benefit of spark

[jimstamos]

im told you can use the hdmi out of your video card to an hd monitor for playback. what is the advantage of going with hd spark instead for the same purpose

[mike0130]

On videocard HDMI out you will see all your desktop, in case you are working in your Edius- you will have bin window, timeline etc.
From Spark- you will see the video you are working on. Also the colore palette will be correct from Spark HDMI out. I use to have a standard TV set for SD editing that connected to my NX Express card, not to videocard output and when I am doing some color correction I can see exactly the picture and colors my customer will see.

[Jerry]

JIm,
It is a line-scaled output in the yuv format. A signal from a video card, in some cases is pretty good, it is still not line scaled and in yuv, it is still RGB as your computer monitor is.
With Edius 6, you will be able to use that HDMI out to, in most cases, the second monitor and get a output of the program monitor overlay, but still in
RGB.

[jimstamos]

wheres a good price for the spark and E5. best ive found is 699.00 for BH
and if im using spark card, how would i bring in footage if its from hi8/dv/vhs for dvd transfers

[Jerry]

Jim,
If you have Digital 8, DV or HDV, you just use the firewire input on your motherboard. If you do not have one on your motherboard, just pick up a firewire card for $30 bucks, or less, and your ready to roll.

Here is a link for a much cheaper price. I purchased my NX from them with no hassles. This is just the card (non pro card) and no software is included.
http://www.sharbor.com/products/GRVN5010019.html

[jimstamos]

theyre actually more jerry. 814.00 for E5 and spark, bh is 699.00
the 319.00 at safeharbor was just the board

[Jerry]

I said that is was just hardware .
You have E5 already, correct?
What is b&h for hardware only option?

[Khoi Pham]

So from the other thread, NX is at the end of the line, is Spark the closest to replace? I don't need 10bit, it will be a while for me to move up to that level or until 10 bit camera a cheap enough for me, I just need HDMI out to monitor and color correct, audio monitor, I read on the comparison chart, Spark doesn't have HQ hardware encoder, would that be faster than if I have a fast computer if I need to render to HQ?

[GrassValley_BH]

The hardware HQ encoder is used for capture, and since HDSpark doesn't offer capture, it doesn't have one. Editing performance-wise it doesn't make a difference.

[Khoi Pham]

Ok thanks, 1 more question, since Spark doesn't use hardware encoder to HQ, most of my stuff now is from CF card but once in a while I still need capturing from HDV to HQ, if I do using firewire card, are most cpu fast enough to transcode to HQ? I have a dual quad zeon 2.66.

[GrassValley_BH]

That should be more than adequate CPU-wise.

[Khoi Pham]

That is great, a cheap upgrade from NX, I just lose the analogue stuff which I never use anymore. (-:
Thanks for answering.