Best way to archive my P2 HD footage

[Erik Freid]

Check out Cache-A https://cache-a.com/

While there is some upfront Capital cost, the LTO-5 tapes themselves are huge bang for your Terabyte (~$70 per 1.5 TB cassette, and will get cheaper fast). LTO is shelf stable for 30 years, and Cache-A has a very cool features and can sit on your network like a NAS.

Best,
Erik

Erik Freid | MediaSilo, Inc
207 South Street | Third Floor | Boston, MA 02111
t. 617.423.6200, m. 617.306.8632, f. 617.507.8577
http://www.mediaSilo.com erik@mediasilo.com

[Bob Zelin]

I too am a huge fan of the Cache-A product. It costs too much money, but is the perfect product for this application.

Bob Zelin

[Andrew Richards]

Too much? Et tu Bob?

A bare LTO-5 drive costs at least $2K, and then they wrap it in a server with their own custom web-based software for managing your tape set. And they support them. I’d say the Cache-A rigs are a steal.

I can’t remember, was everyone complaining about the cost of VTRs like this when videotape was still the only way to move video around? Even the cheap ones were many thousands of dollars, nevermind the king’s ransom for Digibeta, HDCam, DVCPRO, et. al…

Best,
Andy

[Bob Zelin]

Andrew –
do you understand that most of the people who read this forum would rather slit their wrists than spend more than $100 for anything ? People want shared storage for $1500 bucks. They want backup to happen for free. And I am not talking about kids either – I have BIG CLIENTS (major corporations) that can’t understand why they should even have to backup their data in the first place. All I want to say to them, is “are you kidding me, or are you just stupid”. $6995 and more is a LOT of money to even “rich” companies (and I mean public companies, not just “big” production companies).

Is the Cache-A worth every penny – ABSOLUTELY. But can you get most clients to spend the money for a Cache-A LTO5 – almost never.

Bob Zelin

[Andrew Richards]

Yeah, I know from your myriad rants (which I LOVE) that you feel that way. I wholeheartedly agree. I can’t for the life of me understand why a company whose entire net present value is tied to their content library wouldn’t be investing like crazy in protecting those assets. It takes losing a lot of valuable data to convince most of them.

Nah, let’s blow another half million bucks on “consultants” to figure out what the company’s “brand lens” is…

Best,
Andy

[Andrew Richards]

Seriously though, the problem is you either have an IT guy tasked with this who is completely ignorant of the data demands of post production or you have a producer-turned-manager who is completely ignorant of the technology drawing up inadequate budgets and making foolish decisions about storage infrastructure, which you have rightly dubbed the core of post in the 21st century.

Best,
Andy

[Dave Klee]

We backup our raw tapeless media (P2 and SXS) onto a shared Fibre Channel RAID from Active Storage, then back that up to Drobos. Cache-A is a great way to go if you’re willing to spend the money, but a DroboPro with 16TB can be got for under $2,500. It’s hard to beat that with something that gives e-mail notifications and allows drive swapping with drive failure protection.

https://www.drobo.com/products/drobopro/index.php

Just don’t try to edit from the things — they’re slow. And, be aware that they’re “special,” meaning that if it blows up on you, the only place that can really help you recover the data is Drobo.

Good luck!

[Eric Hansen]

a Drobo may work as Nearline backup, but i would NEVER archive to it. if you’re using hard drives as your archive medium, then you need to assume that they will fail after 2-5 years and will need to be replaced. you should also be spinning them up every 6 months or so to make sure they still work. realistically, no one ever spends the time to do this. when i explain these things to clients, they start to get more receptive to other options like LTO.

yes the Cache-A is expensive, but damn is it simple. hey, you shoot DVCPRO HD on P2 cards. when we used Varicams with DVCPRO tapes, we had to buy a 1400 deck from Panasonic to play them back. that’s about $20k for the deck. i’ve paid $65k and $100k for HDCAM and HDCAM SR decks respectively. wait, the Cache-A is cheap. and you get WAY more data on an LTO tape than a DVCPRO or HDCAM tape.

skip hard drives and go with LTO.

e

Eric Hansen – http://www.erichansen.tv

[Andrew Richards]

Amen, Eric!

Best,
Andy

[Ben Watson]

Please don’t stone – I’ve been using Blu-ray burner. Cost has come down, and with 50 gb (double sided) of storage, it’s a pretty cost effective solution. I’m not archiving for decades, just a year or two at most, so it works pretty well for us. Most of my projects will fit on a couple discs or even one depending on the amount of shooting…