FCP – Capture Scratch Issue

[John Fishback]

I’ve never heard that before. How many folders are you talking about?

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Ken Niblock]

We have 175 folders now, could double + in size. Essential creating a second folder with the same folder name and adding “drop” next to it. This way we would have the basic system folder where everything that is digitized lives and a second folder where other assets would live.

Issue comes in the idea that just having more folder would create lag times.

[John Fishback]

Does each of the 175 folders represent a different project? Having a second folder for associated media should be fine. I do this all the time, although, I usually put it inside the capture scratch project folder. That way I just archive one folder and everything connected to the project is in one place.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Ken Niblock]

Yes, that’s exactly right. Each of the 175 = a different project. I too thought that putting the second folder inside the first mad the most sense. But, I kept getting an argument with an editor that this would create lag times in accessing the media inside. Any experience with lag times?

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Ken Niblock] “But, I kept getting an argument with an editor that this would create lag times in accessing the media inside.”

I don’t see how that’s really possible.

[John Fishback]

As you probably only have one or two projects open at the same time, having all those folders doesn’t matter. What often limits playback is the speed of your drives. That’s why having a robust RAID is imperative. Another possibility contributing to lagging playback is poor directory health. This can be eliminated by using Disk Warrior and then repairing permissions. Many people do this once a month to prevent issues from cropping up. It doesn’t hurt to periodically trash prefs as well.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Comp 3.5.2, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.2)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Ken Niblock]

Thanks guys for your input! This is basically what I thought. We have just installed a new server system with 160TB all connected via fiber. So it just becomes an issue of change in this case and the person does not want to change the way he does things.

Thanks again!
K