HD-SDI capturing

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by TheReverendDave

As to a "card in my editing machine", we don't have a mac pro... And you can't put cards in iMacs. So getting a card and a mac pro, and a display is gonna be super pricey, even if you buy a refurb Mac Pro.

...gota include details like that.

I would think you would be better in the long run editing with a Mac Pro. I guess it depends on your budget. I always enjoy having lots of throughput on my disk array to speed along the editing process as well as rendering process. The extra processing power helps as well.

crt

[TheReverendDave]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

...gota include details like that.

I would think you would be better in the long run editing with a Mac Pro. I guess it depends on your budget. I always enjoy having lots of throughput on my disk array to speed along the editing process as well as rendering process. The extra processing power helps as well.

crt

Thought I did make that clear in the first post. Oh well!

Yeah, the extra editing power is nice. And having another workstation would be good. Is it possible to record two feeds with multiple BM cards? And secondly, I still don't understand what i capture with (software-wise) and to (codec/container options?). Any light shed on these two points would be awesome!

[bladeaudio]

If you get a BM card, it comes with their Media Express software which is pretty good for capturing. I've heard of several people recording direct to FCP as well.

[bladeaudio]

Just remembered the Panasonic AG-HMR10. Records AVCHD to SDHC cards. Not a bad solution either.

Has some other nice features like a built in waveform monitor, and can also be used as a SMPTE time code generator.

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by TheReverendDave

... Is it possible to record two feeds with multiple BM cards? And secondly, I still don't understand what i capture with (software-wise) and to (codec/container options?). Any light shed on these two points would be awesome!

Yes it is possible. The limiting factor is the software. Although i don't know of any software off the top of my head i'm sure i could ask around and see what others have heard of. I've used setups in the past that recorded multiple HD/SD SDI feeds to a few different codecs so i'm sure it's possible a software solution is out there that could pull this all together for you.

If you are only capturing one at a time FCP seems like the most logical choice. Although you can capture to BM's software as well. As far as codec you just need to capture to whatever codec you prefer to edit with. ProRes is good because it's 10 bit and holds up to digital processing better than some of the 8 bit codecs. I don't think the consumer will notice a difference either way. ProRes is also the choice of FCP editors as well.

crt

Just remembered reading something somewhere about BM's DeckLink software being able to capture two SDI streams at once.

[sadlerjon]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

Just remembered reading something somewhere about BM's DeckLink software being able to capture two SDI streams at once.

I can validate that - we capture raw HDSDI feeds from each cam using Mac Pros with two BM cards and DeckLink.

[TheReverendDave]

Nice device for long shoot duration field recordings. At the low avccam bitrates, you can get more and more hours. I don't think this would be a good solution for us though. AVCCAM I believe requires transcoding for FCP editing.

[TheReverendDave]

Originally Posted by sadlerjon

I can validate that - we capture raw HDSDI feeds from each cam using Mac Pros with two BM cards and DeckLink.

So you are capturing two feeds on each Mac Pro?

[TheReverendDave]

Originally Posted by Gracetech

Yes it is possible. The limiting factor is the software. Although i don't know of any software off the top of my head i'm sure i could ask around and see what others have heard of. I've used setups in the past that recorded multiple HD/SD SDI feeds to a few different codecs so i'm sure it's possible a software solution is out there that could pull this all together for you.

If you are only capturing one at a time FCP seems like the most logical choice. Although you can capture to BM's software as well. As far as codec you just need to capture to whatever codec you prefer to edit with. ProRes is good because it's 10 bit and holds up to digital processing better than some of the 8 bit codecs. I don't think the consumer will notice a difference either way. ProRes is also the choice of FCP editors as well.

crt

Just remembered reading something somewhere about BM's DeckLink software being able to capture two SDI streams at once.

I took another look and yes, they have the decklink duo for simultaneous feeds. Course, I'm asking you all cause I'd love to take someones field experience for validation not a sellers website. That being said, it seems like a Mac Pro with decklinks would actually be cheaper in the long run as we try to record more than one feed. The only other catch I can see is codec to capture to, and file transferring. Unless the footage is captured to an external HDD, the footage is stuck to that machine. Gigabit ethernet I spose can transfer quick, bu I've never worked with a gb network. How long would a 40-60gb file take to transfer over gb network?

[Gracetech]

Originally Posted by TheReverendDave

.... The only other catch I can see is codec to capture to, and file transferring. Unless the footage is captured to an external HDD, the footage is stuck to that machine. Gigabit ethernet I spose can transfer quick, bu I've never worked with a gb network. How long would a 40-60gb file take to transfer over gb network?

I usually setup a fiber SAN in editing houses to share files. This allows editing machines to edit directly off of the shared drives instead of swapping files around all the time.

crt

[bladeaudio]

Or you can capture to an external eSATA drive, then just physically move that drive to another workstation.

[sadlerjon]

Originally Posted by TheReverendDave

So you are capturing two feeds on each Mac Pro?

Yes (well, its mac pros and xserves, but they're close enough ).