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Editing with ProRes on RAID 1 drive
If I am working with ProRes 422 (not HQ) media on a CalDigit VR drive striped RAID 1 connected to a new iMac via FW800, am I going to encounter serious glitches/technical headaches? I know from reading the forums that RAID 1 is not recommended for video editing due to the fact that one is halving the drives’ potential transfer speeds by writing information to 2 drives simultaneously, but after consulting tables on another site, I am wondering if, given the above configuration, I could get away with RAID 1 editing?
And, if the above answer is “Yes”, then my secondary question is: Since new iMacs only have 1 FireWire (800) port, can I do the HDV->ProRes transfer via FireWire by plugging the camera into the CalDigit VR’s FW400 jack?
I know this is a wacky set-up; I work at a media education non-profit with very limited resources and am trying to devise reliable/less obscenely expensive solutions for our limited but particular HD production needs.
Thanks in advance for your considerate responses…
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3 Replies
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Tristan,
A good rule of thumb to live by in this business is the old adage that states, “there is no free lunch.” In this case, you’re asking for two free lunches.
First, as you already are aware, RAID 1 is not a suggested configuration for video editing as it is, because it more than halves the throughput you would otherwise get from raiding the two drives together as RAID 0.
Next, you want to daisy-chain your camera through that already questionable configuration.
The only thing working in your favor with that setup is the fact that when transcoding to ProRes on the fly, FCP actually doesn’t do the job in realtime, so you just might get away with it.
Honestly, exactly why you would buy a high performance hardware RAID like the CalDigit VR, then hamstring it at RAID 1, is really a rather absurd use of the limited resources of your non-profit. Even a simple cost-benefit analysis would suggest that you would be far better off using the VR in a RAID 0 configuration and manually backing up after each capture session. The only benefit you receive from the RAID 1 configuration is the automatic backup, and that’s at the expense of everything else.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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Thanks for the reality check David, I figured I was hoping for too much…
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[David Roth Weiss] “Honestly, exactly why you would buy a high performance hardware RAID like the CalDigit VR, then hamstring it at RAID 1, is really a rather absurd use of the limited resources of your non-profit. Even a simple cost-benefit analysis would suggest that you would be far better off using the VR in a RAID 0 configuration and manually backing up after each capture session. The only benefit you receive from the RAID 1 configuration is the automatic backup, and that’s at the expense of everything else. “
I’m with David.
I have a CalDigit VR set as “Raid 0”; it flies. Of course I have the media back up somewhere else.
rafael
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