[J. Tad newberry]

…and your favorite(s) would be?????

[J. Tad newberry]

thanks for the warning. well, all i will need a new card to do is to continue to have a set of component break-out cables to continue to be able to capture to/from my BetaSP deck, but then also allow me to capture (via firewire, USB or whatever from a camcorder or deck) in the DVCPro HD codec. is Blackmagic or AJA the way to go???

[J. Tad newberry]

doh! i meant, “i could also upgrade to FCP 6 (not 5)”…

[J. Tad newberry]

yes, i’ve talked with them a bit and they don’t have a rock solid recommendation. sort of “6 one way, half a dozen the other”…but i’ve pretty much decided to do the following:

– capture my HDCam footage today at the post house at DVCPro HD codec onto my new snazzy 500 GB Seagate SATA drive;
– upgrade the capture card at my facility to the BlackMagic Intensity (so i can capture DVCPro HD in the future) or Kona’s version – i’ll research that choice more next…);
– after getting my new card, rent an HDV deck or camera and recapture all my HDV footage at the DVCPro HD codec (yes, i know i won’t be gaining any quality, but it won’t have to render on a DVCPro FCP timeline);
– finish my “offline” in DVCPro HD;
– take it to the post house as is and dump it to an HDCam master tape;
– in the future, i probably won’t shoot HDCam anymore, but rather (2) DVCPro HD cameras thus eliminating several steps here (and saving bucks), and still yielding a high-quality 1080i master at the end.
– of course, i could also upgrade to FCP 5, keep shooting my B camera in HDV and mix the future DVCPro HD footage with HDV on the timeline, but it sounds like there are still too many bugs in 5 to make that move yet.

(i heartily welcome any and all comments to this workflow plan!) : )

[J. Tad newberry]

i’ve used an external 500 GB LaCie for almost two years now with no problems at all. additionally, i just bought a 500 GB Seagate SATA which (so far) is working great. on the other hand, i’ve heard of several people on this forum who have had problems with LaCie and do not recommend them (i am not one of them, though).

[J. Tad newberry]

that is good info. i will go back and reformat my two journaled drives. do you know specifically what problems i might entail if i leave them as “journaled”? i’ve had two media drives journaled for almost 2 years now, but maybe that is the source of some of my problems…

[J. Tad newberry]

it didn’t seem a whole lot faster than my FW LaCie 500 GB external, so i tried a file transfer test. the Seagate eSATA transferred about 23% faster than the LaCie, but playback of QT files showed the biggest difference. on the LaCie, QTs play back with a blackbox flicker, but they play fine and clean on the Seagate. also, i formatted the Seagate with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) like my system and media drives, but the LaCie had been formatted Mac OS Extended [non-journaled]…though i have no idea what difference that makes. just thought i would share this info for anyone who’s interested…

[J. Tad newberry]

i think i’ll aim for the enclosures and RAID in the very near future, but for this weekend, i just need to go grab some additional space. what are your thoughts on a Seagate and Western Digital as makers? also, someone said i might need a SATA controller…is that another card that has to be put in the G5? (aren’t i dumb?)

[J. Tad newberry]

thanks for the reply, and sorry for clogging up this forum with it. if HDV is this bad, why is it so popular? sure it’s cheaper, but with all these problems i’m just surprised it is getting around so much.

[J. Tad newberry]

so do you guys prefer the AJA Kona or BM’s Decklink Extreme? looks like i need to jump up a bit here…