Re: Stumped, baffled, and perplexed.......

On Sat, 3 Oct 2009 11:52:05 -0400, in 'rec.video.production',
in article <Re: Stumped, baffled, and perplexed.......>,
"Smarty" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Frank" <frank@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:lv3ec5t32h6anki11lir43oasah7lspsi5@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 2 Oct 2009 21:27:32 -0400, in 'rec.video.production',
in article <Re: Stumped, baffled, and perplexed.......>,
BTW, I just recently added a number of service manuals for Sony AVCHD
camcorders and Sony HDV camcorders and VCRs to my Documentation Index,
in case you need anything. Just go to my old "Frank's thoughts on HDV"
Web page (URL in sig), click on the "Documentation Index" link, and
then scroll down to the Sony stuff. You may find service manuals for
one or more products that you own (or have you switched to Panasonic,
perhaps? The AG-HMC40P ia interesting at $2274.95 including the
optional AG-MYA30G XLR audio adapter.).


I owned some of the shop manuals years ago for my own gear, and filled my
basement lab with signal generators, power supplies, 2 excellent scopes, and
a lot of other tools and parts. When it really came down to fixing my own
video products, it eventually became obvious that I lacked both the
expertise and special tools / fixtures to do most of the really useful
service. I did head replacements on a few VTRs (including some half inch
consumer black and white units I bought in the 1960s) but most of the time
the repair wound up costing more than if I had just sent it out to Sony or
whomever and let them fix it. I am also finding now that the combination of
my declining eye sight and the shrinking of printed circuit cards and
components makes it entirely worthless for me to attack these type of
repairs in the majority of cases. I still very much enjoy the "Theory of
Operation" and such narratives to learn how and why the circuit designs were
chosen, and the older Service Manuals used to provide these. I still have
several of my earlier Heathkit, ham radio, audio, and other manuals around
here from things I built in the last 50 years as nostalgia pieces.

I fully understand what you're saying about reading the Theory of
Operation. Unfortunately, the Sony service manuals don't cover such
territory. It would be nice if they did.

Of all of the service manuals that I have there, the only one that
comes to mind that discusses theory, or at least includes some sort of
narrative of how it works is, believe it or not, the service manual
for the Sanyo VPC-FH1. I found that one to be interesting reading.
Take a look at it if you have the time.

The VPC-FH1, in case you're not familiar with it, is a consumer-grade
AVCHD camcorder that claims to do 1080p59.94 video - a world first,
along with the VPC-HD2000.

Despite the VB implementation and its limitations, I will cheerfully
report
that I now have a very serviceable 8 hour long video with 1 second clock
increments in a large and attractive font with nicely selectable
foreground
and background colors particularly suited for visually handicapped users.
Richard's program and a freeware screen capture program (directly to XVID
at
3.5 Mbytes/minute) did the trick. Many thanks again!!

I'm very glad to hear that, and a very big "thank you" to Richard for
sharing, but please, what program did you use to do the screen cap?

I have no immediate use for such an application, but one never knows
what the future will bring.

Did you capture at a 29.97 frame per second rate? And do you expect
any difficulty creating an eight-hour-long DVD-Video disc? The longest
that I've ever done is two hours and I often try to keep it to one
hour. Obviously, audio quality is your main concern in this case.

I was, indeed, a bit concerned about the 8 hour length of the DVD, and the
attendent audio issue. The source material, as it turns out, originated from
mp3s sampled at 64 kbits/sec monoraully, so I had little to work with. I
brightened the audio with a bit of equalization, and am relying on the fact
that many blind and near blind "viewers" have substantially better hearing
than normal. The audio is actually very 'listenable'.

Not to be my usual picky self or anything, but you wrote "sampled at
64 kbits/sec". 64 kbps is the data rate, not the sampling rate.

Six 2 GB DDR3 sticks totaling 12 GB. Must be ECC (else why not just
get/build a fast gamer-like desktop?), so that means slower 1066
memory rather than faster 1333 memory, or so I understand. I *hate*
taking a performance hit like that, but I think that it's the only
choice that's available if I insist upon ECC memory. I do realize that
many will argue that the difference will not be noticeable with
"real-world apps" and all that, but the thing is, I'll know.

I can see the logic of ECC given the size of the RAM, but wonder if the
trade-off is really worth-while for choosing ECC. Apple chose it in one of
the MacPros I had here not too long ago, and it certainly is a standard
feature on server-class machines of the type you are considering, but there
is a big difference in transaction processing high availability server
workloads versus video editing desktops. Perhaps the alternative might be to
get non-ECC memory but buy the memory carefully from a vendor with
exceptional heat spreaders, high chip quality, etc. Crucial (aka Micron) and
some of the triple channel Muchkin DDR3 come to mind.

I think that Apple uses 1066 MHz Registered ECC DDR 3 memory in all
current Mac Pros. They don't offer ordinary DDR 3 memory in any Mac
Pro, whether 1066 MHz or 1333 MHz, as far as I know.

Puget only offers regular 1333 MHz DDR 3 memory or 1066 MHz Registered
DDR 3 ECC memory, although I do also see regular 1600 MHz DDR 3 memory
listed on their Web site. Now that should make a difference for
someone like me who mostly edits uncompressed and therefore is moving
a lot of data.

By the way, as an old guy, I come from the days when as far as memory
is concerned, there are (were) nine bits in a byte - eight data bits
and a parity bit.

I believe that the fastest chip that Apple is currently offering in
its Mac Pro systems is a quad-core Xeon X5570 at 2.93 GHz whereas
Puget offers not only that chip but also a qual-core Xeon W5590 at
3.33 GHz. It's raw processor speed that I'm looking for so I would go
for the 3.33 MHz chip.

Audio will be either Lynx Studio Technology (probably an Aurora 8
since Apogee has given up on the Windows market) or maybe a pair of
Benchmark Media Systems A/D and D/A converters in the highly unlikely
event that I can talk myself into just two channels in and out (I've
owned a DAC1 for years now and love it) and video will be from
Blackmagic Design (don't know which card(s) yet, but must be able to
support a variety of formats as a lot of the work that I do is with
legacy formats).


Might be worth tasking a peek at 6-core "Gulftown"or "Westmere", both (I
believe) close to being sampled now.

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=26012

(If we could only get Richard to elaborate...)

Yes, but then we'd have to shoot him.

Besides, I want a 25 GHz chip (even if it's liquid cooled), not a slow
chip with more cores.

(Frank quickly brushes aside a mental image of a drooling Mr. Smarty
about an hour after having taken one or two of his "magic pills",
desperately searching for Mrs. Smarty so that they can spend some
"quality time" together.)


I expect to need major dosage increases of "Mycoxaflopin" as time goes on
here, with an I V drip being a likely next step.......... Mrs. Smarty
thankfully finds satisfaction in gardening, crochet, and
reading..............

She's a lucky lady!

Smarty

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/
(also covers AVCHD and XDCAM EX).
.

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