[Chris Poisson]

Hey David,

Thanks for the links. Yes, I spent all day Saturday frantically copying everything off my SCSI RAID which gave me 4 slow beeps that morning when it booted, which according to the manual means a drive is either going or is down. I ran out to the Apple store and got another Big Disk Extreme as a cheap backup and thankfully I got everything saved.

So anyway, your post above couldn’t have been more timely, and I guess for others here as well, ’cause I just called mwave and they only have one unit left. Problem is I need to get this SATA box up ASAP, as I have an HD job coming in this week, and no more SCSI for a while.

So I guess my next question is, what other drive units will fit in the Firmtec enclosure?

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

David,

What kind of enclosure and card are need to use these as an external RAID?

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

David,

That’s good to hear, but I’d bet the farm if you did it from 8bit you would not be able to see any difference. Lots of us out here say 10 bit is overkill, and 9 out of 10 time it is. Save your drive space!

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

BY FAR the easiest way is with CHV’s clone plugin. Totally keyframable, fast and works like magic.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

David,

Maybe not with 10 bit (which is mostly a waste of drive space) but I have been transforming DV projects to 8bit for a couple of years now, makes a huge difference in graphics quality. If your system is Firewire only you can’t watch it in real time, but you can render it and save to a QT movie, which looks great. Do this all the time on several DV-only systems.

I have a Kona LH card, and formally used a Decklink SP, so I was able to watch the improved movie in real time, but more often than not with either of these cards, I capture my DV material via component to 8 bit, which as I have described many times saves drive space, rendering time and that 480-486 inconvenience of worrying about those extra lines and what it might do to screw up field order, plus I actually like the look of it better than Firewire capture, less edgy, more filmic, depending on how it was shot. Just my preferrance.

But, if you’re more comfortable putting your DV timeline into a 10bit project, why don’t you do just that? Create a 10 bit sequence, drag the DV sequence into that and render. Seems like extra work to me, just changing the compressor or easy setup seems faster.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

David,

Why don’t you just change the compressor to 10 bit and render the darn thing?

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

There’s also sounddogs.com, you can sample off their site, plus SoundtrackPro has some good sfx.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Media manager? What’s that?

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

I upconvert aomwtimes too for the sake of graphics quality, but more often than not I capture 8bit (not 10 bit, a waste IMO) just to save space. I actually like the look of capturing DV to 8bit via component, plus I don’t have to worry about those pesky six extra pixels missing from the DV clips. Just my dos pesos.

Have a wonderful day.

[Chris Poisson]

Kat,

If you encode directly from your FCP timeline, you will avoid compression, and it will automatically place compression markers at every transition. Yes, it will take a LOT longer, and tie up FCP, but depending on your material, transitions, motion etc. it can be well worth it. Read this:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/compressor_warmouth.html

Have a wonderful day.