ProRes 422 project is half a terabyte!

[Brent Dunn]

If you really want to archive, you should be archiving the original file format from your cameras before you transcode them. I also do a lot of weddings. I archive my original footage which might be 32 gig for around 2 hrs of footage vs. 120 gig for the proRes version.

Then at least you can go and get it if necessary, while charging the client for the additional time.

Also, my contract gives them 7 days to contact me if any changes need to be made after I deliver the final product. Anything after that can be done for an hourly rate.

Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Video.com

Sony EX-1, V1U
Cannon 5D Mark II
Cannon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut Studio

HP i7 Quad laptop
w/ Adobe CS-4 Production Suite, After Effects
& CS-5 Production Suite. Window’s 7

Manfrotto Tripod’s & Heads

[Tony Young]

Poked around on the OWC site for awhile, looks incredible for the price. Would you guys really recommend some of their RAID solutions, as opposed to some of the more expensive Caldigit, etc? Especially if uncompressed is not a big issue, FW 800 is fine, and getting many terabytes of redundant (online) storage is premier importance?

Some of their 4TB FW 800 solutions look enticing, especially for the ~$1000 range.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ME8MS7S40T64/

[Craig Alan]

Hi David,

I use a two-drive raid 0 esata enclosure for my media drive (OWC). It is not designed to swap out additional drives. It can be done anyway of course. But I’d rather wipe it clean after each project and back up the media to another drive. And like you said put the bare drives on the shelf.

Do you recommend https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/FWU2ES2HDK/ or something else?
Any decent cases out there for the bare drives?
I order enterprise class drives for my media drives. But I figure for archiving finished projects I’d go for cheaper ones. Make sense?
Do you just keep a spreadsheet of what projects are on what drive?
How often do you fire them up? I’ve heard they can have problems if not used for too long?

OSX 10.5.7; MAC Book PRO (EARLY 2008); Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30, Sony vx2000/PD170, Canon xl2; Pana, Sony, and Canon consumer cams; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[David Roth weiss]

[Craig Alan] “Any decent cases out there for the bare drives? “

Unlike most manufacturers, OWC does sell some of their enclosures without drives, ready to be user populated.

For the ones you’ve got that came with drives there’s no harm in moving that data to bare drives for archiving as long as you plug the drive in and let it spin up at least once or twice a year.

I haven’t used the Voyager Q myself, but many swear by them. I’m thinking of getting one soon.

[Craig Alan] “I order enterprise class drives for my media drives. But I figure for archiving finished projects I’d go for cheaper ones. Make sense?”

Yes, that makes sense. Enterprise drives are great if you afford them, but SATA drives are so robust that not even the big RAID manufacturers typically use them now.

[Craig Alan] “Do you just keep a spreadsheet of what projects are on what drive? “

Yes, that’s exactly what I do, and I stick a copy in the box with each drive on the shelf. There are some apps that list everything in every directory, but for me that’s overkill.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-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.

[Dan Nocera]

If you’re shooting with a Z1u -HDV Codec (25Mbps) and a GH1- AVCHD Codec (17Mbps) then you don’t need to transcode to the full pro res codec, especially the HQ version – unless you plan on doing heavy compositing or multiple layer passes on the video.

You should be using Pro Res LT(102Mbps) or Pro Res Proxy(45Mbps).

You won’t gain any perceptible quality by transcoding Standard ProRES(146Mbps) or ProRES(HQ) 220Mbps since your original material was 25Mbps and 17Mbp. You’ll just get massive file sizes.

Also FCP can handle HDV natively and if you go into your sequence settings and change the render codec to pro res then you’ll get acceptable render times – instead of the dreaded Conforming HDV render messages.

Dan Nocera
CTFCPUG Moderator

If all else fails give it a whack!!
-Anonymous Techie