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Cool, years ago I spent many months going back & forth to Weiterstadt, working on Spirit DataCines and Spirit 2K/4K machines, adding support for controlling the

Cool, years ago I spent many months going back & forth to Weiterstadt, working on Spirit DataCines and Spirit 2K/4K machines, adding support for controlling them via Baselight. There's some considerable engineering in those machines. Though you could replace almost all the boards with one or two FPGAs these days What are you using it with? BONES?

Keyframe 11y ago
When I first opened up the racks in the machine and all of those industrial electronics boards... Initially I thought I was way over my head. It took a bit of time, but now it's all clear and now I see the ingenuity of it. It's a very elegant machine and works like a charm. I had to replace a few of the things, installed new lamps, cleaned up everything and it's as good as new! I have two signals coming out. I have a HD 1080p link coming from its HD serializers (actually four outputs via two serializers) which I laid out to several inputs (Tricaster, custom built PC with 10-bit input, monitors, etc..). For when I need full 2K/10-bit, machine works at 6fps, not realtime. Currently, machine has a HIPPI output and with that I have limited options. Well, one option to be specific. An SGI machine with HIPPI card and Phantom Transfer Engine on it which then transfers DPX files to a SAN. I would like BONES, or anything else for that matter, but that would require me to get a GSN instead of HIPPI and BONES, of course. I'm still looking for options out there to see if there are any. Preferably if there's an option for PC based solution and HIPPI. If not, GSN/BONES is what I'm considering. Price of that is a bit steep though (around $30k I think), but it's still an option that is considered.
- OverlordXenu 11y ago
  Is it… just for you? Can you just digitize your own 35mm film?
  - Keyframe 11y ago
    It's not for me only, of course! It's now in a fleet of telecines.
- mrpippy 11y ago
  Yay an SGI in production! Octane?
  - Keyframe 11y ago
    Indeed, an Octane 2!
lcrs 11y ago
I was always curious how much use that Spirit support saw - it must have been a ton of work, but it seemed like it was added just at the precise moment when everyone switched from running the film in real time during a session to scanning to DPXs beforehand!
- jamesfmilne 11y ago
  We sold quite a few machines on the back of it, although those customers probably only got a couple of years use of it before their clients stopped shooting film. Then most folk in London got rid of their Spirits. Now this year half the big tent-pole movies are shooting 35mm film again!

Keyframe 11y ago

When I first opened up the racks in the machine and all of those industrial electronics boards... Initially I thought I was way over my head. It took a bit of time, but now it's all clear and now I see the ingenuity of it. It's a very elegant machine and works like a charm. I had to replace a few of the things, installed new lamps, cleaned up everything and it's as good as new! I have two signals coming out. I have a HD 1080p link coming from its HD serializers (actually four outputs via two serializers) which I laid out to several inputs (Tricaster, custom built PC with 10-bit input, monitors, etc..). For when I need full 2K/10-bit, machine works at 6fps, not realtime. Currently, machine has a HIPPI output and with that I have limited options. Well, one option to be specific. An SGI machine with HIPPI card and Phantom Transfer Engine on it which then transfers DPX files to a SAN. I would like BONES, or anything else for that matter, but that would require me to get a GSN instead of HIPPI and BONES, of course. I'm still looking for options out there to see if there are any. Preferably if there's an option for PC based solution and HIPPI. If not, GSN/BONES is what I'm considering. Price of that is a bit steep though (around $30k I think), but it's still an option that is considered.

OverlordXenu 11y ago
Is it… just for you? Can you just digitize your own 35mm film?
- Keyframe 11y ago
  It's not for me only, of course! It's now in a fleet of telecines.
mrpippy 11y ago
Yay an SGI in production! Octane?
- Keyframe 11y ago
  Indeed, an Octane 2!

lcrs 11y ago

I was always curious how much use that Spirit support saw - it must have been a ton of work, but it seemed like it was added just at the precise moment when everyone switched from running the film in real time during a session to scanning to DPXs beforehand!

jamesfmilne 11y ago
We sold quite a few machines on the back of it, although those customers probably only got a couple of years use of it before their clients stopped shooting film. Then most folk in London got rid of their Spirits. Now this year half the big tent-pole movies are shooting 35mm film again!