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CalDigit S2VR Duo eSATA
We have a workflow that we really like for our SD editing. Each producer in the shop has his own G-RAID that serves as personal media storage. We have multiple editing systems, so the only thing the producer has to do to change systems is carry his G-RAID to another system, hook it up, and he’s soon editing away.
When we go HD, we want to keep a similar workflow. We want to go XDCAM, which means a 35 Mb/s data rate for one stream. The newer XDCAM cameras will record at 50 Mb/s. That’s too fast for two streams of video on a Firewire 800 drive.
We like the looks of the CalDigit S2VR Duo eSata….good price, small physical size, and easy connectivity. But is it fast enough? In the real world, what kind of sustained data rates is this drive capable of? Will it provide at least two streams of real time 50 Mb/s XDCAM?
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11 Replies
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50 Mb/second is about 6MB a second. A regular ole fw400 drive can do that.
Jeremy
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[JeremyG] “50 Mb/second is about 6MB a second.”
It should be 50MB/s. The Duo can easily do that.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[Tim Allison] “We like the looks of the CalDigit S2VR Duo eSata….good price, small physical size, and easy connectivity. But is it fast enough? In the real world, what kind of sustained data rates is this drive capable of? Will it provide at least two streams of real time 50 Mb/s XDCAM?”
If you truly mean 50MB/s (as in megabytes per second), no it won’t do that, you’ll need a faster drive. I think the Duo tops out around 60 or 65MB/s.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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No, it’s 50 Megabits a second, not MegaBYTES. 50 megabits is about 6 MBs.
When will computer language go beyond binary?
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[JeremyG] “No, it’s 50 Megabits a second, not MegaBYTES. 50 megabits is about 6 MBs.
When will computer language go beyond binary?”
No, what I’m saying is that the Duo’s can easily run 50 – 65 MB/s. If you’re saying the HD format in question is 6MB/s, then sorry about that, I’m talking about the hard drive. 🙂
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[walter biscardi] “I’m talking about the hard drive. :-)”
Gotcha, I was talking about the original poster asking if his drive can handle 50Mb/sec XD Cam footage, and my point was that he didn’t have to buy anything as his current FW800 array will do just fine with 6MB/sec (50 Mb/sec). Whew, time to go outside and get my nose out of the editing machine for a while. 😉
Jeremy
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[walter biscardi] “what I’m saying is that the Duo’s can easily run 50 – 65 MB/s.”
Incorrect. At 90% full my Duo is running 102 MB/s. Empty it gets 148MB/s.
The duo will easily handle two streams of 50Mb/s XDCAM…and it is 50Mb/s. Because DVCPRO HD is 100Mb/s. So yes, XDCAM at 50Mb/s translates to 6MB/s (DVCPRO HD at 720p60 is 12MB/s).
The Duo can easily handle this footage. I am using it now for DVCPRO HD and it works great.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Ok this thread has finally cleared up some long time confusion in my head. I think I get it now. I could never work out how I was hearing 2 vastly different numbers when talking about speeds for various formats and drives.
It just never really made sense to me. But I’ll read this thread a few more times to get it in head!
But the long and short MB/s is different to Mb/s. I get it finally!!!!
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MB = megabytes Mb = Megabits. The easy way to rememeber is that bytes are bigger than bits so they get a bigger b.
or use this:
https://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/
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Hey guys…
Let me jump in here. We’ve been using the XDCAM format for the past two years and I have seen it all with the format.
From my personal experience, I can capture to a G-RAID 500 drive using FW800 and it works absolutely beautiful. But I will say that SATA is absolutely the way to go. My mantra has always been, buy the best you can possibly afford. And in today’s market, SATA drives are equal in price to FW drives.
Now, in terms of workflow… the new FCS2 will make this format absolutely awesome to work with. If you are still using FCS1, and you plan to mix this footage with any other format, then you’d better capture everything to the same codec like DVCProHD. This is what we do at the moment. We have a mixture of HDV and XDCAM HD, which mixes together very well.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
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