Turnkey Editing Computer Review: DPS Velocity D3D-4500XI-36

Larry Lemm
July 2000

A complete antithesis of the Sony VAIO PictureBook (which we also review in this issue) is the DPS Velocity V3D-4500DXI-36 editing workstation: a heavyweight in more ways than one. This turnkey editing workstation by DPS, is physically heavy. Weighing in at over 45 pounds without a monitor. It promises to provide real-time 3D transitions, a wide variety of professional-level input and output options, as well as full control of your video. This system is not for the faint of heart. Because of its features (and its price tag), DPS has clearly targeted the professional video editor. Let's take a closer look to see what makes this system run.

The Velocity workstation uses the DPS Reality Studio Disk Recorder as its capture card. This capture card allows you to work with uncompressed video. Added onto this is the V3DX real-time 3D effects card and the SDI/IEEE 1394 digital input card that allows you to capture video from a Mini DV camcorder or even from a professional-level DV cam or deck using the Serial Digital Interface.

To run it all, DPS started with a Pentium III 500MHz on a dual-chip board (you can add a second chip later if you wish). Then there is 256MB of RAM and a very hot multiple-monitor 32MB Appian Jeronimo video card. This card is built on a Permedia 2 chipset and has OpenGL drivers just in case you plan to use this workstation for 3D animations.

The Velocity uses LVD (Low Voltage Differential) SCSI drives. These drives allow you to attach up to 16 SCSI devices and transfer data at a rate of up to 80MB/second. The Velocity has a pair of SCSI drives in the tower; a 9GB system disk and a 9GB disk for audio capture. Then there is a Rorke Data external RAID tower. This tower houses two 18GB 10,000rpm Seagate Cheetah drives, giving you 36GB of video capture room. Yes, the system has separate drives for audio and video files. That is because in DPS's proprietary file format, the audio and video are stored as separate files on separate drives. This isn't uncommon. A similar method is used by Media 100 and Avid systems.

Putting this system together takes a little more effort than the typical consumer editing system. First, the Cheetah drives come packaged, in foam, separately from the RAID case. It was easy to install them in the RAID system, but you do have to crack the Rorke's case, which houses the RAID array, to get your system going. Then, you need to stop, gather your thoughts and attach the cables from the back of the Velocity's case to the breakout. Nothing too difficult, but you will need to refer to the instruction manual to sort out all of the cables and connections. Fortunately, the editing software comes pre-installed. After installing the hard drives and getting the breakout box wired up, you're ready to capture some video. The entire setup process took us nearly an hour.

You're going to have a hard time finding an audio/visual source that won't hook into the Velocity's breakout box. This thing has the works. On the analog video side, it's got S-video, composite video (BNC) and component video in/out. For digital video, you can use either the consumer 6-pin IEEE 1394 FireWire (a 4-pin to 6-pin adapter cable is included for use with your Mini DV camcorder) or the professional SDI.

The options for audio are just as comprehensive. You can use unbalanced stereo audio with locking XLR inputs or good old analog RCA audio. On the digital audio side, there is a balanced AES/EBU XLR connector and an unbalanced AES/EBU connector. There is also a consumer S/PDIF digital audio jack like the ones you'd find on a DAT deck.

Rounding out the breakout box are connections for VITC time code and an RS-422 jack for controlling decks. When DPS puts together a breakout box, they pull all the stops. The breakout box can be mounted into a rack if you wish.

To use this impressive array of capture options, you enter the Reality program. This capture utility features full waveform and vectorscope options, and you can use controls to alter your footage as you capture it. You can capture clips manually one at a time or log clips to batch capture.

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