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anonymous 7 November 2001

Hi Jules. Hi everyone!
I'm having a dilemma and I hope it's not too off topic. I run a small music production company doing pieces for ads and corporate videos.
I am constantly wanting to revise my showreel, and to give different (more appropriate versions) to different potential clients. I am also asked to deal with various different video formats which I need to convert to quicktime for use in pt. So far I have got these things done elsewhere but it is time consuming and very costly so.

1. I need to convert vhs and u-matic to quicktime. I need to be able to convert quicktime to umatic, vhs and dvd.

2. I need to be able to do very basic video editing.

I understand that I need a capture card and that the aurora fuse is a good card. Unfortunately I need an expansion chasis. What are the Magma ones like and can I use a second-hand one reliably?
Are they noisy?
If I fit a super-drive to my g4 400 can I make DVD copies of my reel? Will they play in standalone units and pc dvdrom drives? really? promise?

Finally is this my best approach?

Thanks for any help.

Jack

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anonymous Thu, 11/08/2001 - 04:37

Fortunately for me, I don't have to do too much video, so outsourcing the transfers is what I do. So, no answers for you there.
I do, however, use an expasion chassis, and can tell you they're not quiet, but not as loud as a hard drive. I don't suppose too much could get screwed up to prevent using one second hand, but I'm always wary.
The chassis did make life more interesting, as it took a little bit to get my scsi settings worked out so that the PCI bus wouldn't get bogged down on large sessions. That was a little bit of hair loss I didn't need. Some DAE updates and loading 5.1.1 were key elements in making the whole damn thing work! Digging around on the Digi site downlads page should give you all of that you need.
I'm also really interested in the promises of the SuperDrive. Any reports on that thing yet?

Guest Thu, 11/08/2001 - 11:23

The few times we have done sound to video here, we used a USD and a Umatic I had picked up in an auction (it worked!). I am ignorant on capture cards. I also think expansion chassis are noisy, at least mine is.

Pre OSX and Pre the new Pro Tools (?) it sure is an awkward time to be buying into expansion chassis' and capture cards... I would try to get some sort of multi use solution - like a home video camera / DVD player with firewire (I've seen folks use these for archive/editing 'playback machines") that you could get some fun out of even if it did go a little out of date...

I dunno...

Let us know what you decide!

:)

anonymous Thu, 11/08/2001 - 23:17

Thanks Guys
I am starting to think that Digi's new hardware may not require a chassis, and that as Jules says it may not be the best time to splash out. Frankly I resent having to pay an extortionate amount for one of these, and finding a used one in the uk is proving tricky. As of yesterday I bought a fuse card and am using it in place of my mix farm. I dont want to start swapping them over every day and damaging the cards but for the moment it will have to do. I am considering getting another mac. If I did that I could link them and use the second mac as a video deck linked up via midi. At least it would have more use than an overpriced chassis. I wouldn't have to have a great mac either. Having said that I may just see what I can find. If anyone in London wants to offload a mac give me a shout.
Jack

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