Bob Zelin
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COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Make sure that “they” know what they are doing, and know how to go into RAID Admin.
Bob Zelin
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I wish you responded with “I updated my XServe RAID firmware, and turned off the Cache Flushing” – but you were not specific in your response. If you give me more info, I can help you.
bob Zelin
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Well, since you mentioned AVID and Autodesk, both manufacturers just had press releases on Creative Cow, stating that both AVID (for the Nitris) and Autodesk for the Discreet line, will use AJA cards. But since you asked what card you should use – how about the Digital Voodoo 64AV. If you buy this card, not only will you be helping some poor soul out, but you will help eliminate competition in our industry (by going out of business).
Bob Zelin
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Hector refered you here, because AJA can’t take responsibility for all these “third party solutions”. How do you know that your Medea drive is fast enough to do uncompressed video. Why don’t you try DVCProHD and see if that works first. Run AJA Kona System test on your Medea drive array – how fast does it perform (and report back the info – in mb/sec).
Have you recently flashed the firmware of your ATTO UL3D card (it ain’t new, that’s for sure) – do you have the latest firmware on your Medea drive array? Do you know how to go into terminal mode on a PC to update the firmware on the Medea ? Which Medea array do you have ? Does it have EIGHT DRIVES in it?If all of this seems like very confusing questions to you, perhaps you should hire someone to assist you with the setup. If you do understand these questions, please write back a response with detailed answers (drive model, drive speed via AJA Kona system test, ATTO driver version and flash version you have loaded). This will help resolve your problems.
If you think this stuff just plugs in and works, you are dreaming.Bob Zelin
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Adolfo –
This product does not currently work, and unfortunately, we have to make a living. Blackmagic has been a HUGE innovator for years now, revolutionizing the price structure of our industry. Remember, even AJA had nothing until Grant came along. And we all used to buy AVID’s before FCP. And none of us would have taken FCP seriously, had it not been for Grant and Digital Voodoo, which led to the AJA Kona SD card, which led to Blackmagic and AJA, where they currently are today – revolutionizing our industry. And they are not innovative ????????Adolfo – you have great ideas – I think that YOU should go into manufacturing, and help release this product. You will become rich, and help all of us with our future products.
Bob Zelin
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Jeremy gives good advice, and certainly reformatting would not hurt to see if it’s just data corruption. But the last 2 times I had problems with XServe RAID’s, the first time, the firmware was not updated, and the cache flushing was not disabled in RAID admin, and the second time I had a problem, I had a flakey drive. I was fortunate enough to see the “blue LED” get stuck in the on position. Shane from ProMax correctly advised me to yank out the drive (it defaults to RAID 0 when you do this), and everything started to work.
I can assure you that if you do not have the current firmware version on your XServe RAID, and disable cache flushing, you will have drive perforamnce issues.
Bob Zelin
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you just pointed out that you are getting 60-80mb/sec read speed from your Apple XServe RAID, when you should be getting 220mb/sec. To prove this to yourself, do the AJA Kona System test on your internal MAC hard drive – you will get 60mb/sec just from that. Have you done the Firmware upgrade to your XServe RAID. Have you checked the Cache Flushing in RAID Admin ? And yes, for now DO NOT put more than 2 Gigs of RAM in your Mac Pro. There are issues.
bob Zelin
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run AJA Kona system test again – observe the read and write time – do you see hesitation in the test while running, or is it smooth, with consistant write and read speeds. Look at your SCSI array activity lights while running. Are one of the drives “hanging up” (is one of the activity lights getting “stuck” while the others are flashing) ?
Even though you are seeing 230mb/sec speeds, drop frame problems are most often associated to problems with the drive array. If you have one drive failing in the array, it will be difficult to diagnose these issues, and that is why you should observer AJA Kona System Test – look at the graph, look at the “smoothness” or consistancy of the write and read speeds. If it’s hanging up (even for a moment) while it is writing files (and write 4Gig files, not 128mb files) – this is like getting the drop frame error from FCP. I know that you don’t want to hear this (because your project is on your SATA array), but that is most likely where the problem is. This is NOT a RAM issue.
Bob Zelin
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Even in the largest facilities I do, I now ALWAYS use the Sigma BSG-26N as the master house black generator, and use Kramer or Ocean Matrix Video DA’s to further distribute this signal (or Sigma VDA-26 if I only need an additional 6 black outputs). The Sigma is ROCK stable. I just replaced an old Grass Valley 9000 series sync generator (one of the classis “tank” sync gens) with a Sigma, because after 20 years of solid service, the GVG started to become unstable (we couldn’t believe it, but I guess after 20 years, those capacitors just start to fail). For standard def, I see absolutely no reason to go with a multi thousand dollar Tektronix sync gen. Now if you need tri level sync, it’s another story.
Bob Zelin
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to my knowlege, the LEAST EXPENSIVE black generator other than the Horita is the
Sigma BSG-26N, which is under $400, and is FANTASTIC. It comes with 6 BNC outputs, is rock stable for AJA, Blackmagic and AVID applications, and has an optional rack mount, called the RMK-26, which is only 50 bucks. The Horita BSG-50 is also available in rack mount, as the Horita BSG-50RM. I have found the ESE black generators to be unsuitable for our applications. I know nothing about the BURST Electronics black generators, but they certainly are not rack mountable. I also have never used the VAC Industries Black generator for our applications, but they do have a rack mount for thier little brick.After that, all the black generators are EXPENSIVE. The new Kramer (Ocean Matrix) is over $1000, and the “pro” units from Tektronix, Leader, Leitch, etc. are EXPENSIVE (multi thousand dollar units). SO, the Sigma BSG-26N is the unit of choice in my opinion – but the Horita BSG-50 is sure popular.
Bob Zelin