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1080i/60 capture rates
I normally shoot and edit in the field at 480/60i, or it’s equivalent in PAL. I’ve just begun shooting for a client that expects me to shoot in 1080i/60, then edit and FTP the story to Europe.
We witnessed what I felt were unworkable transfer times last night. I’ve just done some tests, using the 1TB LaCie rugged drive (FW800, 20% full, powered by USB bus on MBP) from last night’s story. I then re-ran the test, using a GRAID 4TB drive (65% full), and I got the same transfer time, to the nearest second.
Details : 3 min 42 second test clip (talking head, 2 audio channels captured)
Capture time : 7 mins 38 seconds! (both RAID drive and rugged drive)Associated gear in this assemblage :
MacBook Pro8,3, 16GB RAM, drive about 40% full. No other applications open during speed test, permissions repair just done, trash empty, machine restarted prior, and not allowed to go to sleep during xfer.
Camera : HPX-500, 6 pin firewire adapted to 8 pin Belkin Express Card. Drive in each case connected (one at a time) via FW800 port on MacBook Pro.
Question : Is there some major bottleneck that I need to be dealing with, or perhaps some settings that I need to examine? The A/V settings in FCP7 should I think be optimal – using DVCPRO HD 1080i60 in each drop down menu. I cannot think of what to look at next. Surely the slowest times that could reasonably be expected are equivalent real times?
Update : the transfer rates with HPG-20 are just under 4.5 times faster, via USB 2.0. The HPG-20 also allows for trouble-free scrubbing through loaded but not ingested clips within the FCP7 Log and Transfer window. For now, one more piece of gear that must be carried, while working in HD formats.
Grant.
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5 Replies
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Are you talking about off-loading cards onto the computer?
Are you shooting to P2?Chris
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Chris, the shoot is taking place on the HPX-500 (P2) and then transferred to a 1TB drive, using Log and Transfer in FCP7. The drive is connected via FW800.
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Use a USB card reader to off load the cards onto the comp.
Chris
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After you have offloaded the P2 cards to (2) external drives, you then Log and Transfer from one of your hard drives.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group -
Thanks Steve. I will try running some tests on this procedure today. If I understand, your recommended workflow would be to :
1. Use Finder to clone each card (‘NO NAME’) to an external drive (LaCie rugged, connected to MacBook Pro, in this case), and then
2. Open FCP7’s Log and Transfer to accomplish conversion to .movI notice that most of the recommended (and ideal) workflows described on the forums have to be adapted to the realities of fast package editing in the field. There is no time available, or need, to do backups – the goal here is to quickly turn a package of less than 2 mins final length out of up to 60 mins (say) source material, and then it’s out the door. Speed and simplicity are the keys here. (the P2 cards just sit with camera originals, to be scrubbed on another day – so there’s my fail-safe).
Once the edited package has hit the client’s server, it’s straight onto the next story. Rarely if ever have I been asked for any of the additional footage after the story is done.
On the importing from P2 cards to hard drive – I wonder if a good hybrid strategy here is to do just THIS transfer onto the MB Pro’s internal hard drive – probably the fastest available bus – then during Log and Transfer, move the transcoded (re-wrapped files) out to an external drive, a safe location for the process- intensive editing that takes place.
If any of this has ever been evaluated, I have not seen it. The problem I may run into is that this additional step (initial cloning of the cards) will itself take too much time.
Grant.
Grant Peacock
Grant Peacock Images
Washington DC
http://www.gpi.tv
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