Edius 4.5x and Rex Board

[Case]

Does anybody use Edius 4.5x in a system with the RexRT board? Or if nobody but me still has one of these venarable systems still in use, does anybody know if they work together?

I know that Rex has not been officially supported from Edius' beginnings. However, we've not had any problems up through Edius 4.13.

Thanks.

[Fred Dwyer]

Rex does not work under 4.51c or 4.52. I tried. It is my understanding though, that it worked with 4.x releases earlier than 4.5. So out with Rex and in with an ACEDVio board. It works well. The only shortcomming is that the NTSC video display runs about 1 second behind your timeline. You get used to it and for really time critical functions (like cutting on the fly) you rely on the overlay.

[Case]

Thanks for the quick reply, Fred. That's what I'd heard from a friend and producer down in Charlottesville VA. However, when I did a search for "Rex" on the forums (tried other key words too), nothing came up.

Too bad. I guess it's about time. That Rex board has been in service since 1999. I added RT when it first came out a year or so later. We have only one Rex, and the board's been reinstalled a couple of times in upgraded PC's since we got it. I'll bet at least $500K of work has flowed through it. It doesn't owe me anything, and it's probably time to retire it.

Think I'll get it bronzed and mounted for hanging on the wall like retail people do with their first dollar bill from their business :-) Digital video changed our lives, and the Rex was at the forefront of the revolution for our little studio.

[STORMDAVE]

http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1948

[GrassValley_MD]

I have three Rex Boards here sitting on a shelf... I can't bring myself to throw them out! :)

[STORMDAVE]

I have three Rex Boards here sitting on a shelf... I can't bring myself to throw them out! :)

Cremate them.


:P

[Jeff Chandler]

I have three Rex Boards here sitting on a shelf... I can't bring myself to throw them out! :)

I see I'm not the only packrat!
I think it says a lot about the quality of Canopus' products that if someone is doing SD, and is willing to use the product in the systems and configurations that they still work in, that these cards (including the plain old Raptor) are still chugging along. I wonder how many old cards of the competitors are still being used? That said, how many people would expect a company to bring their ten year old analog TV up to HD with a digital tuner? The answer would be none, so to some degree Grass Valley has worked that miracle by bringing the Storm along for the ride this long. That's why they keep us coming back.

[3chip]

Edius-Rex

I believe it would have made good sense to accomodate the DV Rex in Ediou 4.xx versions and there would not have been a lot of programming required to do so. Even though the Rex editing system may not fit the bill for more sophisticated editing the breakout box was and remains a great tool, probably the best multipurpose card ever produced, as many are attesting to on these forums. It should have been made usable on Edius 4.5x. But I really believe it was a marketing thing with GV selling the AVDC cards etc.

[Case]

The only piece of hardware that Canopus made that I didn't think was worth a tinkers hoot was the Storm breakout box that fitted into a 5 1/4" bay on a PC. It was flimsy beyond all belief. The two I have began to go south almost immediately after installation. The jacks became loose, and soon began to feel like they were going to fall completely out. I repaired them internally with blobs of epoxy putty. They're solid as rocks now, but no thanks to Canopus.

Interestingly, the Storm breakout box's predessor, the Rex breakout box (with not single, but dual digital and analog inputs and outputs) has held up physically and electronically for eight years, and seems as solid now as it was when I first got it.

I never did quite understand how such a Rolls Royce design in Rex turned into a Yugo in Storm. hehe.

Otherwise, every piece of Canopus hardware I ever owned worked flawlessly.

[johannesj]

I still like my rex and it is still running just fine with Edius 4,24.
But why do they still use 4 pin firewire ?
Why not use 6 pin firewire ? it is much more solid connector, stonger and no worry of losing connection if you tuch the caple working on feeld.
I would like to see 6 pin firewire on my SP.

[antonsvideo]

often the smaller solution wins

the JVC 7pin S-VIDEO connector with lock ring that prevented the cable from being pulled out by accident lost the battle to the Sony 4pin flimsy connector that requires a person to hold it in place while capturing

[GrassValley_KH]

The cable being pulled out issue is actually one reason where 4-pin has the advantage - accidents can and do happen and the 4-pin is more likely to disconnect without pull a computer/camera down with it when someone trips.

I think I'd rather pay to have a 4-pin port repaired, than pay for a new computer/camera.

As it is, the reason for the 4-pin sockets is that our boards are first and foremost DV devices, and in turn, use Sony's i.LINK controller circuitry. This is only available in a 4-pin flavour. (Brandon might have correct/elaborate on this)

With that said, you'll notice that our NX Express daughterboard now sports a 6-pin FireWire port, as does FireCoder. (These are our most recent internal hardware boards for FireWire-based ingest)

[GrassValley_BH]

Well, i.LINK is Sony's fancy name for FireWire, and they just kind of throw it around (for example, the PlayStation 2 had a port labeled "i.LINK" but it didn't do anything DV). The same 4 lines are on the 4-pin connector as the 6-pin connector, with the latter having the extra 2 lines for power (which sometimes isn't connected).

The two main reasons for using 4-pin were:

• It was a recognized connection ("Oh, my camera has that connector!")
• It's smaller, and easier to implement

I too prefer the 6-pin connector over the 4-pin, but most of my devices have 4-pin connectors (camera, laptop, etc).

[Case]

It would seem to me that both the 4-pin and 6-pin connectors have their place.

The 4-pin connector is small and ideally suited where space is at a premium. A good example is the typical DV camera. I've never had a problem with pull-out, and I use them all the time with the portable Sony HDR-60 HDD's we use with our Sony V1u cameras.The cameras have 4-pin connectors, while the HDD's have 6-pin. Go figure. Same manufacturer, different connectors.

I had never had a 4-pin connector get damaged until recently. The 4-pin connector on an old GL-1 camera that I had been using with my Cinemate20 8mm movie transfer system went bad (bent internal contacts). I was forced to retire the camera from that application, but the people I donated it to are happy as larks doing analog capture. So that venerable old GL-1 lives on without firewire.

I'd much prefer 6-pin connectors on my computer. All my desktop systems use the 6-pin. Same with the typical peripherals that connected by 1394, firewire, iLink, or whatever you want to call it. The 6-pin is substantially heavier in construction. It is much easier to plug into. And it also provides power to the peripheral if via the two additional lines when needed.

I can understand 4-pin connectors on laptops, but I'd prefer to see 6-pin. I've seen both on laptops.

In my opinion, Canopus could have and should have provided 6-pin connectors in their breakout boxes, and in the back panel. Perhaps the reason they didn't is because their implementation of theie capture port was not 1394 compliant. Thus, they avoided some of the confusion that might have resulted if they'd used the bigger connector.