CompuServe Thread

John, >How does the VLab look after it goes onto VHS tape? The VLAB-M has both composit and S-video in/out. So I used the S-video to connect my Sony R5s. At 75% JPEG quality my source goes in SVHS and output looks to be like good 1st generation VHS. >I wonder if I could achieve decent video quality without an 040? I think all the JPEG compressing is done real time by the hardware on the VLAB-M board. So I think the 3000's 030 wouldn't be a problem. >Is there any kind of u/g for current VLab owners? Nope. I have my old VLAB board sitting right here. Anyone interested! >I got an offer at Toaster Expo for $1700 for VLab/Tacotta combo. You should have grabbed it. Mine cost 1825 plus shipping from Safe Harbor. >Anxious to here more about the s/w for VLab. Thomas asked some other question via Cmail. You may be interested in this info so I'll post my answers here: —————– Thomas, >Do you know what its data thru is? I used a disk performance test once and got about 5.5 megs/sec. >But if you're getting JEPG at 75% full screen that's truly superior VLAB-M full screen is 640×480. It does fill the screen of my 1084, but there is not much overscan area to paly with. >Have you checked to see if VLAB-M is solid on its output (no dropped frames… the buggabo of digital video)? Only visually. there was no obvious frame skipping. I have a friend who could create a tape for me with time code at the bottom. Then I could digitize, output, and step through it. I'll do this test but it will be a while. >Does VLAB do slow motion? Yes. In the scene or timeline control window you can hold down on a gadget and it will play at about 8-10fps. You might be able to design an FX module that would "render" a slowmotion scene, but I am not knowledgable enought to say yet. BTW a weak area in the interface (IMHO) is the "tranport" controls. You can either play the scene at normal speed to get to a desired point, use a slider to jump ahead, use the 8 fps gadget, or single step. I'd really like some sort of variable speed jog/shuttle simulation. >I worry a little about sinking to much into my 3000 with parts becoming scarcer. Yeah I know. But I am risking ALOT less than those who are putting together Flyer systems and I sure could not afford (or justify) the amount it would cost to put together this system on a MAC. I just keep thinking positivly! 🙂 >Is there any way to digitize according to Sempte time code? I shoot Hi-8 Don't know, there is no mention of timecode . . . whoa, wait a minute. The manual states that they are developing a "Pro" version with timecode, RS232 control, YUV output, etc. This will cost more and you have to ask to be put on the list of users who want to be notified when it is ready. Now this is from the 1.2 manual, and my unit came with 2.1 software, so maybe the "Pro" version is already available. Are you digitizing audio at 44 K?? or 22?? or other? >There's a slider and the default is 32. The slider goes up to 48. I have just left it a the default so far. >Are you using a tape backup like Exabyte?? Premiere friends store projects that way I have not backed up anything yet (we are only on day two here). I do have a tape drive, but not a big enough normal ADOS partition to move the video scenes to for archiving (you can't access the VLAB video partition directly from ADOS). So for now I just keep my raw footage master tape as an archive along with the new edited master tape. >I take it that the final "build" is all digital (unlike the FLYER whose output ONLY EXISTS as video) Yep …Warp Engine Engaged… -Paul-