lumenlab 'Q' computer

[vj_jasper]

lumenlab make a computer that features two special video data busses especially for lossless and completely compressionless capture of HD footage..

supposedly, HD footage needs to go through compression even for it to travel through a DVI or HDMI format connection. is this true?

lumenlab claim to be the only option to capture truly lossless HD footage to computer..

"low quality converters can't muddy the picture, and every single one of the Q's™ 2,073,600 pixels is perfect. Only the Q™ can make this claim; Picture Perfection™. "

"Unlike DVI and HDMI, the Q's™ embedded computing platform utilizes dual onboard digital video data buses (2xLVDS), eliminating the need to convert HD pixel data to another format for transmission"

what i would like to know is.. where does the video camera connect to the Q Computer?

also, if the footage has been recorded either to tape or to chip, it has been encoded already.

the only way to avoid this afaik, is put an HDMI capture card on the computer, and then connect that to the HDMI-out of a camera.. on-set.. and just stream raw high definition footage directly across to the computer, where it is captured in uncompressed format.

the HD camera becomes an 'imagin system', where the image enters the lens, is read by the sensor chip, and then is sent through the HDMI output, and i thought there was no compression inherent in this technique..

here is a link to the lumenlab

[vj_jasper]

looks like Lumenlabs have managed to TradeMark a letter. noway. how could they do that? shouldn't be allowed imo.

how about other products like the amazing yellow waldorf "Q" synth, surely they have a right to promotional utilisation of 'Q', too.

[deepvisual]

it probably uses HD-SDI or component.

[sleepytom]

no it's just like an imac - computer built into monitor..

they are totaly wrong BTW - the site is a load of hype - "Only the Q™ can make this claim; Picture Perfection™" yeah of course Picture Perfection™ is a trademark so it can only be used by lumenlab. the LVDS video connector is what you have in a laptop.

[vj_jasper]

well, in contrast, a form of seemingly lossless video recording does seem to be available for $200 via the Intensity PCI Express HDMI capture card.

says somewhere that a raid system is required due to the huge amount of data that is transferred.. maybe something like 35 gigs per hour or more? .. anyway, i was wondering if a firewire 800 external hardrive connection might be sufficient.

have not confirmed if the PCI Express ports on the new MBP's are compatible with the Intensity connection. if so, that's a pretty portable high resolution capture system.

camera on tripod, with monitor, MPB, external hard disk all attached. Camera points at subject.. image flows through from sensor to HDMI input.. no compression. set FCP to capture without compression. get ready for impeccable quality (much better than from tape).

if HDMI leads go up to 15 metres in length, that would add convenience, to leave MBP and hard disk on a table, and be connected by the lead.

it seemed at one point that HDMI was truly raw data, but now it appears that yes, there is a slight amount of compression, just not as much as HDV, and certainly no long GOP.. every frame is a frame, individually described, so that would help FCP deal with the footage.

[many2]

there shall be no compression whatsoever induced by the DVI interface. Here is what is written on wikipedia :

No compression is used and there is no support for only transmitting changed parts of the image. This means that the whole frame is constantly re-transmitted

from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi

What is true though is that DRM has been added to DVI and that for it to work, the data must be encrypted. HDMI is the trojan horse the industry has devised to bring a new generation of DRM into your living room (or studio) - they have taken the good old plain DVI and added the HDCP copy protection (and fair use prevention) scheme. Basically HDMI is DVI + Audio + HDCP DRM.

for more info :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDCP

Important note : encryption does not mean compression - the signal keeps all the original information but you need a special key to be able to read it.

[vj_jasper]

so, its a good thing eh? hdmi is just encryption, not compression, so its cool, the entire image is transmitted .. which is fantastic, because by the way, the HV20's sensor is true 1920.

during the part where the light data is transferred to tape, that is where the loss is. the video image is actually changed to something like 1440 during the encode and transmission as HDV, to be re-stretched back on the computer to 1920.

so, by bypassing the record-to-tape process, HDMI really is DVI with audio, is that correct, with a bit of industry security options within the encoding.. something like that? if so, its pretty good news. i wonder how magnificently the HV20's 1920 sensor is going to convey direct-to-computer?

some people are already bringing their PC's into the film set area, to connect their HV20's HDMI output to the Intensity HDMI capture card, recording straight to hard disk.. compressionless. almost like the video industry's answer to digital photography's 'raw' compressionless format.

[vjpixylight]

the thing about capturing HDMI to computer is that you need raided HDD's to get all that uncompressed goodness.
...so I went about building a way to get a SFF computer(with the HDMI Intensity card), a 5 bay external eSata raid system, and a motorized cart(which carries the computer/Raid box/an invertor and deep cycle batteries) for on location shoots with a Sony HDV HC7 HDMI feed cam. It works great, but is alot of extra gear to haul around for uncompressed video shoots..

[vj_jasper]

Pix, you did it! possibly the first VJ to be capturing uncompressed using the Intensity card... nice one.

how much better does the footage look?

[sleepytom]

not a relevent question IMHO - how much worse does the footage look than if you had spent all the money on an EX1?

the point that i keep trying to make about these very cheap camcorders is that they have rubbish lenes coupled with tiny sensors - the combination of these things makes them incapable of capturing high quality professional images regardless of bypassing the HDV compression. An awfal lot of people seem to be going down the route of HDMI capture without realising that they have an inherently limmited camera to start with. This used to be unavoidable (unless you were super rich) before the launch of the EX1 - but now for roughly the same amount of cash that you'd spend on a HV20 + decent computer + raid storage you can get a really good camcorder with 1/2" sensors and a dual mode lens to allow you to transition to shooting video properly.