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As our company changed its name to DV411, this site is no longer being actively developed. Please visit DV411.com, or follow one of the following links on the new site:
Quiet, as fast as today's Cheetah. With 6 drives, you can have over a TeraByte - at only 13 pounds! Specifications:
Faster, smaller, quieter. In comparison with the current generation Cheetah drives (ST336704 and ST173404):
Specifications:
Tom's article (from the infamous Tom's Hardware Guide) will leave you wondering whether to buy any RDRAM - stuffed computer systems. Tom emphatically says: "No way!" (read it) And if you agree with Tom, then you would not want to buy a computer system that uses Intel's 820 or 840 chipset with RDRAM support. Now, ask yourself, how many current top-of-the-line IBM, Compaq, HP or Dell workstations use RDRAM? All of them.
Which very well leaves you in hands of VIA and Serverworks (Intel's major competitors in chipsets) and high-end integrators like... Computervice, that hasn't shipped a single RDRAM-based workstation despite steadily increasing systems sales. Call it a shameless plug but it's true. Additional reading you might find interesting: Intel discontinues (for now) 840 chipset with SDRAM
memory support: Memory Repeater Hub - a "nonsense
configuration": Bugs found in servers, workstations using Intel chipset: Intel can't use DDR chipset till 2003:
"The DigiSuite hardware was the obvious choice for the Tonight Show, offering dual-stream, uncompressed video quality and extensive real-time effects at an incredible price point," said Alexei Gerulaitis, Computervice. "We have been integrating and supporting DigiSuite systems since the original DigiSuite was announced back in 1997, and didn't hesitate to recommend it to Mac at NBC. We look forward to continuing to support NBC and the quality programming they put out on the Tonight Show." "Computervice has always regarded support and service as its top priority. That, combined with our unmatched integration expertise, competitive pricing and comprehensive support, was a winning card in securing Tonight Show's confidence in our products," added Alexei. The Tonight Show turnkey system features dual processors, full tower case with custom-designed cooling, external video storage using award-winning enclosure designs. For a complete text of Matrox' Press Release, follow this link (it will open a new browser window). Among other clients, Computervice installed turn-key systems at Access Hollywood, Pepperdine University, Images Digital, Iron Mountain Films, Drew Carey Show.
Medéa VideoRack RT: High-Performance, Low-Cost 19" Rack Mount Disk Arrays for Professional Non-linear Video Editing Applications. Supports dual stream lossless compression at 55MB/sec sustained data rate. 6 drives with integrated RAID- 0 hardware. Ultra2-Wide interface, capacities 78 to 225GB. Comes with an LVD terminator, 3' cable, 5 year warranty. Black finish. Check our parts page (look for drive arrays there) for current prices.
At NAB'98, Matrox came up with a very high quality dual stream real-time editing engine, DigiSuite LE, for $4,995. Its competition was still way more expensive, and with fewer features. At NAB'99, LE's price dropped to $3,995. Customers were very happy, but many were asking for native DV editing, or at least a DV I/O option. At SIGGRAPH '99, Matrox had the answer. Say hello to RT2000: native DV editing, real-time 2D and 3D effects, 1394, composite and Y/C I/O. MPEG-2 output. Bundled with Matrox' own G400 dual monitor SVGA card. All for $1,295 US. The product's price falls right in the middle of the under-$1K firewire-only editing solutions such as Canopus DV Raptor and Pinnacle DV300, and the more expensive hybrid analog and DV cards such as Canopus DVRex-M1 and Fast DV Master, $2500 or more. The features and the price point make this a very exciting announcement. RT2000's real-time effects play in real-time through analog output (composite, Y/C) but not through DV/1394. To do that in real-time, it would have to have a 3-rd hardware DV codec which it does not. Solution? Render, and render it does fast, 2 to 3 times real-time. Scheduled to ship in November 1999. Call for more information or to place an order.
Scheduled to ship in late October 1999, there is already a 3-month waiting list for the new JVC DV camera, GY-DV500. List price is $5,995, but here is the deal (till 12/28/1999) $4,995 will buy it and JVC throws in free Fujinon 14:1 lens. With only 50% down, you can pre-order this package by calling us. We promise you will be the first to get it in the country. BR-DV600U is the new JVC DV deck: 1394, component, Y/C, composite input and output, 422 remote control. The best news is the price, $2,995.
LVD (Low Voltage Differential), also called Ultra 2 SCSI, is the next step in the evolution of SCSI: faster, more reliable, backward compatible, relatively inexpensive. It is very good for digital video. With 80MB/s bus speeds, it gives you ample bandwidth room. With up to 12 meters in cable lengths, it gives you much larger expansion room - now you really can hook up to 15 devices per controller, and not worry about reliability. Adaptec's 2940U2W has a special built-in single-ended transceiver, with which you can separate keep slower non-LVD devices from affecting the performance of the faster ones, and still have just one SCSI "channel", which means less of the darn IRQ hunting. They've thought of everything, haven't they? And it is simply faster. You wait less loading long projects, rendering stuff, or "flattening" your Speed Razor RT timeline. How Much? LVD drives cost $20-50 more than Ultra Wide ones. The controller is indeed more expensive - we currently sell the Adaptec's Ultra 2 SCSI "kit" with cables for $425, vs. $225 for a standard Ultra Wide SCSI. However the Ultra 2 kit comes with about $120 worth of really good cables - a 5-position LVD/SE internal cable, a 3-position 68-pin Ultra Wide cable, and a 4-position 50pin internal cable with an external HD50 adapter, usable for your slower external devices. So LVD is very close to legacy SCSI devices in cost. Still, do I need LVD? Digital Video The Terrible Digital Video is horrible for your computer. It is a resource, memory, bandwidth, storage, and CPU cycles hog. Space Shuttle control system does not even stand close. Here is why. You need a high speed storage system that must sustain both read and write speeds, and must have low latencies for jerk-free playbacks, and long times of continuous reliable operation. You need a high-performance graphics adapter - or several of them, to accommodate your desktop real-estate at high resolutions, support high refresh rates, true color and decent 3D acceleration for graphics and 3D applications. You need an abundance of processing power for effect rendering. There just aren't digital video systems that are "too fast". Then there are "faster than real-time" rendering and HDTV coming up... You need a high speed system bus not to choke on the bandwidth that all of these high speed devices require. You need ultra-fast RAM and a lot of it to accommodate your editing, FX, graphics and possibly 3D modeling needs. Your digital video capture card is likely to be a power, space and resource hog - taking one or more full length PCI slots, consuming a lot of system resources, power, and generating a lot of heat. Some require dedicated cooling. You have to be really careful about a computer you are putting your digital video toy in. Given all of the above, can you come up with any excuse not to use LVD in your editing system? I can't, and we put LVD adapters in most of our systems. If this still does not convince you, here is the last blow: latest generation Seagate Cheetah drives are now only available in LVD flavor. (Well, also in Fibre Channel.)
A professional real-time NLE platform for under $4K on Windows NT is now a reality. A complete system with 36GB of video storage - under $9K. DigiSuite LE and Adobe Premiere RT 5.1.
Used to cost ten grand together just yesterday. At $4K,
will it change the picture of the market? It did already. What Do I Need Real-Time For? NLE (Non-Linear, computer-based video Editing) is great. It is no longer expensive. It delivers great video quality. Then why is linear editing still alive and kicking? Here is why: you have to render simple effects and transitions, adjustment of video levels. And rendering is in most cases a very lengthy process -- 30:1 on the average (30 minutes of rendering per 1 minute of finished material). It is also dumb -- editors, producers and all of the rest of the creative and technical type take coffee breaks, naps, or bore themselves out. Now, what happens if the levels of the entire video need to be adjusted? Or, say, the system crashed half-way through? Or you need to re-capture the material at a higher quality? Either re-render (what, the whole thing?) or go linear (expensive). Say hi to real-time non-linear editing. It does not really mean 100% real-time, but does allow some basic editing functions to be performed in real-time, such as dissolves, certain transitions, keying, certain 2D effects. This significantly shortens editing time and admits NLE into places that are still labeled "Linear Only". Why Am I So Excited? Just 3-4 years ago, a real-time NLE system could easily cost over $100K. Then in 1996, Truevision came out with the first open platform, Targa 2000 RTX™, with ticket prices over $15K for hardware and software (Avid MCXpress RT). These systems pioneered real-time non-linear editing in sub-$100K range, but performed only a few basic real-time transitions and effects, while rendering everything else. Last year, in:sync announced a real-time NLE software for Matrox DigiSuite. DigiSuite is a killer platform: dual D1 lossless video, powerful on-board processors, Movie-2 bus, 4-channel balanced audio, many other features. But $15K for hardware and software, or about $25K for a well rounded system -- it is still not quite affordable for those on a low budget.
At this year's NAB, a number of under $6K real-time solutions were announced: Pinnacle Systems' ReelTime, DPS Perception RT and Matrox DigiSuite LE. To many observers, DigiSuite LE seemed to be the most promising: high data rates, in:sync Speed Razor and Discreet Logic Edit* running on it, Premiere 5.0 real-time plugins promised, features better than on the other two boards. Total solutions still over $10K for hardware and software, while other promised less features but still for under $6K. So What Happened Today? in:sync announced a bundle of its real-time software Speed Razor 4.0RT and Matrox' DigiSuite LE for US $5,995. There is no competing solution available at this price point. There are several key advantages of this platform over other under $6K dual stream real-time solutions:
Read the Press Release.
© 1997-2000 Computervice
and Alexei Gerulaitis. |
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