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Jon Hines replied on January 15, 2009 21:26 to the question "Commercial Insertion" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Right now we record the shows as one whole segment. 30 min. show with show segements and commercials for one total runtime. Will using more than one reel in each show tie up more than one playback deck? Say I have a show with 3 segements and minute commercial breaks in between each segment....so 5 reels total (1,3,5 = show content and 2,4 = min. long commercials). Can these 5 play back-to-back-to-back..etc. on just one SX playback? Issue being we control 4 separate TV channels from one SX 4 server. Thanks for your help.

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on January 15, 2009 21:21:

MPEG-2 to Final Cut

I sometimes pull video that we record into the SX4 server and use it in Final Cut. The only problem is there seems to be some "delayed" effect with the video. It seems to be a compression type issue. I do take the MPEG-2 file from the SX4 and convert it to a dv file then use it in final cut (needs rendering once in there). Any suggestions? Does anyone else try taking video from their SX4 server and edit with it in Final Cut...tips you have? Thanks.

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on January 15, 2009 21:17:

Commercial Insertion

Some of the programs that we record into the cablecast system we would like to replay back in the future with different commercials inserted (clients want updated spots for replays that are 6 months from original play date). Any suggestions or is this something TRMS is looking to work with in the future?

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on December 03, 2008 17:29:

Plays but doesn't switch.

I have had a few instances where cablecast will start playing a program on a SXplayer but then not switch over to the designated channel. Any ideas what might be causing this or what I should be watching for? Normally I can just go into the auto pilot matrix and switch over...obviously not ideal if it's outside of regular work hours or a weekend.

Jon Hines replied on November 21, 2008 17:25 to the question "Encoder 1 & 2 recording at different qualities." in Tightrope Media Systems:

PERFECT!

Just what we were looking for. Thanks for the help.

Any suggestions on what setting we should set our encoders for live basketball games?

A comment on the question "Encoder 1 & 2 recording at different qualities." in Tightrope Media Systems:

John,

You are right the lower configuration was started by the Configuration app in the system tray. We tried to encode (by going to the force matrix menu) and going to the drop down on SX encoder 1 & 2 then hitting record "dev only". The first one starts out alright, but the second one comes up with an error creating output file (check your port/setting). I assume this is because they are both trying to create a file names ".mpg" on the same hard drive. Best way around this? Can we name the files before force recording? Can we send each SX to a separate hard drive?

Thanks. – Jon Hines, on November 21, 2008 15:06

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on November 19, 2008 18:03:

DVD Import Error

Some of the DVDs we try to import using Cablecasts program come up with and "Error: Data Error (cyclic reduncancy check)"

Any ideas what the problem might be?

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on November 14, 2008 18:12:

Encoder 1 & 2 recording at different qualities.

I have both SX Encoder 1 and SX Encoder 2 set to "MPEG2 IBP 4:2:0 @ 15mb/s" but when we recorded a show from an SVHS deck at the exact same time with the same length, the file for SX1 was 5 GB (and better quality) while the file for SX2 was 1 GB (and poor quality). Why is this? Is there some way to change this?

Jon Hines replied on October 31, 2008 15:54 to the question "mpeg2 in and out points" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Will the whole show play all on one SX player? Or will that 30 min. show us up multiple players as it cues up each reel? That might be an issue for us as we have 4 channels to control and if there is programming on the other three (so SX players 1-3 are used) then we only have SX player 4 for this multi-reel show.

Jon Hines replied on October 31, 2008 14:49 to the question "DVD Import" in Tightrope Media Systems:

We had an error on one of our computers. "Error: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)"

Any ideas what this might be?

Jon Hines replied on October 31, 2008 05:05 to the question "mpeg2 in and out points" in Tightrope Media Systems:

The other idea we had was to cut each segment and make it a reel in a show. So there would be essentially three reels (or segments) for one show. Does that make sense? Is that logical? Sales reps have asked us about take one show and inserting different commercials when it is replayed at different times. Any suggestions or comments from a Tightrope stand point? Would this be an easy solution? I'm just thinking taking a program and putting it into Final Cut and then sending it back would be a lot of extra rendering, etc.

Jon Hines replied on October 30, 2008 20:23 to the question "mpeg2 in and out points" in Tightrope Media Systems:

John,

Is there a way to put all the clips together? I have programs that we record from our studio. In the past when we went to break and rotated sets we would assemble edit back into segment two, etc. So now when we record the file in Cablecast we want to take out those black segments. Unfortunately Mpeg2Cut is great for clipping beginning and end, but I didn't see anyway to cut out the middle segments. Any suggestions?

Jon

Jon Hines replied on October 29, 2008 21:01 to the question "DVD Import" in Tightrope Media Systems:

How many computers can we install the program on?

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on October 29, 2008 14:58:

DVD Import

I have been reading a bit on hear about a Cablecast DVD Import. Where can I get this? Is this putting DVD's into a computer with a DVD player or do I need to hook a DVD player up to my routing system that can go into my Cablecast server?

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on October 22, 2008 17:14:

DVD Import & MPEG2 Clipping

We are getting the kinks worked out of setting up our SX4 Cablecast server. But there are a few things I would like to try to make it even easier on us. I have read of some programs like a DVD Import for the cablecast. How does this work and where can we get it?

Also, I have seen people talk about clipping and editing MPEG files. This would be very useful when we record programs from our studio. We used to record on SVHS and then stop it for commercial breaks and set up the set for the next guest on the show and then assemble edit for segment two, etc. If we could just clip and edit these parts out that would be helpful. Any suggestions?

Jon Hines replied on October 06, 2008 19:22 to the question "Not enough playback devices" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Makes sense.

One thing to throw out there. Three of the output channels are playing the exact same file. Shouldn't I be able to just route one playback device to all three output channels?

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on October 06, 2008 18:49:

Not enough playback devices

We have an SX4 with 4 playback devices from the cablecast server. Sometimes when we schedule shows it tells us that it can not find a playback device available for a certain file. We only run 4 output channels from our cablecast so we should be covered by the 4 SX playback devices correct? What are some reasons this might be popping up?

Jon Hines replied on October 01, 2008 17:12 to the question "Digitizing files on Cablecast" in Tightrope Media Systems:

I went ahead and changed the record quality from "MPEG2 IBP 4:2:0 4 mb/sec" to "MPEG2 IBP 4:2:0 12 mb/sec" and there was a noticable difference. Much better. Still a little bit so I plan on trying it at "MPEG2 IBP 4:2:0 15 mb/sec" to see if that will help even more.

Another problem I am running into now is bigger file sizes. The issue I am having though is that I use QuickTime to look at the files to determine the cue time and total running time. QuickTime can not handle the bigger files. It pauses the files (although when I play them back they do not pause). Am I able to download an updated version of QuickTime or will that effect the server? Maybe you have a different media player suggestion...

Jon Hines asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on September 30, 2008 19:16:

Digitizing files on Cablecast

I have a file that is having bad digitizing when played back on Cablecast. It is a college football game so all the movement really makes for a lot of "box" digitizing effect. Any ideas what might be causing this?

The file was recorded using the "record" schedule. I routed a digital cable box to record this live event into the Cablecast encoder. Could that be the issue? Would I need an analog cable feed instead of a digital cable feed?

Jon Hines replied on September 25, 2008 21:02 to the question "Linking File to Show" in Tightrope Media Systems:

I tried ripping a DVD and making the file associate with the show I created in Cablecast. The show ID was "44" so I named the file "44 - Army Newswatch". When I schedule it to play it will recognize the file "44 - Army Newswatch" but keeps it as "Stopped".



It never changes from this. If I try forcing it to play with the actions options on the left it gives me an error at the top.



I tried going to the actual Cablecast machine and playing the file out with the SX Configuration tool in the lower right corner of the screen. It just plays black, but other files play out.

The file is an MPEG Movie with codecs: MPEG1 Muxed with 640X480 dimensions.

Any ideas what might be wrong?