Varicam HD Workflow

Hello Guys,
Was wondering if you could answer a very basic question for a beginning HD user.

I just shot 2.5 hours of DVCPRO HD footage with a Varicam. 

I have a MacG4 dual processor 867 with a regular 250 GB drive.

Aside from renting the deck to be able to get the footage into my system, what else will I need to begin editing it? I'm not concerned about the graphics card/monitor part, i just want to get my footage into my system and in the timeline the same way i would regular standard mini dv footage from a crappy camcorder --in the simplest, cheapest way possible.

Please help.
Thank you very much.
dan



d2olphin

youre going to need a second media drive. either a secondary internal sata drive or external like a firewire800 (an external sata array would be great as well)

with such an old machine im curious as to what version of FCP are you using?
how much ram do you have? id suggest a min of 2 GIG

i have 896 MB SDRAM

i am using fcp hd 4.5

like i said, looking for the bare minimum to be able to edit...not interested in an external sata array if i dont absolutely need it.

how much are firewire800 drives (is that a G-Raid) ?

please advise.

thank you



d2olphin

i think that FCP 4.5 deals with DVCPROHD. but im not certian. sit tight im sure someone here will clear that up quickly...

EEEK! id definitely get more ram. youre already on a machine that is on the nearly impossible low end of the HD scale. you need all the help you can get.

a 500gig G-RAID is about $450ish. it will all depend on how much of that 2.5 hours you need to capture...

go here:
[www.g-technology.com]

wayne,
any idea why my DVCPRO HD codecs as listed in my easy set-up drop down menu all have an asterik next to them?

dan



d2olphin

DVCOPro HD was added to FCP 4.5-- that's why it's called FCP HD. It was the big news of two NABS ago.

Here's what I'm in the middle of doing for my Dual 800-- just one generation behind Dan's, to run FC Studio, all apps.

1) Larger ATA hard drives. Just migrated everything to two Western Digitals, tunning great.

2) Sonnet Encore ST Duet 1.8 Ghz processor upgrade. Comes with its own fan so I'm not concerned with melting the tower.

That's on its way to me now.

3) Monitor/Video card upgrade-- the ATI 9600 Pro dual DVI card, driving 2 20" aluminum Cinema Displays.

4) External SATA RAID box, like G-Tech. Window shopping now.

5) RAM upgrade to the max 1.5 GB.

That last may well be the weakest link in the upgrade chain, along with the PCI bus. But hopefully this upgrade will last me a year, during which time the Intel towers will shake out the bugs, and will meantime accomodate DVCPro when it comes in.

Anybody here ever upgrade a power supply?

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Set a Level keyframe with Command-Option K !

The FCP 5 KeyGuide?: a professional placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central:
www.neotrondesign.com

Loren, any knowledge as to why I'm seeing asteriks next to my DVCPRO HD codecs in my easy set-up?
Dan



d2olphin