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Pro Tools HD1 or 2.  You get killer plugins....  but you may also want to invest in the Waves Gold Bundle (About $1200)

You might even be able to do it with a Digi 003.

Otherwise, look to MOTU.  Digital Performer is renowned for it's surround capabilities (and bundled plugins!) and excellent hardware (the HD192 system) www.motu.com

Also- better customer service and ... well, not pro tools.  I mean, Pro Tools is great, BUT......  anyone who works on it on a daily basis knows what I'm talking about.

You might want a Kona card for working with the HD video.
http://www.aja.com/html/products_macintosh.html

I have a setup consisting of a MOTU 828 MkII FireWire box which hooks up to 5 M-Audio BX5a monitors and a BX10s sub for surround mixing. Logic Audio runs the surround mixing environment. The M-Audio FireWire 410 provides an adequate number of outputs for surround mixing at a cheaper price. With DVD Studio Pro/Compressor, I can do Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes for DVDs.

That's kind of a bare-bones system that works in a pinch, and is relatively affordable. It is by no means a Dolby certified system, and I don't have the capability to do DTS encoding, but it gets the job done.

One comment about the suggestion to get Waves Gold. While it's a good set of plug-ins for Pro Tools, they are stereo plug-ins. The Waves 360° Surround Tools is probably a more appropriate bundle for surround mixing.

How much storage are we talking for Uncompressed HD with a finished product being 2.5-3hrs in length?

I have been looking at the IoHD but I am not 100% certain what it does lol. Is it used to capture the video or clean it up or to preserve the quality through out the editing process.

I have done  limited editing on barebones systems up until now so a lot of the the extra hardware is new to me.

Last edited by RBP2005 (2007-06-04 12:01 pm)

Digital Droo wrote:

That's kind of a bare-bones system that works in a pinch, and is relatively affordable. It is by no means a Dolby certified system, and I don't have the capability to do DTS encoding, but it gets the job done

Eh, you don't need "Certified" hardware by any stretch. 

I use my Revo's analog outs for mastering 5.1 when needed with Cubase 3. (I need to buy the upgrade) which connects to my Denon receiver and the floor standing speakers and what have you. I just apply the same mixing philosophy for stereo to 5.1 aside from the obvious pans, effects and what have yous.


Also notably, I wouldn't waste my money on Protools for movie audio mastering, if you're gonna get the real deal, get Nnuendo, but then again, I'm a steinberg guy myself.

RBP2005 wrote:

If I do not have a "certified system" then am I still eligable to license the Dolby logo and trailers for my films once they are finished and ready for sale?

If the content is good, who the smurf cares if it has a dolby logo or not.

-mark

avkills wrote:

RBP2005 wrote:

If I do not have a "certified system" then am I still eligable to license the Dolby logo and trailers for my films once they are finished and ready for sale?

If the content is good, who the smurf cares if it has a dolby logo or not.

-mark

I agree with that statement to a point.... when your fighting against a million other titles for the customers eye...box art is the main thing...and if they pick up mine and the other guys and I have the dolby logo where my competition does not then that gives me an edge. Especially in my chosen genre..where small companies have a huge stigma for poor quality when compaired to the large scale companies... I am coming out of the gate swinging shooting in full 1080p natively and running Dolby 5.1/7.1 & DTS-HD on top of killer content and special features. So every little branding logo helps that cause.

Larry down the street won't really care...but Bob with the 60 inch plasma and killer surround sound system sure will be more likely to give it a second look if not for the specs alone