the frames to disk and SFC to put them on tape at a
later time.
Pete
Pete,
At the store where I work, we ordered a copy of the "Personal SFC" so one
of our institutional customers could evaluate it. He reported that it
worked fine, after fixing a minor glitch with hardware. (Probably induced
by us looking inside the cable.) He rendered out an animation I did with
Videoscape using his Toaster (and VO9850) and one of his own using Vista
Pro. I was impressed.
_jim
Thanks, Jim. My Personal SFC is currently backordered; will report back
when I receive it.
Pete