[Frank Delaney]

I have this problem too. I am sure its a blackmagic thing. I never had this problem with a kona card or with FCP on its own until I recently put in a blackmagic hd extreme 3d card. Initially i thought it was a ram thing so I added RAM, no difference. The other edit suite I work on is identical to mine in every way – hardware and software – except it has a kona 3 card instead of a blackmagic card and this problem is not there on that machine.

I have looked at every way of getting rid of the problem but with no success, I am now using the mark in workaround which I hate. A pro suite should work like a pro suite.

Maybe the team over at blackmagic could SORT IT OUT!!!!!

[Frank Delaney]

I’m using the Panasonic Varicam AJHD1200A

[Frank Delaney]

I thought I had understood these codecs fully…..Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in…..

Okay that all makes sense thanks fellas.

So….I’m getting material out of a Panavision 720p shot at 25fps. I’ll have about 60 -70 hours approx over the next 3 months. There’ll be lots of archive too on different formats (not sure what yet)

I am capturing through a kona3 upping to 1080i25.

So I’m probably better then capturing in prores proxy – offlining and then and re-conforming the timeline clips when we finish the offline at prores HQ.

Then onlining and mastering in HQ?

[Frank Delaney]

Thanks guys all really great input.

Regarding quality of codecs, I was of the understanding that the codec is just the wrapper, the algorithm – so for example if I’m shooting canon 5d – 50mbs Pro res LT is a wrapper capable of up to 100mbs therefore (like putting a small box into a larger one) will not provide any better quality than Prores HQ for this footage. Is this not correct….

I did this test myself and saw no noticeable difference between the two.

However if my footage capture is over 100mbs then of course LT will be compressing and thus I loose quality which is where prores or HQ come in….

Whereas If I am capturing 100mbs footage whats being compressed and lost by LT that prores or prores HQ will give me extra of?

[Frank Delaney]

I am actually shooting 720p 25 (sorry) ……Digitising through Kona 3 upsizing to 1080….

Its borderline, I could edit in proxy – which is what I was thinking too and then online at the end….

What would be the point of onlining at prores HQ or standard prores? It wont give me any higher quality will it – if my source material is only 100mbs

doing the whole thing LT is attractive as I will be working full res all the time, no online (as I have loads of archive material coming in in all forms from stills to graphics…..) so I would avoid a time consuming online for only 3tb….

Its tempting isn’t it????

If it was a decision between standard prores and proxy I would go proxy….

Will LT have enough headroom for this and….

Apart from drive and file size will proxy give me any benefits – such as speed.

I’m using esata drives anyway (not that it make a huge difference on prores.

[Frank Delaney]

Its Tape and yes we have already started shooting – but not digitising yet….

why?

[Frank Delaney]

Hi There, this deck does have more than just firewire – it has 2xHD-SDI out and 1xHD-SDI in, DVCPRO/DV via firewire, 4xaudio XLR out, 4xaudio in, component out via bnc

The deck is very awkward to use and gives me interminable headaches – there are many options and 99% of the switching is done via menus – you’ll need to really set up your menus well (only accessible with external monitor) and if you’re using a kona or similar really set up for your frame rates carefully otherwise this will just give you lots of headaches like I have.

[Frank Delaney]

Hi Jon,

I have beefed up on raid, sas, sohotanks etc……think I’ve got the hang of it and the idea.

I love the sohotank solution – it looks amazing….

Question though lets say I invest in a 8bay/8port sas (which at the moment is overkill for me but I am also considering the future and data amassing) am I also wise to be backing that up to another array (JBOD) rather than raid purely as a safety backup or is this overkill….what I’m asking is – raid 6 will pretty much protect me disk failure wise (unless 3 drives fail together) but what if the sas card blows or the startanks electronics malfunction (or are there any electronics in it).

Secondly If I’m populating this with 3 tb drives I presume you’re talking about 7200rpm drives or are you talking about 5400rpm – surely I’m not going to get the speed youre talking about with the latter and I havent seen any 3tb 7200rpm drives on the market yet.

Question 3. Can sohotank and atto cards be got in Europe, if so where? I’m in Ireland.

[Frank Delaney]

Thanks a mill – great responses and ideas, I’m a newbie at this stuff – the arrays, raid and sas etc….

I love the sound of the sohotank solution….I think I’ve now gotta learn (google university) about sas expanders and raid etc…..

Are sohotank available in Europe…..

[Frank Delaney]

Okay computers – a. mac, intel 2×2.26 quad cores, 6gb ram. Second is a laptop (purely for admin)

Editing in FCP7
Dont need to access storage at same time.

Re editing: Cameras can be anything from RED, Panasonic 720p varicam, Canon 5D, EX3. I tend to offline in prores LT (or as fast a res as I can get to work with.) Non of it is for live broadcast so usually I offline then relink or reconform via deck, color grade via apple color, any CGI or touch up in After Effects or Nuke, then I usually take a quicktime file to a facilities house for finishing.

If its a low budget I’ll finish here and output to tape, DVD or quicktime.

I dont need fibre optic speed or anything like that, anything that needs that is usually high enough budget that I do it all at a high end facilities house with serious support.

So firewire speeds are enough.

Longest duration I will be working on will be 90 min. A big drama doc coming up, shooting on Varicam 720p, offlining at DV resolution on a prores codec. Average durations are 5mins to 1hour.

Havent run RED through the workflow yet will be doing that in the next few weeks though.

So its really a good backingup and archiving system and of course reliability and making sure I don’t loose any data through drives blowing up etc etc…..

Oh I am also finding that the longer my programme length the more often the playback in FCP stalls and I have to lower playback res….would be nice to fix that up (is that a beefier graphics card)