Jack Guthrey
Forum Replies Created
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No doubt LTO is the best option for “true” archiving. I’d look for a device that supports LTFS. Not only do you gain more open support as it is not proprietary, you can mount a tape and see your files just like a big ‘ol flash drive. Archive and restore are still slow depending on the device but you give yourself openness in deciding how you want to manage your assets.
If you’re never really planning to come back to the projects, you probably don’t need a full blown asset management databasing every file for you. A self maintained database via Access or Filemaker Pro would probably be fine.
Back when I did similar work, often I’d just make an image file of the final DVD/Blu-Ray I delivered the client and store that on a disc. that way, if the client ever wanted additional copies, I could easily create them. Obviously, no tweaks at all were able to be accomplished after the fact but with these projects that wasn’t needed.
Since you never need to make changes, I’d buy an LTO-5 tape and outsource the archiving to someone with a drive. If each project got condensed down to 80GB, you could fit 16 projects on one tape. The initial outlay of $3K+ may not be worthwhile depending on your archive frequency and volume. Heck, maybe there’s a way to monetize the thing though – charge other people to archive. It’s a hot topic right now and will keep growing.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
Looks like Character Record was on in the OSD menu. There’s no easy way to remove it.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
Cinema4D doesn’t use to GPU to render so picking a card for AE might actually be a better choice.
“Rendering utilizes the CPU and RAM. If the Project fits completely within memory, processing power is the only hardware factor in rendering. If the Project doesn’t fit into memory, hard drive speed has some effect due to virtual memory swapping.
Graphics cards won’t affect rendering speed, but will speed up the redraw in the Viewport, enabling you to work more interactively with complex Projects.”
Personally, I’d go with a Quadro 4000. Here’s a list of the GPUs supported under AE on Mac:
GeForce GTX 285
Quadro CX
Quadro FX 4800
Quadro 4000Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
Don’t use “Green Drives”. A lot of them are slower than 7200RPM and spin down when not in use so overall you get a fairly large speed loss. These are fine for bulk storage where speed isn’t critical but obviously that’s not the case for video…
I’m not sure on the Drobo overall for video – it’s a great backup drive and is good for non-intensive things like graphics but I’m not sure they are up to task for video. We lately have been recommending the G-Tech G-Speed Q or Pro ES. I personally would stick to eSATA or SAS for connectivity.
Also, for your editing drives, ideally you’d have enterprise drives in a RAID 5 array. These drives are less prone to failure themselves and if they do, the RAID 5 provides some type of security.
On your ‘Long Term Archive’ I’d think about staying away from splitting across disks if there is any proprietary ‘special sauce’ that requires a certain program to restore from these disks. All the work will be for naught if Toast abandons the tech or goes under in a few years.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
What does your school teach?
Avid is industry-standard and I personally believe that using Avid will make you more technical savvy as it requires greater input and technical knowledge when compared to Adobe Premiere.
Avid’s student program is very good and if you spend those 4 years truly learning the program, you’ll have no problem affording another license after you are done with school.
That being said, we recommend that students get a copy of everything and learn them all. You need to know FCP, Media Composer, Premiere, and After Effects for sure.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
I have a shirt for such occasions as well… https://www.angusoblong.com/shirts/no.html
I’m still on the fence. It seems an easy upgrade to monetize an old design. New Chips, TB, Blu-Ray and done. On the other hand, Apple has never seemed to do something halfway so I can also imagine a heartier iMac to begin to fill the gap.
Most people just want an answer though and we have seen some switching to HPs with our customers…
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
Why not go to 30fps? That’s a much easier conversion. Also, 720 is HD. It might be worthwhile to use that as destination format. You’ll gain “apparent” resolution in the 60D stuff and won’t be pushing the other footage as far.
You probably can’t make those software products frame accurate – that’s why “broadcast grade” cost what it does. If they can take input from a sync generator you can try that.
Do all of your cameras have audio with them?
You could always try loading up an appropriate sequence, playing out of one machine and capturing on another through SDI.
Jack Guthrey
Carolinas Account Representative
Marshall Graphics Systems -
Anytime you enter a project with multiple formats there’s a few questions you need to ask yourself.
Most importantly is what your output or destination format will be and what that entails.
HD or SD?
Web, TV, Theater?Your eventual framerate and resolution are what you’re trying to nail down as there is no use in upresing everything if you end up only burning out DVDs.
After you know that, you need to know resolution and framerate of your source footage to make the correct plans to get them in the most convenient format for your destination format.
It seems like you already got most of that but I figured it was worth posting.
As for where to go from here, what is your ultimate destination and what format was shot with the Canon? Luckily what you have right now will play well with each other framerate wise.
Was the DVX stuff shot widescreen or fullscreen?
As far as “capture/playback” everything you have is a digital format so you don’t actually have to use an I/O device to access or convert any of it. Hardware manipulation is typically better (a Teranex type device would be well suited to this https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/teranex/) but none of your cameras have a digital output so you’d either be using a computer and I/O device (the I/O Express would do this) to stay all digital (extending capture time) or be forced to use the digital to analog converters of the cameras which typically are not great. Because of this inherent loss, I’d just take the files and use software to do the format changes. Since you’re dealing with the same framerate family (hopefully – those Kodak cameras can be weird – it’d be worth running Mediainfo on the files to find the true framerate), there should be no noticeable difference.
Ok, now for your actual questions:
1. Shouldn’t matter as your framerate conversions are simple. I’d suggest framerate before upres (though again, depending on output you may not need to upres).2. I know the Konas can, I’ve never used the I/O but I’m assuming they can. Of course, this means a weird process of playing out and capturing what is already a digital source in which case I’d do a software conversion.
What editing software are you using?
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I don’t want to come across as un-helpful but it really sounds like you need to recruit a trusted and respected VAR or Design/Integration company.
More on to your questions – Tricaster is the only real product in this category I handle and am knowledgeable about but Tools on Air may be worth you looking at.
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I don’t remember the exact positioning now (I’ve had lunch since then…) but I thought he said something about how the rigidity is what beings along robustness.
I may have heard criticism as praise though as my opinion is that a rigid workflow is a smart workflow.