Apple Clones (was: [rescue] BMRT SGI)

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Wed, Dec 18, 2002 at 09:52:30PM -0500, Kevin wrote:

> I'm still using my PVR card these days but if i had to
> repurchase equipment i'd probably just create DV files on a
> Mac from individual frames and output to DV tape via
> Firewire. I haven't kept up with the specs in the past few
> years so i don't know how DV compares to Digital Betacam, but
> my guess is that it would be usable for all but the most high
> end projects (take notice of the word "guess").  I do know
> it will beat the hell out of anything an SVHS/Hi8 deck will
> do.

All I know is that DV isn't so great for compositing.  Some people claim
that running DV through a S-Video link and back into a high quality
analog capture board will improve the compositing performance.  Other
people claim that running a blur filter on the U and V channels, or on
the whole image, helps.  In either case, it makes some sense.  And, this
certainly isn't something where better is nice for high end projects,
but not really nescesary.  If you need to do compositing, you will
probably save a lot of trouble by not using DV.  So, DigiBeta is
certainly better, but also far more expensive.  One option would be to
shoot for composites on rented digibeta gear and use your own DV for
everything else.  The other is to say you have more time than money and
just live with DV.  For the most part it certainly looks fine.
 
> As for the single from stuff these days, i seriously doubt
> many are still using it.  It was *incredibly* stressful
> on the decks, took forever, was error prone and of course was
> exorbitantly expensive.  Since mid/late 90s most FX houses
> are useing DDR for video.  Film is still done single frame on
> film printers though, at least to my knowledge.

That's the only way I've seen film being done.  DDRs are still extremely
expensive.  Enough so to make one ponder throughing a SDI card a RAID
controller in a Mac to avoid the cost of the DDR.  I find it
disappointing the way these items maintain their price and then
disappear.
 
> I remember seeing a 3D animation in the mid 80s at the Omni
> theater in Ft Worth (or was it Dallas?) called "The Magic
> Egg".  The animation began and ended showing a film
> camera being pointed directly into the computers display in a
> manner much like you describe.  I guess that was common
> practice in those days.

Well, it was cheap.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd