Alex Gerulaitis
Forum Replies Created
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I like these boxes a lot – have had one on my desk for almost a year. Not very fast but easy to set up, easy on the eye, quiet, tool-less. I think it’s the best 4-bay box out there, just wish they supported UASP (which is supposed to make it faster with USB 3.0) and had a handle.
Seagate Barracudas are fine for RAID0 (not so much for RAID5).
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Kristian Lam] “The cards in your system will enumerate in a fixed order but you can’t tell Media Express to address a specific card. It will pick the card which shows up as the first input/output device in your system. The next instance of Media Express you open will then pick up the second card.”
Kristian, that’s great news. Does it still hold true today, with current versions of the firmware, drivers and Media Express?
Thanks.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Adhithya Ravishankar] “No, I have not tried that, since I have never played around with MediaExpress for multiple streams, but I have heard on one of the threads I saw while looking for info for this problem.
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/124/874233“
Great info, thanks for the tip. Hope this still holds true today, two years later.
[Adhithya Ravishankar] “Can today’s computers handle 3 HD or even SD streams, without having to split it among multiple computers.”
For non-GOP codecs (uncompressed, intra-frame compression like ProRes, DNxHD, DVCProHD) – absolutely, and it’s more a question of available storage bandwidth than computer power or amount of memory. An uncompressed 1080/30fps 4:2:2 8-bit stream is around 120MB/s, so a RAID0 with 3-4 decent dives will handle two streams easily, assuming the computer isn’t choking on anything else.
I don’t believe ME (Media Express) demands any significant amounts of memory – you may be able to capture multiple streams even with 4GB. Video capture and playback in general, unlike editing, don’t demand a lot of memory and I don’t remember ME having a large memory signature.
Two of my friends wrote custom software applications (not available stand-alone) to capture simultaneous streams using BMD hardware. One of them is slomo.tv. Don’t think they are putting gobs of memory or CPU power in their systems.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Adhithya Ravishankar] “If one opens multiple instances, you can capture multiple streams.”
Have you tried that? That’d be interesting if it’s possible.
[Adhithya Ravishankar] “Not sure if there is anything else in Windows that can capture multiple streams like Premiere Pro, Avid, or some other capture software.”
There were related discussions here on Cow and some other names were dropped, possibly something for Windows. None of the major editing software can capture multiple streams.
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[Adhithya Ravishankar] “He wants to record via BMD’s Intensity Pro and Ultrastudio Mini from 3 sources.”
Simultaneously? Using what software?
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Bob Zelin] “I am just trying to point out that OWC now has “professional” products, and professional prices. “
Amen. Understood.
(Speaking of OWC, and completely on a side note: if you ever need to mount an SSD in a swappable 3.5″ SAS/SATA bay on a backplane (like in a Z800/Z820), or in Jupiter, for instance – AdaptaDrive is the best solution I’ve seen.)
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Hi John,
I’ve responded to your post on Adobe forum as well – I’ll duplicate it here as well in case the discussion takes a different turn.
$2-3K is a fairly small budget for decent “pro” grade video editing system, but still feasible. Eric/ADK will certainly set you up with a good system for $3K; systems I sell start around $4K.
Concerning the proposal: Intel S1200 seems to be a “microserver” platform optimized for power efficiency, not performance, I’d stay away from it. The motherboard they use is most likely S1200BTL: no 16x PCIe slot, very slow CPU options. Not suitable for video editing unless that editing is very, very light duty – like two hours a week.
Most popular choices among mid- to heavy-duty editors:
1. DIY systems – mostly for tech-savvy people. “Sweet spot” (most performance and value for the money) – around $1.6-2.5K. Benefits: price, customization.
2. Custom systems from integrators like ADK, Puget. Sweet spot – $3-4K. Benefits: price (sometimes), performance, application-specific support. Eric does know his stuff.
3. Custom systems based on Tier 1 models such as HP Z820, Z420, some Dell models. Sweet spot – $4-6K. Benefits: on-site 3-year warranty, component quality, single point of hardware support, resale value, everybody knows what a Z820 is. Application-specific support is there as well, if you get such a system from a quality integrator.Here is a more expanded post on the same topic.
It seems that you are in the (2) and (3) group; Eric will help you with (2); let me know if you have any questions about (3).
Regarding Tom’s recommendation for ADK: I believe he chose an HP Z820 system he purchased directly from HP and later hired Eric to help with some issue – that speaks lots for both choices. Tom is not the kind of a guy who makes his choices lightly, so there have to be good reasons for him to choose HP Z820, which I believe he describes in his Cow Magazine article, Hello PC: The Journey to Mac and Back.
Hope this helps.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Bob Zelin] “SO, I recall seeing the wonderful Jupiter arrays from Other World Computing at NAB 2012, and I just thought of them (as we approach 2013 and NAB 2013), and I looked up the Other World Computing Jupiter series drives. And after looking at this wonderful product, I can now say that Other World Computing joins the ranks of the other pro companies that make “crap” and make “the good stuff” – “
Bob, what do you like about Jupiter? (How is it different from similar products?)
(While I really liked the few OWC products I worked with, Jupiter seems overpriced for a non-Tier-1 solution, and somewhat short on critical specs. E.g. their 16-bay box has to have a built-in expander – why don’t they mention that, and why only two ports? Oh and the plastic on their drive carriers seems cheesy… :()
(I don’t want to contradict you – I know how dangerous that is – just curious. :p)
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[Reinis Traidas] “I am hoping that the Decklink 4K Extreme 3D does exactly the same thing as Ultrastudio 3D (except the 4K part)…”
For the most part, UltraStudio 3D is Decklink Extreme 3D in a Thunderbolt chassis – so I believe it will work exactly the same.
The only caveat is no daisy-chaining with BMD Thunderbolt products – although this may not be an issue as hopefully, the upcoming Mac Pro will have two TB ports, following the current trend.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA -
[Sam Rappold] “But this client only has Quicktime player, so I don’t think they could watch an mp4 on their computer.”
Not at my work puter (so can’t test it) – pretty sure QT can play mp4 files.
[Sam Rappold] “in the past when I’ve exported R3D projects as H.264 Quicktimes, they’ve dropped frames and skipped on playback in QT”
In Windows? That’s a given. On a Mac it will be smoother.
Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA