Kevin Duffey
Forum Replies Created
-
Hey all,
So I am probably not understanding something correctly… I too am looking to grow to 50 or more TBs of space (in another thread I posted about storing about 50 to 60 4K DNxHR SQ 1.25 hour long soccer games for future editing at end of season). Right now I set up a simple QNAP 2 drive NAS (which I JBOD for use with files I dont care about), and a separate 5 drive Synology NAS. I only have gigabit network right now in my house, but plan to get a 10gig local switch for my soon to be built AMD threadripper setup. I am not sure I understand though why using a NAS is not the way to go for the OP (and maybe for myself). I was using NAS to store the source files as my main systems are all SSD for editing/speed. However, as I start to work on a highlight reel at end of season where I need to pull in clips from 25 or so of these 250GB DNxHR video files, I am thinking a 10gig network and sourcing from the NAS directly would be ideal. Otherwise, I am going to have to copy all the files to my editing rig, which means more storage, etc.
Now, to my point about 10gig switch, I was thinking it would be a good solution with 5 10TB Iron Wolf Pro drives in RAID 6 (though I am reading that RAID 5 or 6 is not ideal now..). However, I also have Thunerbolt 3 on my editing machine (and will on the new one), so perhaps given the size of the files, it would be better to look at a 5 to 8 bay local box with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity?
Either way… I want to ensure the files are safe.. e.g. if a drive fails, I am not losing any footage. I really cant afford 20TBs right now.. much less double that to do backups with. How do you guys handle backups of footage? Is there a better codec to use without losing any quality from my 10bit 422 DNxHR files (yes I know DNxHR SQ is only 8bit.. but eventually when I get a GH5 (or 6 by the time I have the funds) I plan to record in 10bit 422 DNxHR HQ)? I was wondering if using CineformDNG would compress better while not losing any data?
Thanks.
-
Hi Greg,
Thank you for the reply. A lot of what you said is spot on. First.. have you done this sort of thing… e.g. recording sports games for your kid (or professionally)… sounds like you are drawing from experience.
You are right in that the end result is mostly going to be youtube pushed videos, which even when in 4K are I assumed AVCHD/MP4 compressed. However, I am also looking to offer highlight reels for other parents of their kids. I can not possibly know after each game is recorded who might want one of those down the road. Trying to pick and pull all the good bits would take me hours and would end up with probably at least 1/3 of the video still needing to be stored to cover all the kids (assuming they all make a few decent/good plays per game). So, assuming I were going to save each game till later in the season (end of season) I would much rather work from the barely compressed DNxHR format to edit with than compressed AVCHD/MP4. I am also under the impression (but not for sure yet on how to do this) that I could pull still frames as pictures from DNxHR/ProRes files vs AVCHD/MP4 which often look washed out or dithered on a per frame basis.
I do want to offer the source material to parents as well… perhaps to archive themselves if they are going to pay me for it. Which brings about another thing.. part of my spending the money now was hoping I could ask for a few hundred bucks to make a highlight video per kid. What do you think? Given the number of hours involved in finding a kids involvement in each game, and then cataloging the good bits to then piece together takes a lot of time. I suspect I wont be profitable at all doing this, but if it pays back some of the costs of the gear, then at least there is that. Still, I would like to advertise that I am saving 4K high quality broadcast level video for use in making 4K/HD highlights available… possibly more reason to be worth a $300 or so.
Frankly, I feel like it should cost a bit more because of how many hours are involved, but I know parents wont pay nearly that much. I might be lucky to see a couple of them interested at $200 a pop.
Still, per my thread, I was really curious if there was a way to compress the DNxHR/ProRes footage without any loss.. like how CinemaDNG RAW apparently takes up less space than my DNxHR files. The atomos can actually record in 4K CinemaDNG RAW but only for select cameras. I really wish they would allow it for use as the codec regardless of the input plugged in.
-
I usually set a flat setting for recording video, then use a white balance card within the vicinity of the model/product and WB the camera. Then do some test shots and see how it comes out. It may also help if you have a larger 7″ or so monitor to view the test shots to make sure the LCD isn’t an issue, although usually that’s not a problem.
-
Hi,
I figured out that the HDMI out feeding into my monitor was 1080i60. Despite what I changed on the camera internally, it always output 1080i60.
That is one of the recording formats though for the Hyperdeck 2. So it was disappointing that it would not record it. I was able to record the output of my laptop, briefly, on the shuttle, but even that would not stay stable.
I will say though, that the camera outputs a 1080i60 but you’re right in that there are black bars on the left and right, so the effective output is 1620×1080. It’s not too bad though.. you can crop it down to something like 1440×960, then scale it back up to 1920×1080. Because it’s uncompressed, the final 1920×1080 is still very good with no compression. Stored in DNxHD or ProRes is far better to edit with than working on AVCHD format for editing purposes. But alas, I agree. it’s still not ideal.
So I am going to buy a BM Cinema Camera sometime soon and just use my t3i for pictures. I bought the Shuttle over a year ago and never got to use it, as it took me that long to be able to buy the rest of the rig, audio gear, etc. So hopefully I can get the BM camera soon and finally be able to record some good quality video.
-
May be a bit late, but if you have the option of HDMI out, you can use something like the Atomos Ninja (bit expensive) or the Hyperdeck Shuttle 2, which will record to ProRes or DNxHD on SSD drives. This gives you far better quality for editing, as well as a better editing format, and does so without H264 compression (hdmi out is before the compression is applied).
-
Like others said, a juicelink or something would be good before feeding in to the camera. If you can, something like the Tascom DR-40/60, H4n/H6 would be good, because it’s external audio and much better preamps. Even better is they all have a line out on them that you can feed to the camera input. This makes it very easy to sync the audio in post while still getting audio with the video.
-
It depends on what you want. The BM 2.5K camera is a fantastic deal right now… Why? Well, the BM Pocket camera is $995 but with a 1080P potential CinemaDNG RAW 10-bit recording. However, for 2K, the 2.5K gives you the extra wiggle room to work around shakes and other things when outputting to 1080p, as well as you record to SSD for longer times (potentially), and the sensor is bigger, but the big one is you get the $1000 Davinci software with it (you get version 9, but there is a free version 10 upgrade). That’s huge.. essentially making the better 2.5K camera only $1K, the same price as the smaller sensored but still impressive pocket camera.
The 4K is really the gold mine though. Not only do you get 4K resolution, you get a global shutter, which in the world of video is pro stuff.. huge. It avoids the moire or wiggling of video while panning and other movements, and at 4K in price (with the Davinci software), the global shutter and 4K resolution is an incredible package for only 4K in price.
If you can afford it, the 4K setup is the way to go, otherwise for me the 2.5K with 13 stops of range, .7K extra room to deal with cleaning up unstable video, etc, is worth it.
-
To add to this.. the previous post is correct in that what is recorded on the camera is really double compression. However, I believe tools like plural eyes uses “spikes” in the audio file with the video and the external file to synch things up. So if you look at it that way, use the camera recorded audio to then use the external recording to synch the good audio.
-
Agree with the other poster unless you maybe have a 300mm 2.8 zoom or better, so that you can zoom in without light changing. Then use sports mode to utilize quick shutter speeds to capture those special moments, but if it’s a night game, the t3i with it’s more noiseful iso of 800+ (especially 1600+) you might be hard pressed for night time great shots with a 2.8. As the other post suggested, if you can get in with a 1.8 or 1.4 or something close up on the field, you may get better results.
-
Either a decent video tripod or a slider perhaps for video stuff?