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Apple's Final Cut Pro (FCP) running on a Mac G4 with Pinnacle Systems' CineWave may change the paradigm of HD post. Facilities currently posting HD are using equipment in the $500,000 range. CineWave ($17,490) includes a TARGA Cine PCI card with HD-SDI breakout box, analog or SDI breakout box, and FCP.
The package includes Pinnacle's Commotion Pro visual effects software, Knoll's Light Factory lighting effects package, and a G3 Stealth serial card for RS-422 deck control. The TARGA Cine card has two digital tether ports: a SD-only port and an HD or SD port. The real-time effects version for SD, with either the analog or SDI breakout box is $9,995.
The requirements for a complete system include a G4 with OS 9, monitors, dual-channel Ultra 160 SCSI card, and eight Quantum Atlas lOK II Ultra 160 SCSI 10,000 rpm drives in an external drive enclosure. The cost, with 288 GBs of storage, is about $28,000. (The next least expensive system is BOXX Technologies' HD-- BOXX at $51,000. The other options are in the low six figures.)
Cutting Edge Technology
There wasn't enough time for a complete evaluation, so this article is a first look. The system I worked on was a 64/500 with 512 MB of memory running OS 9.1, Final Cut Pro v2.0, and CineWave v1.2 software. The CineWave HD-- SDI breakout box was connected to a Sony HDW-F500 set for 1080/24p. A Panasonic 1080i HD plasma monitor was the video monitor in this setup. It was operational only when the F500 was configured for 1080/23.976p.
The CineWave v1.2 software provides: realtime 3:2 pull-down conversion for converting HD to SD; up conversion for SD to HD; CineOffline to down-res HD images, and the choice of using either the Targa Cine YUV...