After spending some hard earned cash building a good upscale chain (based on Chris Konopka’s old LZX FB group posts, which I think looks great) : I am wondering if anyone has done A/B testing of upscaled captures from different SD mixers (V4 vs V8 vs V4EX) or if it would make more sense to get a mixer that runs at HD, and use this upscale chain into the mixer, and capture with the Hyperdeck Studio Mini.
Current chain Vidiot → Orei upscaler to HD, Decimator for from HD to HD (just for frame correction) and into the Hyperdeck Mini.
Basically trying to weigh the cost benefit of a V4 in the chain, upscaled, vs the $500 more for a HD video mixer. My camera is HDMI / mini SDI out also, so for rescanning and feedback I would like to operate at HD regardless.
Anyways, if anyone has spent any time A/Bing upscaled SD mixer vs HD mixer running upscalers into it, please let me know.
I am leaning towards a v-440 or Panasonic MX 100 and not V4, but curious to hear others input.
I am a giant proponent of the V4 mixer (as many on here are) ! While I have not run SD->UP->HD MIXER
I do run a similar LZX Visionary Encoder->V4->UP(BM Analog to SDI into Decimator)->ATOMOS HD CAPTURE and feel very happy with the results. I haven’t noticed any drop off going into the V4 if that is what you are specifically asking. I also think the V4 is the best live performance SD mixer ever made, it is a video art tool all by itself and is essential for live visuals with an LZX/Feedback setup. I struggle to think that you wouldn’t find a use for it even if you use it in a different part of the chain than what you lay out above.
Included are a couple shots with the workflow I described above:
Yes, these captures look great (and are around what I would expect / have gotten from my upscale chain). I guess I am looking for a hard a/b of captures from upscaled SD mixer VS upscaled chain running into an HD mixer. I am positive they will look different, and of course ‘better’ is subjective, but if anyone has some hard tests, please feel free to chime in.
Sorry man, maybe I misread your question but when you say curious to hear others input about a specific item I figured you wanted feedback on said item.
Thanks John, appreciate your share of info, regardless. I would certainly grab a V4 if I found one for the right price. And, this hobby is not for the light of wallet, hence the ask on specifics.
@7pip : appreciate the perspective, to be honest it is very far from my own “artist and not the tools” approach, coming to this as an extension of graphic design and music, and not from video art. I don’t mean to belittle anyones value of the ‘diligent research’ you describe. Thanks for the input on the gear. I have unfortunately already spent the money on an upscale chain and recorder, hence me asking the questions before making more purchases.
I will be happy to report back to my own thread with some caps once I borrow some gear to A/B myself.
Thank you, this is -precisely- what I am looking for (and it will affect my decision on what I focus my next bit of energy towards in terms of the spend).
48h video is a great resource btw, I appreciate the effort and share.
Hello, I’m also looking for opinions on the V4EX for a mixer? I currently use v4 SVideo Out into OREI XD-940 for upscaling but as noted in the first post I have options to integrate more direct HD sources and want to.
I’ve been very happy with the V4EX upscale. I feel like there might be something technically better if you got down the the fine details of testing and reviewing it’s upscaling, but not by a significant enough amount for me to try another workflow or care. The HDMI does add some microseconds of lag, so if it’s an audio reactive in person gig, V4 and other analog mixers are superior in that respect.
Hello fellow v-4ex user!. I love mine and it’s the last point in my system before its HDMI out feeds into screens. However, I’m wondering how to migrate into a higher resolution world. What are you using for upscaling?
A question for the forum - are there HD mixers that have similar functionality to the v-4ex and can upscale SD input to HD? The features I really want to duplicate are the onboard effects, =>4 input channels, and built in screen that shows each input (although I could live with an outboard screen that does the same job).
I’ve looked at some ex-church V-40HDs, but they don’t seem to have the v-4ex’s onboard effects.
I’ve got a v4 that’s got a mirror mode, so I suspect it\s common on other roland/edirol video mixers… check manuals for specs - I’d expect at least some of the panasonic ones also have mirror mode…
The HDMI does add some microseconds of lag, so if it’s an audio reactive in person gig, V4 and other analog mixers are superior in that respect.