thelittlebuddha Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 hello, I was wondering if anybody could give me some advice. I'm organising a buddhist event on march 14th and I'm looking for some advice on vision mixers, either buying secondhand or renting. we will be running a laptop(powerpoint), live feed and playing video from a domestic VHS PAL player, projecting on to a screen. I want to be able to mix or fade between the three. what type of vision mixer do I need, where is the most cost effective place to rent or where could I buy one secondhand, budget is about 300gbp thank you in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanG Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 What type of video is coming from your live feed and laptop? I guess the laptop is SVGA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 I would again recommend the Panasonic AVE55 or MX20 - Both are no longer available but you might be very lucky and find one second hand in your budget - you would probably have no problem hiring one from your local conference or AV suppliers. (you didn't fill in you location field so I don't know where you are and hence who to recommend!) This has been discussed fairly recently in this thread and you might find some more interesting information here. Good luck James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 Moderation: Moved to Sound & AV Mixing between the two video sources should be fairly easy - there's loads of products out there, - everyone seems to use the Panasonic ones as they're good and not overpriced. The MX50 is a great bit of kit, but for mixing between two sources simply the MX20 is much cheaper, and may well be available secondhand. For some reason, I can never seem to find a secondhand MX50 for a sensible price. I guess people just hang on to them. However, I'm afraid that mixing from a PC source to a video source isn't as easy as it sounds. You could do one of two things (to my knowledge...maybe there's another cunning way too). You could get one of those laptops that has a composite video output. They seem to always look pretty crap though - particularly on text. However, it's much cheaper than the other option, which is to get a piece of kit called a scan converter which is designed to do these things. As I recall, they're pretty pricey bits of kit. Your third option - and to be honest the one I'd recommend - is to accept that you'll get a wipe into or out of the powerpoint section, and just mix the video sources. Most local AV companies will probably be able to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelittlebuddha Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 hi thanks for the replies. I'm based in central london and the event is at the BAC Town Hall. the live feed is coming from a mini dv cam and the only thing that is coming out of the laptop is powerpoint. the laptop is brand new and the output is vga (I think). thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 The bit of kit you need is a Analog Way Smartfade ( or something similar - there are several other manufacturers products). This will allow you to fade between PC and video sources. You can normally hire one for about £200 p/d from any AV hire company. Its not a mix and it does fade to black first but it looks perfectly acceptable in most situations. If you want to be able to vision mix the sources then you would be paying around £400 p/d for either AW Graphic Switcher II, Extron 408 or Folsom Screenpro. If its just for a weekend, you'll probably be able to it on a one day rate. Let me know if you need more info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 hi thanks for the replies. I'm based in central london and the event is at the BAC Town Hall. the live feed is coming from a mini dv cam and the only thing that is coming out of the laptop is powerpoint. the laptop is brand new and the output is vga (I think). thanksIf the laptop is brand new then does it have an s/video or composite output as well as the svga one? James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelittlebuddha Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 thanks for all the advice hi james it has a monitor output (VGA?) and a red yellow and green , output, they are like jack plug sockets. sorry to be vague, not very technically minded thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 What model is the laptop them ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelittlebuddha Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 its a sony vaio fr215s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinw Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 This has had some good reviews and isn't very expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 Have a look at this Should allow you to get a composite output from your laptop that you can feed into a normal visoun mixer without playing around with scan converters etc. http://www.sonycentres.co.uk/ProductImages/ProductMainImage/002510_001.jpg James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelittlebuddha Posted February 27, 2004 Author Share Posted February 27, 2004 thanks for all the advice - will buy that cable thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitlane Posted February 27, 2004 Share Posted February 27, 2004 There is usually at least one Panasonic Vision Mixer for sale on ebay at any one time, often and AVE55. They sometimes go for a reasonable price within your budget but I guess it depends on who is bidding. The Averkey100 scan convertor which you can get from Maplin is pretty good and less than £100. However, if your Powerpoint presentation is text heavy then make sure you preview it on a TV before the big day. However good your VGA to video conversion is, you lose a lot of detail and text that looks great on your computer monitor can be illegible once converted to video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelittlebuddha Posted February 28, 2004 Author Share Posted February 28, 2004 thank you so much for your advice and help, I'm monitoring ebay at the moment. many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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