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external drive choices
do you only need the SATA speed (which is how fast anyway?) if we’re doing full HD editing? i still only have a BetaSP deck, so the “biggest” codec i work in is NTSC 8 bit, but more often even just DV50. i’m about to start a show that will be shot in HDCam and HDV, so will do the “offline” on my system (probably all in DV codec for speed and space), and need a good, solid, reliable “fast enough” portable drive to go out of house and capture HDCam (in DV codec). i have a G5 with the various FW ports on it, so would like to know what you all would recommend. thanks again…
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9 Replies
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A single (lastest generation) SATA is about 85mb/sec when empty, after 70% capacity, it will begin to slow down (all drives do). That’s plenty fast enough for DV anyday… even ProRes would be OK on it as long as you don’t fill it up. Uncompressed 8 bit? It’s fast enough for that too. SATA scales faster in RAID situations too…
Jerry
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[mortimer heathcliff] “i’m about to start a show that will be shot in HDCam and HDV, so will do the “offline” on my system (probably all in DV codec for speed and space)”
Mortimer,
There are many, many reasons why this is a lousy idea. “Speed and space” are now the absolute least expensive aspects of editing. 500gb SATA drives are $135.00. You would do much better to edit DVCProHD. You’d be editing in exactly the same aspect ratio and frame rate as your original footage. The graphics you create would be proper size and in their rightful place. Your clients and you would get to see the material throughout the entire process the way its meant to be seen. And, most important of all, you probably wouldn’t have to online at the end.
All boiled down, this means that, with a very modest investment in hard drives, much more of your time will be spent doing creative work, and meanwhile, your HD job gets to live as HD during the time when all the important decisions are being made.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
That’s supposed to be the idea of the 422ProRez HD codec in FCS2. Mixing those different formats on one timeline is now possible in FCP 6 and utilizing that ProRez codec is supposed to let you do High Def at low data rates.
Please visit http://www.thefinalcutstore.com for all your Final Cut needs.
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Sorry, but not applicable to this thead. Mortimer cannot capture ProRes 422 on his G5 and he certainly does not want to capture HDCAM to convert to ProRes.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
David,
Yours sounds like a great idea. I think i will move in that direction. Thanks again…
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what portable SATA drive do you recommend for $135?
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[mortimer heathcliff] “what portable SATA drive do you recommend for $135?”
I was referring to the bare drives actually, and they are now just $120. See the Hitachi 500gb SATA drives at https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145137 .
For the enclosure I’d recommend that you go with a SATA enclosure such as the 2-bay enclosure from Seritek at https://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2en2.html. With this enclosure you have many options: you can use really big, but inexpensive SATA drives; you can stripe two drives together for a very fast raid-0; and you can hot swap drives at any time.
Later, after you win the lottery, you can upgrade to their 4-bay enclosure and use the very same drive trays.
You will need their SATA controller as well, which up the price a bit. But still, with all the flexbility its well worth it. Oh, and BTW, SATA is at least twice the speed of firewire 800.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Post-production Supervisor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles -
i think i’ll aim for the enclosures and RAID in the very near future, but for this weekend, i just need to go grab some additional space. what are your thoughts on a Seagate and Western Digital as makers? also, someone said i might need a SATA controller…is that another card that has to be put in the G5? (aren’t i dumb?)
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[mortimer heathcliff] “do you only need the SATA speed (which is how fast anyway?) i”
I’m testing an 8TB SATA array right now that is clocking in just under 500MB/s in RAID 5. Absolutely fantastic to have that kind of speed along with the protection of RAID 5. We’ll have two other SATA arrays in here this week for testing as well.
Depending on your unit your mileage will vary. Right now we’re still using the LaCie S2S SATA units which are plenty fast for DVCPro HD editing. As soon as we can thoroughly test all these units, I’ll be filing a report in my blog on what we found in terms of speed and performance.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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