The last product offered by Serious Magic is DV Rack. I would stick this one in the ‘utility’ category. Their claim is that, “DV Rack is the first product that can prevent video disasters, help you shoot faster and let you get visibly better quality from your existing camera.” Too bold a claim? Perhaps.

Here’s what DV Rack offers: Digital Recorder to record video directly from the camera - using a firewire interface I assume. A wizard style calibration kit - it walks you through calibrating your camera using the provided calibration cards. A Video Monitor that displays whatever the camera is shooting/playing - complete with area indicators and aspect ratio masks. Image Capture to grab stills from the video feed. Video and Audio ’scopes’ and ‘analyzers’ - those things that make funny lines and tell you if things are too loud or soft, high or low, white or gray. And last, but certainly not least, you’re own personal quality control monitor - it processes the feed and warns of any potential audio or video problems.

My take - a lot of the functionality can be done either with the programs you already have of can find for free. Example: my video editing program will capture video on the fly - really any capture program will. DV Rack tries to manage the clips - but then again, so does my editing program. My editing program also has a ‘Video Monitor’ that shows the current feed. So, DV Rack looks pretty nice, but you could probably get away with some low-cost or free utilities that meet your specific needs. I would be interested in some feedback on the ‘Automated Quality Monitor’ in DV Rack - anyone used it?