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Informal survey of archiving methods
What media and methods do you use to archive projects & media?
Do you back up your captured media even the tapes you’ll keep in your library or do you re-cap as part of the restore process? I do this, but more and more of our source material never sees tape (HD material, stock clips, etc.) and must be archived with the project and ballooning the final project size up to 20 gigs without the timecoded source clips. So, I’m looking around for a better way.
DAT
DLT
DVD
Firewire drivesThey all have their advantages and disadvantages. I’ve had good and bad luck with all of them. Nothing seems 100% reliable, but some are better than others. Firewire drives are probably the most convenient, especially drives fast enough to edit from directly, but I just can’t seem to trust them as an archiving medium, plus I can’t go out and drop $200 on every project when a $5 DLT would do the same job. On most jobs I use Retrospect to archive the project files to DVD. It’s faster than the other methods by far but since a single DVD can only hold a portion of the project I have to stand there and wait to feed new discs on both backup & restore (boo, hiss). Every experience I’ve had with DLT has been bad, but I’ve heard good things about newer drives.
Any other mediums I’ve missed?
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7 Replies
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I archive my sequence files and pictures, graphics and music used in the production to DVD. All the media that exists on tape I just throw away, and recapture if needed. I have a lot of P2 footage from the HVX-200 camera. The original MXF files (the entire CONTENTS folder really) I have backed up to internal SATA drives that I connect to my machine via a firewire to SATA Adaptor, since internal drives are cheap. Those I wrap in plastic and put on a shelf.
I also keep a copy of the final project. Either on tape, or as a self contained QT file also stored on a firewire drive.
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
we work exclusively in uncompressed 10-bit SD and occasional HD.
we used to archive on digibeta (with a discreet smoke), but then we came to our senses and went to Final Cut 5 in January.
We use the 500gb Western Digital “my book” drives for archiving.
The client is asked at the beginning of the session if archiving will
be necessary and if they choose to (usually always do) then we charge
them for it. The drive and time to do it costs us nothing since its
charged to them.I had been looking forward to transitioning archiving to Blu-Ray dual layer 50GB media but it looks like that won’t happen until later this year as sony is having trouble getting high yields on dual-layer.
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We also used to archive to dBeta with our Jaleo system (kinda like an off-brand Flame) and I loved that system. In fact I built this insanely complex way of archiving that way w/ FCP without destroying the original timecode numbers but it was an enormous pain. With more and more of my content coming in as quicktime files, etc. that sort of thing won’t work, anyway.
I’ll keep archivng to DVD for now, I guess since it’s a system that works for me right now. It’s just that I’m throwing out huge AfterEffects renders since I don’t want to have to archive them, and that sucks.
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Hey
If you have a tape format that will give you lossless or near lossless storage, such as DVCPROHD for a DVCPROHD Project, there is a way to archive all your non tc media by laying it to tape. you can then re capture it later. Larry Jordan has the info, and the software to do it is cheaper than a tape drive or something
As most my jobs are HDV, i have been laying off to HDV tape.
If nothing else, you can recapture and eyematch
hope this helps
bee eph
“I like video because its so fast!”
Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc. -
I’m using hot-swap SATA drives.
These are Hitachi SATA drives in a Firmtek external hot-swap SATA system. They’re quickly interchanged, as convenient as Firewire but about half the price.
For tapeless HD I “mirror” the external SATA drives for additional safety.
Dean Sensui — http://www.HawaiiGoesFishing.com
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Except for footage on Tape – it all goes on USB Drives.
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I use external SATA,
cheap and easy perfect for my project
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