Scopebox 3.0

Hey Guys,

Has anyone tried the new Scopebox 3.0 for only USD$99 on the Resolve? I'm really curious about how it is... Just wondering if its worth purchasing and if it would preserve CPU performance as opposed to the internal Resolve scopes.

Any thoughts?

Regards

Alex.

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8-core, OSX 10.7.3, 16GB
RAID5 4TB,
Radeon HD 5770, Quadro 4000
DeckLink HD Extreme 3D
JVC DT-V24G1
Resolve 8.1.1 + Wave

I've been using it in the beta period. Don't remember how long, almost 6 months or so. I've tracked down bugs and reported them. In my case, it's a rock solid and customizable set of scopes. In a box.

I'm not sure you fully understand how it works. You cannot (haven't tested, nor do I want to really due to possible performance issues) or should not use it on the same computer as Resolve.


ScopeBox requires some CPU power and some OpenGL power driven by the GPU.
The way you bring the scopes to life is to input any firewire, webcam, analog or digital video signal, and tell ScopeBox where the signal comes from, what framerate and whether it's YUV or RGB.


In my case I have a Mac Pro with 1st generation Decklink HD Extreme. I connect SDI from MP with Resolve > video monitor > MP with Decklink and ScopeBox.


I'm thinking of getting a Mac Mini and UltraStudio, and make the Mac Pro a bit more useful. Like a FTP/fileserver or something.

As far as I know, you cannot use FireWire devices directly with Resolve. You must have a Decklink card or UltraStudio unit to output either composite, component or SDI, which the second computer can input and feed ScopeBox.


So, if you have a Mac Pro with Decklink, you would most probably want to output SDI to the video monitor. And on the MacBook you'd want UltraStudio so you can input SDI from the monitor (if it has loop through).

No, I thought the 1st gen. Decklink HD Extreme wouldn't have any of it. The option (among 25p) is greyed out.

How does scopebox compare to ultrascopes?

Hey Robert,

Just wanted to correct your last post a bit. Just because ScopeBox has done DV/HDV support better than other tools never meant it was our primary focus. From the beginning we've supported all the major 3rd party capture devices. In 3.0 we've only increased our focus on third party cards. Blackmagic support is now handled natively -- we support their devices through their custom SDK, not quicktime (this is only an option on intel machines, and on PPC we will fall back to quicktime for BMD support).

Also in 3.0 we are supporting RGB and YUV 10bit natively and frame sizes to 4k and beyond. We may be cheaper than other options, but I assure you we are not focused down market.

If anyone is having problems scoping a signal they are able to capture with their card, most likely it is a configuration issue. Please contact our support at support@divergentmedia.com for help working through any issues.

mike
--
Mike Woodworth
CEO and Lead Developer

divergent media, inc.
email : mike@divergentmedia.com
web : http://www.divergentmedia.com

Hi Mike,

I'm playing around with the trial and am very impressed. At that price point it's hard not to pick it up.

It's a great interface. And am able to get 444 2k in which is awesome. One problem I'm having is trying to record anything other than the native codec, using prores 4:4:4:4 to record RGB sources give me pretty much garbage. If I record BMD RBG 10bit codec it works fine.

The record function isn't critical... as we could use MediaExpress, just strange that the scopes look right but record is screwy. Otherwise great product. Really impressive.

-Juan

Sent. Thanks for the quick reply Mike.

WOW

I just downloaded the Scopebox 3 demo and it is fantastic!! Great update to a great scope that I use every day already!!

-Rob-

Robert Houllahan
Director / Colorist
Cinelab Inc.
http://www.cinelab.com

MAHC-PRO 6-Core 3X GTX285 20Tb SAS Wave Panel Panny 11UK SDI Plasma.

We actually don't use the GPU for much math, only for compositing the window and doing styling on the traces and such. The speed is possible because of a custom video pipeline we wrote called AKE - the Adaptive Kernel Engine. It's kind of like OpenCl/ CUDA but it runs on the CPU.

What this means is that any modern GPU will be fine for ScopeBox, including any shipping laptop. That said, if you are doing big enough frame sizes/ enough palettes/ 10bit sources etc, it's possible you'll stress a laptop enough to kick the fans on. Where that threshold is will depend on all of the above variables. All I can say from our testing in house is that the bigger laptops (15-17in) seem to run much cooler under load (and spin up the fans less often) than the small macbook airs.

A great option for cheap configs which will run quietly are the mac minis with a thunderbolt device. We've tested all the shipping minis with the BMD UltraStudio3D, and they ran great.

mike
--
Mike Woodworth
CEO and Lead Developer
divergent media, inc.
email : mike@divergentmedia.com
web : http://www.divergentmedia.com

We did a day of testing at Apple's test facility recently, and all the minis were good and responsive. The only slow down we know of with the intel integrated GPUs is with our focus assist overlay on previews. My guess is that won't be too sorely missed in the DI.

mike
--
Mike Woodworth
CEO and Lead Developer
divergent media, inc.
email : mike@divergentmedia.com
web : http://www.divergentmedia.com

I am just thinking of an idea. About looping the HDSDI cables out of the DI system, first they go to scopes, than they go to LUB box, than displays... OK if you have a display with built in option of importing a calibration LUT than it is irrelevant, but would sometime in future Scopebox be able to process also LUTs? So you could measure the image without LUT, just pure signal, than apply the LUT only on output that goes out of the video card (ideally separate LUT for each signal, #1 and #2 HDSDI). Than you could get rid of LUT box and get one loop HDSDI less? Whoul it make the difference? Specially in the price LUT box (even HDlink) comparing to Scopebox?

Color grade reel: http://vimeo.com/15480583
Cofounder of http://nuframe.si postproduction

hi ,

just mike would love to see it on windows also as we have resolve on windows also.
trying it out on mac..............

prathvish hegde
colorist