Anyone still using Newsbyte?

[D.St.]

A few years ago, I reviewed Newsbyte-50 for this website (in 2002 I think). As we all know, that's ancient history in terms of video editing.

My station is in its second generation of editors since the old Newsbyte was hauled into WIS in 2001. I was just curious if there's anyone out there who still has a Newsbyte in service.

Truth be told, ours is still in use! We produce the coach's TV shows for the local university, and I record the games into the Newsbyte's hard drive and print them to DVCPRO for playback so I won't have to tie up a news bay for that purpose.

And so everyone can laugh, here's the specs on the Newsbyte-50 hardware from 2001:

Pentium 3 850mhz processor
PC100 motherboard (proprietary Panasonic)
256mb RAM (later upgraded to 512, upgradable to 1.0GB ram)
40GB system drive
90GB raid array media drives (smokin' at the time)
Windows NT platform
No USB
Ethernet not installed
No IEEE1394 port

My station paid $62000 for the system when it was new. I saved it from being disassembled for parts last year so I could use it for the coach's show.

[Shootblue]

A box of XD discs has more space...heck, there is over a terrabyte in a case. Crazy.

[Lost in Alaska]

The new iPods have more space for goodness sake!

[micaelb]

I loved using the Newsbyte. Ingest 20 minutes of tape in 5 minutes? No problem.
I wonder where ours is now...or how many pieces it's in. I would like one for a conversation piece if nothing else, how big were those things?

[gipsyblues]

We just acquired the NewsBYTE25 system. We are a group of volunteer (free) community ENG team out here in Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia.

While the tech specs may not be impressive by today's standards, we find it more practical and cost effective - especially the 4X download and upload feature. We have added an 10/100 Ethernet card and installed some new codecs. We are using 30 GB drives and for what this does - it is "smoking" (lol)

At the time we acquired it - originally used by the CBC - it had less than 20 hours on the heads! We intend to upgrade the ASUS mother board - to a faster CPU and more RAM. We have access to the technical reference manuals

Contrary to what most people think, the NewsBYTE is actually more powerful and more useful than an AJ-D850!

While on this topic - we need the setup software for the edit pad controller, the AJ-A77. The software is "padsetup.exe". Any help in locating a copy will be greatly appreciated!

If anybody knows where we can pick up one of these systems - complete or partial dead or alive please let me know. We know how to get these boxes working and the group could use as many as possible

We could also use any operating or reference documentation. Please check your shelves for anything available

For those of us old enough to remember the Intel 486, there is actually more life left in NewsBYTE systems than we realise - especially for ENG and simple documentaries. At least on our LAN we are able to export the uncompressed video and audio for processing on other NLEs

ViVA NewsByte!

[bluffton]

:rolleyes:I'll check with our chief engineer, we may still have that stuff around. We got rid of our News Bites.. er, uh, ahem, Newsbyte system about a year ago.

:DI'm glad it's gone, :mad:I couldn't figure it out. ;)I'm used to Avid/FCP and similar programs.

[gipsyblues]

:rolleyes:I'll check with our chief engineer, we may still have that stuff around. We got rid of our News Bites.. er, uh, ahem, Newsbyte system about a year ago.

:DI'm glad it's gone, :mad:I couldn't figure it out. ;)I'm used to Avid/FCP and similar programs.

Thanks for your reply and comment. We will be eternally grateful for anything you could do for our group re finding NewsBYTE related stuff. I have a bunch of really enthusiastic guys in my teams and I am doing everything to keep their spirits and hopes alive.

We will of course be ready to take care of any expenses if any arises.

I am also glad to observe that the spirit of sharing in our community is still alive and kicking!

Cheers

[McFly]

We are slowly phasing out our Newsbyte. We had 5 edit bays with it, plus sports. One by one they slowly gave up the ghost. Now we only have 1 bay with it (for editing show) and the sports dept. still uses theirs, as does our one of our photogs.

[gipsyblues]

We are slowly phasing out our Newsbyte. We had 5 edit bays with it, plus sports. One by one they slowly gave up the ghost. Now we only have 1 bay with it (for editing show) and the sports dept. still uses theirs, as does our one of our photogs.

McFly, can you please confirm what has happened to all the NewsBYTE stuff that has been phased out by your station? We will love to acquire anything you guys have and don't want - we also don't mind paying for it. It does not matter whether the item is working or not. The techie guys in our group can fix them.

We have an AJ-A77 editing pad controller which is fully serviceable but we cannot use because we are missing the necessary setup program.

McFly, could please do me a big favor? We are looking for a program called padsetup.exe (this is the software used to set up the AJ-A77 editing pad controller). If your station is using a NewsBYTE with a controller, it will have the setup software on it. On some systems it is located at %ANDES%/tools. Or you can do a search for padsetup.exe.

I would love to communicate with any of your guys that use or has access to the NewsBYTE.

Please let me know what you can do for us

Cheers

[Alx]

I have e-mailed the files.

[gipsyblues]

I have e-mailed the files.

Alx went out of his way to send me all the files I needed to setup the edit controller pad plus he added some very useful training materials.

It is very refreshing to run into people who are willing and gladly share their knowledge and resources.

Thanks Alx and the b-roll.net forum!!!

[bluffton]

;)I found the operation reference manual and instructions book with a setup disk.

:oI don't know if you need them, but our engineer says he has some (hold on here's a term from a while ago) scuzy drives. He didn't mention a price.

:DIf you PM me you address, I'll drop the manuals into the mail. I figure it wouldn't hurt to have the packet.

Cheers.

Anthony Mirones

[AlexLucas]

Newsbyte?

Get behind me, Satan!

[gipsyblues]

Newsbyte?

Get behind me, Satan!

AlexLucas, if you still work with DVCPRO and you are handy at setting up simple LANS, you will have to admit that any working NewsBYTE system will be worth your while more than say a Panasonic AJ-D850.

Remember that technically the DVCPRO technology has not changed not even in the latest iterations of the VTRs - nothing out there today will download your video shoot on tape into digital format which can be exported into other NLEs if you need to quicker OR CHEAPER:cool:

VIVA NewsBYTE

[gipsyblues]

It's great to see the spirit of sharing at work here. Before joining this forum I had read few postings and was skeptical - but NOW I am a convert!!!!!!!!!