Minumum drive requirement for HD capture?

[Walter Biscardi]

You really want a minimum 150mb/sec drive speed for uncompressed 8bit or 10bit capture. But much faster is better. My FCR2X fibrechannel array from Medea runs 325mb/sec or faster and it rocks with uncompressed HD.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Rob –
if you want to use the DVCProHD codec, you can use the storage that you own right now. But if you want to do uncompressed HD (and no one in Orlando has that requirement right now), you will need a fast array. We already discussed the “big” SATA arrays at NAB, but if you want an off the shelf solution right now, that is guaranteed to work, it will cost you more than you want to spend. I know your market – work in DVCProHD, and forget about it – buy nothing.

Bob

[Rob Birnholz]

[Bob Zelin] “if you want to do uncompressed HD (and no one in Orlando has that requirement right now), you will need a fast array.”

In this case I have to get uncompressed, or at least a full size 1920 x 1280 frame. DVCproHD will be fine if it’s a full size image, not some weird 960 pixel wide flavor of HD. The footage will be used in a multi-screen SD environment, so we’re going for sheer image size.

Rob Birnholz
Absolute Motion Graphics, Inc.
Longwood, FL
http://www.absolutemotiongraphics.com

[Bob Zelin]

Rob –
I know the exact job you are talking about, so you should page me tomorrow to discuss this.

But here are the details. There are assorted SATA arrays on the market that will do uncompressed HD-SDI. They have assorted issues that I do not wish to discuss here, but they do work, and they are cheaper than anything else on the market. Part of the recent “fixes” has been a new firmware update from Sonnet for their 8 port cards (you need 8 drives striped at RAID 0 to do uncompressed HD with SATA).

The other solution is to use an established RAID, like the wonderful
HUGE U320RX, which will do uncompressed HD effortlessly. There are other products from ADTX, Medea, Rorke, etc. as well as the Apple Xserve RAID that will do this as well. But I know you want to save money, and you are very interested in SATA. If you want to be a pioneer, I can tell you what to get OFF LIST, becuase I don’t want you to bad mouth me when you find that it might be a little unreliable.

Bob Zelin

[Walter Biscardi]

[Bob Zelin] “The other solution is to use an established RAID, like the wonderful
HUGE U320RX, which will do uncompressed HD effortlessly. There are other products from ADTX, Medea, Rorke, etc. as well as the Apple Xserve RAID that will do this as well. But I know you want to save money, and you are very interested in SATA. If you want to be a pioneer, I can tell you what to get OFF LIST, becuase I don’t want you to bad mouth me when you find that it might be a little unreliable. “

Rob, what you really need to consider is if you really want to be a pioneer with deadlines and clients working with you. Yes it’s nice to save money, but storage is one area where I don’t skimp on quality for the sake of getting a few extra GB of space.

I’ve used Medea arrays for something like 8 years now and have never missed a deadline due to a drive related failure. In fact I’ve had individual drives fail in an array, but have still been able to finish a project while waiting for a new array to arrive from Medea. The products cost more, but they’re very reliable. Same with the LaCie’s I’ve been running for the past year in our second suite. Very stable, very reliable.

Best of luck in your decision, but be sure you’re completely comfortable with any solution that you go with.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters