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XDCam HD
Hi All,
I’m shortly going to undertake a multicam project that’s being shot on XDCAM HD50 (4:2:2).
FCP is one possible solution; but the offline is to be done on a notebook. Given that there are going to be 8 streams of video to vision mix, my question is: is there an external storage device that can deliver the needed data rates to a MBP.
I’m assuming that there’s no way that fw800 could handle the required data rate, could a SATA/SAS raid and express slot adaptor could do it?
If so, would the latest MBP be actually up to the task of doing the mixing?
Many thanks for your thoughts
Angus
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3 Replies
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Hi Angus,
The data rate you need to move 8 XDCAM HD streams is no that big; some 200 Mbps.
I have never worked in Multicam mode, but I guess that if you are cutting or making dissolves from camera to camera your processing one or two images at a time. To do so I don’t think you shouldn’t have any problem with a MBP and a FW 800.
If you wanted to composite 8 images in your canvas, for that you would need more powerful machines. The MPG-2 nature of the XDCAM footage would complicate things.
I work with EX-1 footage (35 Mbps) and I’m very happy with my eSATA drives. I get round 80/90 MBps write/read with my MBP.
Cheers,
Rafael -
Hi Rafael
Thanks for the relpy. I’ve seen 8 streams of imported XDCam hd (35mbs) running on a Macpro two disk internal raid (sata 7200); so obviously, in that environment it’s do-able. I guess the question is; how much of a difference does the higher bitrate of the 4:2:2 codec make in the real world; and is there an interface for MBP that can handle it.
I’ve no FCP (or mac) experience, so I’m just trying to get my head round what’s possible
thanks again
Angus
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Hi Angus,
XDCAM 422 is 50 Mbps, so like DV50. As long as you don’t go de-compress at the same time the 8 GOPs I don’t think you’d have problem. You can also use the EXPRESS slot to set another FW 800. Just splitting the media to two FW busses you cover your back.
Cheers,
rafael
PS: I’ve been very unlucky with the FW EXPRESS cards I bought two from Sonnet but I’m unable to write any data in the HDs when I plug them to the card. Anyway through eSATA the HDs works like three time faster.
Cheers,
rafael
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