[David Eaks]

I recently came across Rewind by Digistor, an archive to Blu-ray app that’s coming soon. I have no experience with their products, just throwing it out there. I guess you can span data across multiple BD discs.

[David Eaks]

I suggest a combination of the two pieces of advice given so far.

As Nate said, Export a QT (File> Export Quicktime, current settings, self-contained). This is the best starting point IMO.

And as Thomas said, bring that into Compressor and use the YouTube setting, the tab he refers to for adjusting frame size is the Geometry tab. What version of compressor?

Like MPeg Streamclip, you can fiddle with the data rate in Compressor as well. In the Inspector window, under the encoder tab, in video settings. Do this if the default setting gives you an undesirable file size.

I never liked “send to compressor” as it ties up FCP while compressor is working with your file, thus stopping me from working on something else. FCP “hands off” each frame one at a time for compressor to deal with, as I understand it at least. That and a generally poor experience with “send to compressor” over the last couple years spent getting to know and renovating a family businesses around, my dear old friend, the legacy… FCS 3. RIP.

[David Eaks]

Have you looked at Sony’s HXR-NX5U, quite happy with mine.

[David Eaks]

[Philip Knight] “1. If one does the RAID version that mirrors two identical OS drives to boost performance, what happens when one installs new software or has a Windows 7 update on one of them? Does one also have go and install in on the second?”

What RAID are you talking about?

Just to clarify-

RAID 0- Increased performance, no loss in storage capacity, no redundancy. The two drives show up as one (i.e. two 1TB drives in RAID 0 show as a single 2TB drive). Data is spread across the drives, you will lose all data if one drive fails. *Fast*

RAID 1- No performance gain (well, potential slight read speed gain, minimal loss in write speed), 50% storage capacity loss, redundant. This is a Mirrored set, everything that you do is done on both drives with no additional input. The pair will show up as one drive (i.e. two 1TB drives in RAID 1 will show up as a single 1TB drive). Data on each drive is identical, the set will continue to work even if one drive fails. *Safe*

I don’t think that RAID 0 is going to give you much benefit as an OS drive, SSD’s will give a significant boost though. IMO, use RAID 0 for your media and run your backups regularly or look into hardware RAID 5 etc.

[Philip Knight] “2. Will such a RAID setup do much for sequential read/write of files on other drives for apps such as Vegas, Cubase and the like? From what I know, not much — just faster OS and apps launch.”

No, RAID 0 as an OS drive will not improve the read/write performance of files on other drives.

[David Eaks]

You can burn with compressor, just set the “job action” to burn a DVD when the job finishes.

[David Eaks]

Do you have to get a 3TB drive? For under $350 you could get two 2TB drives…

I’ve been very happy with these-
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/752873-REG/Western_Digital_WD2002FAEX_WD2002FAEX_Caviar_Black_2.html

Same Drive at Newegg for $10 less-
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136792&Tpk=WD2002FAEX

I’ve stuck with WD because my own experiences have been so good, but as was mentioned, Hitachi has a pretty stellar reputation these days.

[David Eaks]

Can’t you just edit in a standard size that FCP likes, then resize in compressor via the “Geometry” tab when the editing is all done? I haven’t really had to deal with non-standard sizes but it seems like that would be an easy way to accomplish what you want.

[David Eaks]

Go to FCP’s View menu, under Video Playback choose your video setting. Then, in the View menu again, go to External Video and choose all frames. If that doesn’t do it, check your Cards Preferences in Apple> System Preferences> AJA Kona… which I can’t help with much because I’ve only used Matrox for this purpose.

[David Eaks]

In Finder, are all the 115GB of render files in the same folder in the same location?

[David Eaks]

Never a problem with my old LaCie 4X BD Burner. Here’s a link to the 12X-

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/681820-REG/LaCie_301906U_d2_12x_Blu_ray_Disc.html