V-lab motion
4 messages in this thread
I'm looking for feedback from anyone who's using V-lab motion… Trying to get
an idea how functional it is compared to Adobe's Premiere and various
video/audio cards on the MAC. Lots of good promotional stuff but haven't seen
any reviews
Thanks for your help
TOM texas
TOM texas,
I purchased the VLAB Motion system for use with some MultiMedia stuff
I'm playing with. I've been pleasantly surprised as how well this product
performs! The hardware (both audio and video boards) are more than up to
the tasks I demand of it. The software, on the other hand, is still
evolving (us early pioneers are getting two version updates for free!),
but I have had to learn the necessary steps (and in which order) to take
to make this early version (1.2) perform nicely for me. The most
significant problem I feel that needs to be solved quickly is the audio
with video playback — the audio trails the video by a couple hundred
microseconds (only noticeable when you have talking lips on screen). I
think I could manually fix this playback problem with the sound editing
software provided with the audio board, but it hasn't been enough of a
problem for me to try it yet <grin>. Obviously, the VLAB Motion system
should take care of this automagically and I feel pretty certain it can be
accomplished via software. I've heard a rumor that version 2 software is
suppose to be out in Jan 95 and I'm hoping this will be one of the things
"corrected."
I can't compare the VLAB Motion to Adobe's Premiere because I've never
used Premiere. I suspect that the Premiere package has been out for a
longer time than the VLAB Motion System and therefore is probably more
"mature" with respect to it's software, but let's be honest – that is a
moving target no matter what system you end up with. Perhaps if you
expand upon what you want to do with the VLAB Motion I could give a better
assessment on it's functionality for your purposes.
EdV
Ed thanks for your info,
I've used Premiere and it is truly great software… but hardware is a
problem… especially with the current powerPC Macs… problem with the
NUBUS… problems with syncing sound (on lower cost boards because 16 bit sound
is internal to the MAC buuuut, the video boards are added and there are some
problems there.
I wish the Sunrize people had worked on non-linear or combined forces
with the Vlab crowd because their software and manual and hardware are
great!!!… I used it for their trial period and breezed through audio editing
work that would have taken me 15 times as long with far less creative
flexibility… pity no video (even at low rez)… there Sempte sync was
flawless… Anyway..
I'm looking at Vlab as an off-line tool to construct edit lists which I
will run on our Sony SP gear (with Toaster)… Also I am very interested in
production for CD ROM… how that works.. how easily I could move work over to
MAC and WIN for the sake of marketing…. My gut feeling despite my excitement
abut non-linear (after 20 years doing video production) is that neither
hardware or software is stable enough to put over $4000 into the system (still
that's less than the cost of one SONY EVO 9850… I could do nearly all but the
final production with my sony Vx3 camcorder (great 3 chip cam) and a good,
simple non-linear computer set-up.)
Do you do work to go to CD??
all best Tom
Tom,
Shuhhh, not so loud about other machines having hardware configuration/
compatibility problems — don't want the world to know the truth <grin>! I
installed the VLAB Motion & Toccata in my A3000 and it couldn't have been
simpler. Of course I had my own ideas of how this was going to work for me
so the VLAB Motion had to cooperate with my IV24 or it was history! It's a
kick to have a PIP video window on the MovieShop screen to use as a
preview <grin>. After using (more like playing around with) the VLAB
Motion, my PIP idea is more of a gee-whez thing, because I use a separate
monitor to view the output now.
I couldn't agree more, the Sunrise audio solution with their version
3.0 software is absolutely professional! I am partial to the "timeline"
style solutions and Sunrise has done a fine job implementing it. The
Toccata audio software (called Samplitude) provided with the VLAB Motion
package does not use a timeline methodolgy 🙁 It appears plenty capable,
but I've been having so much fun with the video editing side that I've
spent very little time working with Samplitude <grin>. If SMPTE is
something you must have, then you will need to pursue the optional SMPTE
hardware upgrade for the Toccata that is mentioned in the users manual. I
would call NoahJi's and get the info directly from them.
The VLAB Motion is definitely an off line system — all effects are
rendered (to paraphrase a common grunt: more power!). I think the VLAB
Motion will be a great addition to your system, however, I don't know how
well it and the Toaster would work in the same machine. I know the Toaster
demands a lot from it's host (isn't that is why Sunrise had to develop a
handler during Toaster transitions?). If you have these two beasts in
separate machines its obviously not a problem.
As for CDROM productions, I feel the VLAB Motion is a natural for the
video digitizing and editing portion. The resulting images could easily
feed your authoring progam and/or animation package. Moving the images to
a CLONE or the MAC is a piece of cake with the proper software. Building
the presentation — that's the real trick and gets constrained by the
tools you have to use (and even the platform you choose to use)!
Your concerns about non-linear being ready for "prime time" are
probably well founded considering your 20 years of experience in the video
production business. I personally feel the big problem with non-linear
systems has been primarily associated with data rates. Because raw
digitized video data rates are so high for most machines, we have had to
develop compromises to get the data rate down to something we can handle
on the more affordable machines. All these compromises have ended up
throwing out data (somehow) and have resulted in various algorithms to do
so: Motion-JPEG, MPEG, and even VTASC (I believe). In essence, they all do
something to the video, it's just a matter of how perceptable is it and
how important/critical to the work at hand. If you are expecting that
elusive "broadcast quality" out of the VLAB Motion, then you may want to
wait for the annoucement of MacroSystems Z3 version of this board which
supports much higher data rates when installed in an appropriate machine
and will be at least $1000 more expensive (according to NoahJi's
brochure). I was hoping for "SVHS" level quality and have been pleasantly
surprised with the VLAB Motion in my A3000 with a fast hard drive!
Doing CDROM work has crossed my mind more than once <big grin>!
EdV