#Frame Accurate VCR's
14 messages in this thread
As I become more involved with my VideoToaster, it's easy to see those who
use them can become rapidly impoverished. There's always one more goodie to
buy. <G>
My ambitions are growing and I'd like to move up from the Panasonic AG-1970's
I currently have to a frame-accurate VCR with SMPTE capabilities. S-VHS is an
acceptable format for me.
Does any one have any suggestions of reasonably priced VCR's with these
capabilities? Of course, "reasonably priced" is a rather broad term in regard
to these machines.
My primary interest is in lip-sync, not animation, although I am not ruling
out that as future diversion.
I haven't seen any really critical reviews of the new Sanyo. Any one using
this unit?
All suggestions cheerfully appreciated.
Jerry
I've been using the Sanyo Jerry. So far (about 3 months) it has worked well.
ALl of the rendering was done with lightwave on an A3000… I've got a review
of it in the current issue of Desktop Video World. Lou
Oddly enough, Lou,
reading your review is what prompted the question.
I have a bias against Sanyo because of the incredibly poor performance and
even worse service records one of their fax machines has racked up here.
Probably made by a totally different division, of course, but still capable of
leaving a sour taste.
Sounds like the Sanyo is worth a rental, if I can find one, to check it out.
I'll have to check with Amilink folks to see if they intend to support it or
already do.
On another subject, please accept my compliments on making Desktop Video
World an absolute must-read. I just extended my initial subscription for
another two years, probably the sincerest form of flattery I can extend to you.
Tom Negrino tells me, though, that you're dropping "Digital Dialogue".
Although Tom and I cross swords fairly often, I'm sorry to hear that. I felt
the three voices really helped me to keep a finger on the market.
For whatever it's worth, incidentally, we're the folks (FontBank) who
licensed NewTek most of the fonts included with VT 3.0.
Thank you again for the comments. And once more, thank you for turning out
what I think is one of the very best journals covering this emerging
technology.
Jerry
Since this is the sort of thing on my list of things to get (someday), I'm
curious why you'd go with a tape deck, and not something like the DPS
PAR?
Steve
Steve:
I'm really not that interested in animation. My primary purpose is more on
the order of getting good lipsync for editing than anything else.
If my primary interest were animation, I wouldn't even think of anything else
but DTP PAR, which certainly seems the way to go.
Jerry
You can also use the DPS PAR to capture live video.
Steve
"You can also use the DPS PAR to capture live video."
Steve:
Hmmmmmm . . . maybe I'm misunderstanding the total functionality of the DPS
PAR. I read that you can capture live video with it if you're using a DPS
TBCIV. But my understanding was that you couldn't capture audio at the same
time.
Also, would the DPS PAR work as the master recorder for an A/B roll editing
setup? Nothing I've read indicates that it would.
If you have some more information on this, it would be interesting to hear
about.
Overall, I wonder how far from non-linear editing for the VideoToaster NewTek
and others are? That would be way cool!
Jerry
I'm not the right person to get the low-down on the PAR….I'm just an
interested observer of the product. (And probably a future owner). 🙂 I
could swear I read that someone here, or someone on USENET was using the
PAR in conjunction with an audio capture. The best place to find out is
to call DPS and find out for sure.
I don't think the DPS PAR will really do the job for A/B editing though.
Doesn't the 500Meg drive maximum limit the amount of video you can store?
Jerry
Jerry,
The PAR can now use 2 drives, and newer drives than the original 500
meg Seagate. The new maximum is two 1.7 gig drives. I'm not sure how it
handles the transistion between drives though- if an animation can cross
over between drives. I would have thought that in a two drive system that
the frames would be interleaved between drives. I hear that DMI's digital
Broadcaster 32 is now shipping. It uses SCSI drives, so you're not limited
to the two of the IDE system.
This is getting kind of interesting. Makes me wonder if non-linear editing
using the VideoToaster isn't just about around the corner. Maybe the right
thing to do is just wait a few months before making a decision.
Jerry
I'd bet the NewTek guys are doing something along those lines. I'm
not sure that most of the Toaster wouldn't be a waste in a non-linear
editor though. The DVE's for sure. You'd need two separate video
streams comming off the hard drives. It makes more sense to me to do
those effects with an image processing program.
Jim:
People like Fast, Matrox and Avid on the low-end are doing effects handily
with non-linear devices. I'm not arguing the issue since I don't know enough
about it to argue it intelligently, but rather just wanted to point it out. On
the high end, of course, all the non-linear systems I know of offer digital
effects.
Jerry
I believe the largest drive that it can use is now beyond 500 meg.
Somewhere over a gig….. 1.7, I think.