Vision Unlimited/LA News

Sorry that i have been out of pocket for a couple of months. Things have been crazy here.

Recently, someone asked me what size P2 cards that he should get for his P2 camera. With the new, cheaper, larger cards coming out, the answer is not necessarily the same as it was in the past. Most people would have said, “As big as you can afford.” The answer may be more complicated now. (No, these days, answers seldom get simpler.) He also asked what type of devices were best for transferring P2 cards in the field.

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A few months ago, i discovered the HDLink Pro, a pretty impressive converter for changing SDI or HD SDI signals into DVI or HDMI signals to drive computer monitors. The HDLink does the basic job and sells for about $500, but the Pro model, for about $800, gives you an extra treat.

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It seemed like a no-brainer to me – we are in a television transition and lots of people are replacing television sets – someone should be taking the old ones back. After months of looking for a local place to accept dead television sets and recycle them appropriately, i finally found one. (continue reading…)

This has been a crazy month. I was on my way to Alaska for the Iditarod when i found out some bad news from home and had to squeeze a week of camera setup into about 10 hours. Then i turned around and headed back. Luckily, another consultant went up the next day to work on the editing systems, so he got the added load of setting up metadata files and checking camera setups. The rest of the month has been spent trying to get back in step.

NAB is coming up and i will not be there for the first time in several years. I will miss seeing everyone but it will be nice to be home for spring without a big trip to Vegas in the middle.

This month’s HD Video Pro Mis-information column is about processor speed. The next one will be about color difference signals.

It’s getting late in February and the time is close for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race from Anchorage to Nome. (continue reading…)

Several of you have asked me for copies of some of my Misinformation columns from HDVideoPro and they have allowed me to post reprints of them here. Feel free to distribute them to anyone who might want them, but please, leave them intact with the source and author info. Republication is not authorized without expressed permission.

There is an HDVideoPro Reprints link at the top right of this page and a nested link in the “VU/LA Details” box in the lower right.

[Note that the 2016 columns and some of the older ones are now available on the HDVideoPro site at: http://www.hdvideopro.com/columns/misinformation

Enjoy.

crc

If you came by the Panasonic Q & A booth at NAB 2008, you probably saw the HPM110, P2 Mobile recorder, a six P2 Card, “Swiss Army knife” of HD video tools. It still provides outstanding support for an old Varicam and can provide more features than you can shake a stick at for a video village. At about $15K, without cards, it is quite a deal.

At the same time, the HPG10 was available for about $4K (list) and it played back DVCProHD in the field and recorded Firewire DVCProHD onto P2 cards. Everyone asked when it would record HD SDI. (continue reading…)

Many of you know that i do training work for Panasonic, among others.
Part of my job is keeping up with the choices in the high definition cameras used in various types of production, and Panasonic has announced a couple of new cameras just this past week.

One of the new cameras is a repackage of parts of two earlier camera systems and the other is a new direction for the company. (continue reading…)

Someone wrote in to a forum last week, asking about the “proper” video levels for other-than-Caucasian skin tones. The subject of where to place skin tones on a waveform monitor is an oft-discussed one and most folks don’t know what the drivers are for making a technical decision. (continue reading…)

This is a new version of the VU/LA website.
It will give me an easier way to post current messages, so maybe i will put stuff up more often.
Check back and see if i do any better than i have in the past.

cheers,
crc