Maybe we could make this forum Chrome Xe hardware specific since all of the other forums would apply to regular editing.  The specifics of Chrome Xe would be to the hardware anyway (ie connections and their associated codec captures)

 thoughts?

I'm intrested S throw your best out here .one thing we have been stuck on in old forum was how to do everything for nothing.maybe we should have best plug in to liquid for the money thread ,only thing shorter to my time is others .I'm sure several here are same way. with you telling us real story of what hardwear works with chrome xe and what doesent  would save me and many others time and $$

How about educating us on what Chrome Xe is? What exactly are the I/O capabilities and how do you make use of them in a professional workflow?

Thanks

For the most part I think thats all this section is going to be used for.  There really isn't that much of a difference between the products.  Even subjects such as uncompressed HD editing could apply to normal Liquid as long as somebody has a way to get the material into their system.

Steve,

Chrome XE allows Liquid to use the Aja Xena LHE board so you can capture uncompressed HD into your system.  It has component and HD-SDI inputs.  The board can also input SD via the component and SDI connections.

The second part to the board and the thing I mostly use it for is for live HD output of your Liquid timeline.  This works pretty much exactly the same as the BOB except you are getting HD output instead of just SD output.  So if you really must have the ability to view real HD on a HDTV or record HD via SDI to a deck such as HDCAM then the XE is the way to go.

So really it is a HD version of the BOB.

Thanks for the explanation, Thomas.

I suspect the Aja Xena LHE board is pricey (ouch! $1800 at BH) - is there an upgrade option for Liquid 7 owners to move to Chrome Xe? Could we just buy the Aja board and use it with Liquid (I suspect I know the answer )?

Cheers

While the software is essentially the same, the Chrome Xe version has extensions to work with the Xena card. Chrome is also protected by a dongle. There is an upgrade path from Liquid and Liquid Pro to Chrome. See here. While upgrading to the software is relatively inexpensive you still need to buy the Xena card and you really need to be on a certified system (HP XW8400 or similar) for assurance that everything will work correctly. If you need the capabilities described below, it is a very good way to go, especially if you are already comfortable in Liquid.

If I understand the price, Lew, it looks like it costs about $600 for owners of Liquid 7 to get those Xe extensions and then another $1800 for the Aja card (at B&H).

I wonder why the 'extensions' are so pricey? More than the cost of a standard Liquid license. Oh well, I guess they figure that if you can afford cameras with SDI HD and all the other periphs then what's another $600 for the license? Actually, I agree

Thanks

I know this only helps a little bit but at Safe Harbor you can get the Xena Board for around $1,500.00.  At least it saves you $300.00.

Lew is correct in the fact that only the HP 8200 and 8400 work stations are supported to work with Chrome XE.  That doesn't mean other systems wouldn't work just that you use any other system at your own risk.  You almost have to use a work station class system anyway because the card needs a PCI Express X4 slot which almost all consumer boards do not have.  There are one or two consumer boards out there that do have a single PCI Express x4 slot but then you have no high bandwidth connection for uncompressed storage.  A great work station will have either multiple x4 slots or PCI X 100 or 133 slots that can be used for high bandwidth storage.  If your aim is to only edit HDV and XDCAM HD material then perhaps you could get away with one of these cheaper systems but still you would be using it at your own risk.

The Gigabyte 965-DQ6 have this slot, should it work?

Expansion Slots

2 PCI Express X16 slot(x16, x4) 3 PCI Express X1 slots 2 PCI slots

 

 

All SLI/Cross-fire boards would have at least 2 X16 slots. Couldn't you use one for the card and use e-SATA for RAID?

Perhaps they could work but nobody wants to buy a system that a $2000.00 hardware and software package will have problems with.  Maybe some of those boards will work but the problem is that nobody knows for sure.  If you do try one you do it at your own risk and cannot complain to Pinnacle that it doesn't work.  It sure would suck to buy a $1,000.00 cheap system for XE only to find out it will not work at all and you will have to go out and buy a HP anyway.  Most people who want this level of eiditng would rather buy what is going to work for them and be done with it.

If you really are thinking about a XE system but are on a budget you should think about getting an older refurbished 8200 from HP.  This system works and you can get the barebones system pretty cheap compared to a decked out 8400.  Of course it will not have the same level of RT performance but it will work well and would be a stepping stone to move up to XE.

During testing it was stated at one point that a HP 4400 may work but it was not supported for uncompressed HD due to the limitations of PCI express slots.  As far as I know nobody ever really used one so I don't know if it will work or not.

XE is not an option for me. Was just offering a possible solution for anyone that wants to try.