D3Cast
12-22-2006, 10:04 AM
[Paul: This may be better off in the VT - Community forum; feel free to move it. There is, at least, a question at the end. :D]
Finally a member of the VT family, so I wanted to say hello, and thanks to NewTek for holding off on VT[5] until I got here. :hey: Just spent the better part of the last week reading through all the posts in this forum (well, skimming all the titles, at least, and just reading the stuff I was interested in. And the really good flame wars where Paul had to step in), just to know where all the answers are when I need them. Even more so than the TriCaster forums, this set of forums — and the frequent contributors therein — are amazing.
My background: I have totally backed into video production, but am loving it. Started off as a college sports radio play-by-play guy, until the night the transmitter stopped working in 2000, and we scrambled to get a streaming media server up and running to make the game available. Started audio webcasting exclusively after that, until a short time thereafter, when the lightbulb went off: what if we hooked up a video camera to the PC? Et cetera, et cetera, and we were off to the races.
After a few years of struggling with entry-level equipment (titlemakers that made our output look JUST like ABC's! In the 1960s!), I finally bit the bullet last summer and went to see Blaine at Video Hardware, my first exposure to NewTek, its products or its dealers. (Good move, huh?) He hooked me up with a TriCaster, but then (of course) let me drool over his VT system, casually mentioning how great it was for instant replay and a million other things.
I've had the TriCaster for a year-and-a-half now, and still love it. Fooled around with ToasterScript (solely for positioning overlays, though), got a slick-ish scorebar with running clock working via iVGA, helped sell a couple of other TriCasters, even made some money with mine! (In addition to providing consulting, web and streaming media infrastructure, and audio/video/hardware integration (when they can't afford the TC, that is) to small colleges in the Northeast looking to get started with their own sports webcasting projects, we also are starting to do production for games and events regionally. Also been fortunate enough to be involved, along with Jef, in the NCAA's TCPro productions of D2 and D3 football/basketball/other championships.)
Finally saw an opportunity recently to get a VT[2] bundle fairly inexpensively, and jumped on it, with the hope of tinkering with it for replay purposes. (I fully expect that this will merely be the gateway to getting a full-blown, tricked-out system, but that's down the road.) I actually have it working acceptably in a machine I had (almost) just sitting around. So it's time to tinker!
Just wanted to say thank you to all of you who make these forums, and this community, so fantastic. (As I have come up to speed, I have tried to do my best over in the TriCaster forums.) Can't wait to dive into the VT world.
While I'm here, I do have a general question, though: I'm planning to mostly use the DDR/Capture module for now. Are there large differences in CPU usage between VT[2] and VT[4.6] (or 5, but I won't open that can) for the DDR/Capture module? I'm running a single P4 3.2Ghz box right now, and the CPU usage is very tolerable on VT[2]/Win2K Pro. Ignoring disk configuration for now (I realize that that's where I'll be bound, anyway), is there a big CPU usage difference in the DDR/Capture usage in VT[4.6]/WinXP Pro?
Thanks again to all. Looking forward to hanging out here. And, oh, by the way, if anyone has an old SX-8 to part with, lemme know.
Steve Clay
Bullpen Media
www.bullpenmedia.com
Finally a member of the VT family, so I wanted to say hello, and thanks to NewTek for holding off on VT[5] until I got here. :hey: Just spent the better part of the last week reading through all the posts in this forum (well, skimming all the titles, at least, and just reading the stuff I was interested in. And the really good flame wars where Paul had to step in), just to know where all the answers are when I need them. Even more so than the TriCaster forums, this set of forums — and the frequent contributors therein — are amazing.
My background: I have totally backed into video production, but am loving it. Started off as a college sports radio play-by-play guy, until the night the transmitter stopped working in 2000, and we scrambled to get a streaming media server up and running to make the game available. Started audio webcasting exclusively after that, until a short time thereafter, when the lightbulb went off: what if we hooked up a video camera to the PC? Et cetera, et cetera, and we were off to the races.
After a few years of struggling with entry-level equipment (titlemakers that made our output look JUST like ABC's! In the 1960s!), I finally bit the bullet last summer and went to see Blaine at Video Hardware, my first exposure to NewTek, its products or its dealers. (Good move, huh?) He hooked me up with a TriCaster, but then (of course) let me drool over his VT system, casually mentioning how great it was for instant replay and a million other things.
I've had the TriCaster for a year-and-a-half now, and still love it. Fooled around with ToasterScript (solely for positioning overlays, though), got a slick-ish scorebar with running clock working via iVGA, helped sell a couple of other TriCasters, even made some money with mine! (In addition to providing consulting, web and streaming media infrastructure, and audio/video/hardware integration (when they can't afford the TC, that is) to small colleges in the Northeast looking to get started with their own sports webcasting projects, we also are starting to do production for games and events regionally. Also been fortunate enough to be involved, along with Jef, in the NCAA's TCPro productions of D2 and D3 football/basketball/other championships.)
Finally saw an opportunity recently to get a VT[2] bundle fairly inexpensively, and jumped on it, with the hope of tinkering with it for replay purposes. (I fully expect that this will merely be the gateway to getting a full-blown, tricked-out system, but that's down the road.) I actually have it working acceptably in a machine I had (almost) just sitting around. So it's time to tinker!
Just wanted to say thank you to all of you who make these forums, and this community, so fantastic. (As I have come up to speed, I have tried to do my best over in the TriCaster forums.) Can't wait to dive into the VT world.
While I'm here, I do have a general question, though: I'm planning to mostly use the DDR/Capture module for now. Are there large differences in CPU usage between VT[2] and VT[4.6] (or 5, but I won't open that can) for the DDR/Capture module? I'm running a single P4 3.2Ghz box right now, and the CPU usage is very tolerable on VT[2]/Win2K Pro. Ignoring disk configuration for now (I realize that that's where I'll be bound, anyway), is there a big CPU usage difference in the DDR/Capture usage in VT[4.6]/WinXP Pro?
Thanks again to all. Looking forward to hanging out here. And, oh, by the way, if anyone has an old SX-8 to part with, lemme know.
Steve Clay
Bullpen Media
www.bullpenmedia.com