Brett Sherman
7
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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While the data on tape may be solid and long-lasting, access to that data is not necessarily so. Accessing the data on the tape takes specialized and relatively rare hardware. And LTO usage is already dropping off. At some point in the not too distant future solid state storage and cloud storage is going to take over everything. Manufacturing of LTO drives will stop because it will not be economically viable. Because it’s mechanical, existing devices will start to fail. And drivers will likely not be continued to be updated.
Secondly, because it stores data in a linear fashion, the storing of the data requires software. And retrieving the data requires the same software. In 20 years you have the possibility that the software won’t be around. So you’ll have a bunch of data on the tape, but difficulty accessing it.
People will say but hard drives are not reliable for long-term storage. And it is true that if you just want to make one copy, set it on a shelf and never think about it again then hard drives are not a good solution. But my point is no “set it on a shelf and forget about it” strategy is a real backup strategy. Hard drives are universally accessible. Data formats are standard. And will be supported much longer after they are abandoned. For example, IDE drives were abandoned about 15 years ago. But you can buy brand new IDE to USB adapters. And you have your choice of about 20 different ones.
But what about the costs? Isn’t that more expensive? Probably. But that LTO drive and the tapes required are not cheap either. And if you have to hire someone to retrieve your data that’s going to be exceedingly pricey. And how long are you really going to trust that LTO backup? 20 years? Time is going to be hard on LTO tapes too. Hard drive replacement is maybe slightly over twice as frequent. And guarantees real-time access to the data.
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[Andrew Kimery] “I think this is the part of the conversation where were we get into the difference between redundant storage and backup storage.”
And near-term and long-term archiving strategies! Almost everyone in this business only thinks about the former. Given my job I also have to think about the latter. Proprietary formats are death to long-term backups. I have years of Avid footage from the oughts that are for all practical purposes unaccessible. And I won’t get into why I think LTO storage is a really shortsighted, awful idea in most cases.
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In this case, it’s not 100% clear a backup would have saved him. Since it deleted the files without warning, he had no indication that they were gone. The only thing that would have alerted him to the fact is if he had opened the project and discovered the missing media. There are times when I go for months without opening the project. With one of my drive synchronization procedures, it would delete the files on the backup too.
And given that he couldn’t recover files from the hard drive, I would suspect some time had passed between when it happened and when he discovered it. I could be wrong though.
I’d be covered because one of my backup drives archives deleted files. The other backup drive maintains an exact replica of the drive – files on that drive would be gone. But that one checks for corrupted files. It just goes to show that just having a backup procedure is not necessarily enough. It has to be well thought out to deal with any possibility.
And to be clear I don’t support this lawsuit. I file it under the s&*t happens category. Adobe has egg on their face, but financially responsible? I don’t think that’s fair.
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Corrupt project or media files? Absolutely. Deleting original files not associated with the project? Nope. This is a particularly egregious oversight by Adobe. I’ve never had this happen in the decades I’ve been editing on computers.
Yes backups are critical. And often it’s user error that you need to recover from. Maintaining two copies of files is critical to avoid drive failure losses. So after you delete you project files off of your working drive array, that single backup is probably not enough.
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I agree “Editing: The Debate” would probably be a more accurate reflection of what this forum is. I don’t mind opinionated posts about what’s working for people. I’ve learned a thing or two. And enjoy thinking of things differently.
Though I haven’t incorporated much into my own workflow, because I’ve spent years developing it for the particular tasks and parameters I have to deal with. And I’m continually developing it. Most disagreements here have to do with the failure to understand different demands require different approaches.
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[Andreas Kiel] “Get your your files from service as ITT, import into your timeline, do your work, drag the timeline to XTCE and you are done.”
An automated process never “chunks” the transcription correctly. Rearranging takes more work than just copying and pasting from a text document, so that’s what I end up doing.
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[Andreas Kiel] “As said before using X-Title (In this case with captions) no need to export ITT.
Export an XML and select from the caption languages which one you want to use for SRT.”I’ll have to take a look. I think I bought it way back when. I didn’t know it could export too. These days my workflow involves automated transcription. I wish FCP had ways to deal with that, instead of having to copy and paste back into the timeline. It’s rather labor intensive and it shouldn’t be.
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How is what you want to do different than just normal subtitles?
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[Dirk de Jong] “https://fxfactory.com/info/captionconverter/
I know and have worked with the FxFactory guys and they do quality work making FCP X related software.”
I also really like FxFactory and the developers there. But this particular item is WAY, WAY, WAY overpriced. It could be there’s some functionality it does that others don’t, like interface with Premiere. But it’s nothing I need. There are tons of apps for $20 or less on the Apple App Store that basically do the same thing.
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You can create captions in FCP X starting in 10.4.1. You have to export as ITT. Then convert it to an SRT. There lots of utilities that do this. Or even free websites.
I personally like having Subtitle Edit Pro (developer: bin liu) which can handle importing ITT. Check it against video and export again as an SRT. Or you can just do the whole thing in Subtitle Edit Pro if you want.