Newbie to video production needs help!

[d-faye]

Hi, this is my first post, so don't flame me too bad if something's wrong with it! I know next to nothing about production, I am a pharmacist, but was put in charge of video at our small church because I casually made the comment that I had a dvd recorder at home! lucky me! actually I love playing with electronics & computers so I have enjoyed learning as I go.

Ok, I started out 2 months ago, bought a Panasonic WJ-AVE5 for a couple hundred bucks off E-bay. Set up 2 of my own 8mm camcorders, through the mixer, then to a quad multiplexer from a security system to get a quad preview screen, and to my pioneer dvd recorder from the mixer output (with video output from the dvd recorder back to the quad preview screen to see the finished product alongside the preview screens).

Then I connected our powerpoint laptop output split from the projector to the video mixer via a simple push-button video switch to switch from 1 of the camcorders to the powerpoint since the mixer only has 2 video inputs. I have 1 of the cameras fixed at wide angle, then move around and zoom with the other camera, then fade back & forth from fixed to zoomed to powerpoint.

Everyone has been pleased so far with this simple setup. The DVD's look pretty good (sound is fed directly from soundboard to dvd recorder).

My issues were:
1) having to switch ppt to cam since I had only 2 inputs
2) quad multiplexer not a good solution since it has a loud alarm everytime a camera goes off line, and sometimes when I switch from ppt to cam (I cannot disconnect alarm - the pastor just jokes during the sermon when it happens that he must need to shorten the sermon since the stove says lunch is ready!)

SO... I bought a Videonics MX-1 for the 4 inputs & preview screen. However I'm not real happy with the final image quality or the reduced frame rate previews and hate the preview screen reset everytime I make a transition. Also the manual t-bar is useless. (the panasonic slide was flawless & I like the manual control versus using the take button on the mx-1). Therefore.... I don't know what kind of mixer to go for. I think I eventually want a Tricaster but since I am funding all of this out of my pocket it might be awhile.

The panasonic worked fine for our purposes if it had 3 or 4 inputs. Problem I see is that all the mixers I see with 4 inputs don't have monitor outputs for each channel to see them. I don't know how to monitor each feed unless I use y-cables or something to feed the mixer & monitor and I'm afraid the video would be degraded if I do that.Or to get expensive monitors that have line in and out connections to feed thru them to the mixer.

I need to see each feed seperately before I cut to it don't I? I was wondering if the Videonics MX-Pro had better image quality on the preview screens at least. It seems from my internet reading that it's t-bar is bad too.

Any suggestions on the monitor preview issue or a different mixer that would preview out each channel? I would eventually like to incorporate lower thirds and webcasts (it sounds like the tricaster would make that easy) and after I get the mixer setup smoothed out, I will shop for cameras. Or should I look at an entirely different angle (e.g. computer mixing with capture cards etc) . I can't think of anything else right now.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought I'd try to lay it all out. I don't have the time for trying to meet with AV sales guys who could probably answer these questions (but want to sell me stuff also), and don't know any of the video guys at the other churches, so I have depended on the internet for all my research. This is a great site, and I appreciate the opportunity to participate. Thanks, Ed

[kbob]

-congrats on your first post, and hello from a fellow Floridian-what part are you from?

I'm in Orlando myself

Well, as we have an MX-Pro, I can tell you definitively, no, not any better. The reduced frame rates are still there. You can do a bit better by setting the preview screen to preview only, instead of the four screens over the effects or by themselves. Then, whichever cam/pc you cue as next will show on the preview screen. We run a split to a tv in our room for seeing what's on the projector side by side with the preview screen, and that gets us by with the pc screen right next to both. On the other hand, we've got around an 8' X 10 room set aside, which I know a lot of you don't.

What you're dealing with is the next step syndrome a lot of us are in. It seems like a really expensive jump from something like the videonics (now manufactured by focus enhancements) to something like the datavideo and panasonic mx-70, both of which lack the preview options of the videonics unless you do loop throughs, splits, et al.

Sounds like you've come up with something workable and in budget, at least until you have some budgeted outlays.

One tip on the t-bar-make sure it's left all the way up or down-it has a tendency to glitch if it's even a hair off max travel. Also, you can set the cut times in the videonics, though I've not had to touch that myself in a long long time. Anything under a half second can be a bit dodgy though...