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Philip Perkins

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Everything posted by Philip Perkins

  1. The local CompUSA people told me at their final sale that the whole chain was being rolled up, so that info was certainly out there. Re my earlier comment on tires, I am pretty sure that the big box stores have special models made for them to hit certain price points etc and that in some cases only they have that model of whatever it is. That is one way they leverage their huge sales==they can get goods pretty tailored to their needs. Philip Perkins
  2. Cool. I wish it had XLRs inputs and not DB25--just another adapter to go bad. Also, no AES i/o (one pair for the mix etc.). Also, no ADAT i/o: this means to add a 2nd unit you'd be forced to aggregate unless it has some way of sensing another unit on the FW bus. I wonder why FW400? Philip Perkins
  3. Well, just so you LA guys don't feel too lonely--I was by the main grip/electric house in the SF area a few days ago.....an awful lot of trucks just sitting on their lot..... I think we have one pilot ("Parenthood") for a little while longer (which I'm not on) and a very few spots (got a couple of those). The local stuff has gone way dinky or gone away. Tmw I'm doing some audio only interviews for podcasts for a non-profit, and glad to have that. Crew--I'm glad to see you working because I know that as far as commercials go, when you are way slow it means that it's really dead for the rest of us! Philip Perkins
  4. One last thought, although I think you know this already: this is a HARD job! Teaching is really hard work! It's a lot different from being a one-class guest speaker, there are a lot of skills involved that don't have much to do w/ prod. sound but everything to do with education and getting students involved. Teaching is a separate skill on its own, and great teachers are able to successfully teach subjects that they might not know a lot about at first, while a person who is very knowledgable in their own field can sometimes get tied up in that knowledge when trying to explain basic concepts. Those who can do both are very valuable to our society indeed. Good luck to you and good on you for giving this a shot. Philip Perkins (son of two teachers)
  5. Sounds interesting. If you develop something please let us know. Philip Perkins
  6. Are you sure your cables are good (use yr headphones to see if you hear TC on the line)? Are you sure you have the SD machine setup for the right TC? Is there a menu item on the camera to turn the TC output on or off, and to output the "stopped" TC continuously when the camera is not rolling? Does the TC from the output read on any other gear (slate, reader etc)? Philip Perkins
  7. I asked Hyperdrive about the recharge specs--they sent this: It is fast charge followed by trickle charge. HyperMac 60Wh takes 2.5 hours to full charge HyperMac 100Wh takes 4.17 hours to full charge HyperMac 150Wh takes 2.5 hours to full charge HyperMac 222Wh takes 3.7 hours to full charge Pretty good, would work overnight between days. Philip Perkins
  8. I like the stamp thing. Where do you get shopping bag ink? An office supply store? I'm a little leery of doing anything to a disk before I record it, but it seems to be working for you. Philip Perkins
  9. Cool. I couldn't find a spec on how long the batteries took to recharge, though. Philip Perkins
  10. I thought that part of the deal with those low-cost big-box retailers was that some of their suppliers often made products specially for them--with the brand name but at a lower cost and quality. I know the name-brand tires I got at Costco did not last as long as the same brand tires for a similar price that I got at a tire shop, but the exact model I got at Costco was only avail from them. Or is this an urban myth? Philip Perkins
  11. DO NOT USE STICKY LABELS ON DVD-RAMS, or any DVD that you expect to be read by a Fostex machine or an Aaton InDaw (those two cover almost all film telecine situations today). My luck with labelled DVDs in that equipment is exactly zero--they never worked. I write with a marker on the DVD and include a report in a box that has an info sheet on the cover. DVD-Rs that are destined to be read by computers can be labelled--I've done hundreds and hundreds of those (Avery) w/o any problem at all. One of those special DVD/CD markers is a good idea but I never seem to have one when I need it and have used regular Sharpies w/o problems so far. Philip Perkins
  12. Thanks. I guess you get the 33 in. height because of the storage compartments--it's a bit low for a "built" cart (a Magliner unfolded is roughly 41" tall). The power outlets are sexy. Do post pix of the pimped cart. Are we talking Chindha style pimping or "pimp my ride" kinds of things? (I guess with a sound cart it would be "Pimp My Push".) The HHR width is good--as wide as my Caravan. Philip Perkins
  13. That's not true of the gas powered versions is it? Philip Perkins
  14. Some HHR measurements would be great, thanks. Philip Perkins
  15. Vin! Save some for me! Philip Perkins
  16. They seem very interesting, and if I thought I could buy new and had something to tide me over I might wait to see how they are. The mileage isn't great, but they are more like the little vans I used to see in Europe but that weren't avail here. It will be interesting to see if they succeed in the US. I wonder why they didn't make the USA model diesel? Philip Perkins
  17. Thanks, it is exactly what I've been looking for. Philip Perkins
  18. Way cool. What keyboard is that? I assume you still need the CL1 to use it w/ the SD recorder? Philip Perkins
  19. Yeah, the beauty of the Comteks is that although they are very mid-fi the reception is pretty solid, and dropouts bother client types more than low-fidelity it seems. Philip Perkins
  20. I had and needed an E150 back when I did mostly bigger jobs and movies--drove it for 12 yrs. It actually required a fair amount of service, and the mileage was terrible. It was nice having that much space, but the parking thing in urban areas has become a major deal--very few garages will take an Econoline type van now and smaller jobs may not do posted parking. The height of the floor and the complications of getting a sound cart into the E150 was one of the reasons I sold it--a low floor seems like a good idea now. Now I want something small and more car-like nowadays, esp since I don't seem to need as much gear for what I do now. Philip Perkins
  21. No snickering here--I'm the one doing the dinky gigs these days. I think my Caravan days are over--my very simple 4 cyl '90 CV ran and ran until it stopped running on the way to a job last week. I haven't liked what I've heard about the more recent models, no disrespect meant to present Caravan drivers. You cats doing movies etc need tons of room for lots of gear, I need lots of mobility for a lot less stuff these days (and I need it cheap). Philip Perkins
  22. Several Eurovan fans around here, although the parts are pretty expensive. Amazing amount of usable room inside, I work with a DIT who regularly gets 3 camera shoots w/ all support, cables, terminal gear, his cart, a magliner, monitors etc etc in one. If someone could take some measurements of the inside of an HHR with the rear seats down I'd really appreciate it. Rear door to back of driver's seat, width, height in back, size of read hatch opening. If you are using a mixer-cart, are you ramping it into the HHR? Does your cart come apart? If not, will it fit upright in the HHR or do you travel it on its back? Today I made a 4' x 4' 6" rectangle of white tape on the shop floor, and put a mic stand boomed out over it at 3' 8"--this describes the cargo area of a v1 (04-07) Scion XB with the rear seats down. I then piled in my gear for most of the jobs I do at the moment, along with a "cargo" magliner+shelf folded up. It fit very well--I was able add a lot of extras that I don't normally bring, as well as a brace of furni pads, a tall Arri stand and other stuff. Emboldened by this I put all that gear away and then "loaded up" my multitrack music package--incl. racks, cable boxes, snakes, stand case, mic cases etc. with the folded magliner. This took a little more creativity since the pieces are bigger, but it worked. I figure if I can make this work, then a modern rack-case based sound cart that comes off its wheels to travel should work too, although I haven't designed it yet. Something along the lines of what I've seen here lately (6 or 8 space?), that might sit on a normal magliner or have its own Back Stage style wheel arrangement. Encouraging, actually.... Philip Perkins
  23. Well, I'm at one of those decision points again, trying to decide whether to fix my old van or junk it and move on. My location sound work is almost all drive-to in my own vehicle, so the vehicle has a big part in the choice of gear and how it is set up to work. The timing of this kind of sucks re money, so I'm looking at used and wondering what I really need anymore. Two cheap possibilities are a pickup truck w/ a shell (safer re getting killed by your gear in an accident, but not great mileage, not ultra secure and then there's the "reaching in" thing) or a Scion XB (good car, but I don't know if I can get everything in even stacked up). I've had a van my whole adult life, but the recent vans that I can afford are hated by Consumers and don't thrill me at all. If I were 45 again I'd buy a Sprinter and make the payments, but I'm well past 45 and looking to avoid payments if I can. There is the possibility of putting a new engine in my old van as well. The two vehicles mentioned above would necessitate a total re-build of the "Carte d'Amore", my Magliner-based beast will not fit at all; but I was thinking of doing that anyhow. Suggestions? Hey Mike Westgate--from your site you seem to be getting along with what looks like a small station wagon and a Thule-pod on the roof. How is that working out? Philip Perkins
  24. I love digital. So you know--the YOUSENDIT download is generally MUCH faster than the upload on most DSL setups. I feel your pain--I actually love everything about digital EXCEPT the disk burning thing, and that's enough to drive me nuts. I avoid disks whenever I can now--offload to a production computer, to a portable HD, but for film telecine DVDs still seem unavoidable. It would be very cool if we could dump to CF cards--faster, smaller, more reliable than DVDs; but around here the DVDRAM thing still takes lots of phone calls and hand-holding (telecine house suggested to the producer that we record to DAT. I suggested they jump in the lake.) Philip Perkins
  25. If you go for the older 72MHz band ("letter band") Comteks used you can use their BST75 base station TX with them--same range as the more expensive BST25/50 but much less money. I jump back and forth between the "pocket" TX (for bag) and the BST75 for larger setups--the BST 75 has been great (and will cover all the letter bands). Philip Perkins
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