Doug Dillaman
Forum Replies Created
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Awesome, thanks. Worked perfectly!
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That does it: forget P2 at $2000 for 8GB, I’m taking an iPod at $400 for 60 GB! I was thinking earlier today this had to be possible, and here we are …
I’m sure P2 has its advantages, and down the road 2-3 years, maybe it’ll fit into my workflow, but I think the iPod makes this the real magic bullet for using this camera affordably in HD modes for indies.
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Thanks for the heads up. Obviously need to research to make sure that no other issues are raised by upgrading, but that’s good news to know it’s fixed.
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My main issue with hard drives as a archive format is that they’re not a long-term archive format, at least not one that I trust. But any backup strategy is a cost vs. risk factor – how much are you willing to spend to backup things? Do you have a redundant set of masters of all those miniDV tapes, so that if your shelf catches fire you have backups of everything else? What’s most promising about P2 is that it becomes a lot easier to make multiple backups. (What scares me is the blase attitude about quick re-use in the field, but that’s probably another thread entirely.)
As far as the HD-DVD question – all valid points, and depending on where I am in the interim I may just be backing up on good old DVD, assuming that the files break down nicely into 4 GB chunks. (I’m curious about the file architecture of P2 storage in general – does anyone have good reading?) More labor intensive, but then you can use all that time you used to spend digitizing.
You’re right that these are tricky questions and expensive ones, and my personal gut is that the price issues of the overall solution will keep P2 out of the picture for a year or two for those without deep pockets, unless they’re shooting relatively small amounts of footage. I mean, if your clients are happy with miniDV today, do they need P2 later this year? If it’s a commercial, maybe. If it’s a live event, doubtful. (Then, there’s the whole post-production question in general, and how well various NLEs will work with this format, another thing I’m not clear on. Then, there’s just your tolerance for bleeding-edge technology in general.)
As to your DLT question: I haven’t investigated costs recently enough to know. I’ve dropped a note to a friend who works with enterprise-level backups to try to get more information and will pass anything along.
All in all, my gut is that a huge new market is going to open up in storing video data for archival purposes, and I would have to assume that Panasonic will be trying to spur it along. It probably won’t open as quick as we’d like and be at the price points that we like right away, but I think in a couple years the entire workflow will be very smooth and many people will have jumped onboard entirely, looking back at the days of tape-driven capture with nothing resembling fondness.
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if you really want tape, you can look at DLT-type solutions. Think of your footage as being basically identical to any other form of computer data. Major corporations back up terabytes nightly without breaking a sweat, there’s plenty of vendors of automated backup systems for computer data out there and once they figure out what P2 (et al) means they’ll be repositioning themselves in that market.
Personally, I’m expecting that HD-DVD/Blu-Ray will be the next-generation form of data storage for archival material shot on P2 for indie-level users, although price points on both blank media and burning technology are obviously as yet unknown and recent rumors of a thaw between the two camps implied that said thaw may push implementation of that technology back by as much as two years. Let’s hope that’s not the case.