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Macbook used for monitoring EX1?


Brad Grimmett

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"hey, do you know if its possible to use a macbook pro laptop as a monitor via cable to a digital camera - sony pmw-ex1?"

 

A director friend of mine asked me this, and I don't know the answer. Can this be done, and if so, how?

Thanks.

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Remember though, you won't be monitoring the full HQ signal, it'll be HDV. 25Mbit 1440*1080.

 

One thing I plan to try in the future is a new HD-SDI express card adapter recently released.

 

http://www.imperx.com/frame-grabbers/hd-sdi-express

 

With a decent laptop which has a quality screen, some realtime software waveform, scope, parade, etc, you'd have a handy tool. A portable production monitor that records and manipulates.

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OK, pretend I'm a complete moron (which I may or may not be) and just answer the question....please. She doesn't need scopes or to record to the hard drive, or anything fancy whatsoever. She's working at comic-con and my assumption is they will have a camera set up on sticks and they want to monitor it with the Macbook. To re-iterate, they want to use the computer as a monitor and nothing else. Is that possible without being an electronic/hardware/software/video expert? She is not.

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Well, any capture application - just pop up the capture window and fullscreen it!

 

You will probably find that it's pretty laggy, though. It's often an intrinsic characteristic of HDV firewire outputs.

 

P

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Remember though, you won't be monitoring the full HQ signal, it'll be HDV. 25Mbit 1440*1080.

 

One thing I plan to try in the future is a new HD-SDI express card adapter recently released.

 

http://www.imperx.com/frame-grabbers/hd-sdi-express

 

With a decent laptop which has a quality screen, some realtime software waveform, scope, parade, etc, you'd have a handy tool. A portable production monitor that records and manipulates.

 

 

This is great and this looks like your solution Brad. I have a Sony EX-1 and have often wished I could use my Mac Book Pro to monitor it since I have it out there in the field with me anyway to do all the archiving from SxS cards to HD's. Instead I always end up having to rent a 17" monitor. This HD-SDI express card looks like it might be the answer.

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This is great and this looks like your solution Brad. I have a Sony EX-1 and have often wished I could use my Mac Book Pro to monitor it since I have it out there in the field with me anyway to do all the archiving from SxS cards to HD's. Instead I always end up having to rent a 17" monitor. This HD-SDI express card looks like it might be the answer.

Alas, I don't think so. As far as I can tell, it has no Mac OS X support, only Windoze. Pity, really.

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Yeah, finally got around to checking out the specs ( and the price, almost $1000) and was very disappointed. I sent an email to imperx and am waiting to hear back, really quite unbelievable that they would not support mac os. This is exactly the product I've been looking for...

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Here was the response I got from the guys at Imperx.

 

Imperx is not supporting MAC OS, but we have every intention of doing so in the future. Norpix software solutions is offering a support for Windows OS on MACBOOK Pro with their proprietary software. Please contact Luc at Norpix, ln@norpix.com, and he can give you details. If you are satisfied with his solution, he can sell you the card and his solution.

 

Best Regards,

 

Nathan

 

Nathan Cohen

Imperx, Inc.

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To re-iterate, they want to use the computer as a monitor and nothing else. Is that possible without being an electronic/hardware/software/video expert? She is not.

 

I don't know, but I know who does:

 

http://www.melrosemac.com/

 

Since you're local, just walk in the door with your gear, and they'll get you hooked up with whatever it takes to do what you want.

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

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