What is better for a Filmmusic-Composer, an Aurora Card

[Harry]

In Os 9 i used the Aurora Fuse for working on the soundtracks in DP 3.
Now I'm working with DP 4.5 on OS X 10.36 and want to buy a G5.
What's better for working on Soundtracks in DP , an upgrade to the "Aurora Igniter X- Lite" card
This link:
http://www.auroravideosys.com/products/ignFam_igniterxlite.php

or should I buy an external firewire device f.e.
Director's "Take Two"
Can be seen on this link:
http://www.miglia.com/products/video/director2/index.html

[vincenzo]

I prefer Igniter much better and stable than Take Two.

I used Igniter RT for soundtrack work. It is good enough. Even it can use under OSX. but not G5 (cos of the card different voltage)

Depends on your studio setup.

<small>[ December 21, 2004, 04:43 AM: Message edited by: vincenzo ]</small>

[dfc]

Firewire devices are handy, but there are a couple of distinct advantage of the PCI MJPEG cards like the Aurora in so far as using it for post production for audio with your DAW:

1) variable data rates.
DV is a set rate of 3.5 megs a sec. You can't change it, or make it any smaller. It's convenient in the sense that you can use your original source footage to work with at full res. But, the aurora offers you the flexibility to use different/smaller, etc..data rates.

2) firewire buffer delay and scrubbing:
DV has an inherent delay going out via firewire. If you are using the DV footage just inside your computer for onscreen viewing, it's not a problem, it works like any other QT movie. But, if you are using or want to use an external monitor/TV , this delay has to be compensated for. Most DAWs today provide means to do that. It's a set it and forget it sort of thing (an offset). But, the inherent problem has been that when "scrubbing" it is not very accurate sometimes. The MJPEG aurora does not suffer this problem. There is no offset, no delay and scrubbing is smooth..when using the SVHS or comp out to a TV/Monitor for viewing.

INside your DAW, (without using external monitoring), both would be just like any other QT movie. The advantage there for the Aurora being, (1) you can change the data rate and resolution you capture to make smaller files to work with; whereas DV is always full res/set data rate.

Just to be clear, in this way, inside the box (ie..viewintg DV movies as QT inside your DAW)...there is no delay or problem with scrubbing. It's only when you route the signal "out" via firewire to simultaneously view it on TV/Monitor that you would experience these issues of having to offset that and scrubbing issues.

The advantage of working with full res is obvious...it looks great. You'd have to use data rates much higher in the Aurora to get the same quality as DV. (ie..about 6 megs a sec aurora, vs 3.5 megs a sec DV at 720x480). With DV you capture "once" and use the same source file for post. With Aurora, you could capture a much smaller version for post, then re-capture full res for final output...(ie..the flexibility). So, a lot of this depends on how you want to work, what kind of source files/tapes you'll be given, and whether you want to work with full res or full screen playback (ie..montioring on external TV /monitor while editing).

Hope that helps.

[ErockZ]

Dude, that was awesome, thanks it did help!

Keep Rockin'

Erock