[Mark Raudonis]

Don,

Here’s a good place to start: https://www.apple.com/xsan/

Apple’s X-SAN sounds like a candidate for what you want… a system that you can grow with.

Sure there are much cheaper alternatives, but they do come with “hard” limitations on number of ports, connectivity, etc.

My best advice is to find a Value added reseller in your area who can demo this stuff for you.

Good luck.

Mark

PS, there’s a “x-SAN” board on the cow, as well as a plain vanilla “san” board too.

[Mark Raudonis]

Here’s an observation. Both Silicon Color and Proximity were in the Apple booth at NAB last year demonstrating their wares. Wanna peek at next year’s direction for FCP? Go to NAB this year and pay attention to who Apple invites into their own booth. Those companies don’t get there by accident. Both Silicon Color and Proximity were featuring the “best in breed” third party solutions for features that FCP currently did not address: high end color correction and media asset management.

I’m very much looking forward to this year’s NAB. If I owned Avid stock, I’d be selling it now!

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

[Paul Thurston] “Does anybody know who makes a NDF (non drop frame) time code to DF (Drop frame) timecode calculator and who would sell such a product? I’ve always needed one?”

Type: “Time code calculator” into Google and you’ll get a dozen suggestions.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Firewire out of the computer introduces a 5-8 frame delay compared to the canvas. You can have sync sound on the canvas if you monitor the computer or if you send the audio out to the firewire, sync with the NTSC monitor. You CAN”T have it both ways. The only way that is possible is if you use an internal card like the blackmagic or AJA. These cards do NOT use the firewire bus which delays the signal.

Have you checked your monitor settings (“External monitor off”)?

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Is it Worth it?

Whaddya kiddin me? Is it worth it? Is the Pope Catholic?

Sneaker net is so 80’s. Run, don’t walk to your nearest VAR and find out about the various options out there. Seriously.

There’s many choices to fit any budget. The most important thing is to get networked soon. You won’t regret it.

My personal choice is X-SAN, but many are scared away by the price. I say, “you get what you pay for” as far as flexibility and capability. X-SAN leads the pack in this regard.
If your budget is more limited there are many “San in a can” options that may be right for you.

mark

[Mark Raudonis]

I did this recently, but couldn’t find a template either. I took a piece of paper, pencil marked the “spacing” of each unit, then used “x’s” to simulate a label. I spaced out the X’s until it matched the patchbay. Printed it to check, then copied that line of “x’s” a few times in the document. Below the “X’s” , on the next line, I would type in the real label names, using the X’s as guide for spacing and length.

This is a total kluge, but it did work. Good luck finding a template. (You may want to try the ADC website)

mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Francois,

We’ve been using XdCAM for over a year now. Before that, we were using the IMX tape format. With hundreds of hours of network shows delivered, I’m very familiar with the off-line to on-line workflow with this format.

To answer your questions: The FAM (File Access mode) is really only faster than realtime with the lower rez formats: DV is approximate 1.7 X and IMX 50 is just slightly faster than real time. Where you really pick up speed is by NOT tape shuttling and if you use Time Of Day timecode, then the FAM transfer mode is WAY faster.

Go to sony’s web sitehttps://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/DisplaySubCategory?m=10014&sm=0&p=16&sp=20133 and you’ll see your deck options.
Basically there are two in the SD arena: PDW1500 and the PDWV1.

Because FCP currently can NOT use the native “low res proxies” easily, we are forced to digitize realtime to create our own apple “Off-line RT” low res media. This sucks, ’cause we’re losing the advantage of the FAM. However, if you don’t anticipate this kind of “off-line to on-line” workflow, then FAM is your friend. There is a “Native” IMX codec that FCP works with, and you can use that. We however master everything at 8 bit uncompressed for GRFX reasons… then output to Digibeta for delivery.

I like the XD-cam disc format, but the kind of seemless integration with off-line to on-line is NOT quite as simple with FCP as Sony would like you to believe. Only within the last year has the FAM software been available for the Mac. Hope this helps.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

It sounds like you have a mismatch between the aquisition codec (animation) and your sequence settings. If these two aren’t identical, then you will have to render EVERYTHING. Create a new sequence and pay attention to the setting for that sequence. You should NOT have a red line above each shot if you do it correctly.

Mark

[Mark Raudonis]

Francois,

Here in the USA, most broadcasters (Cable and network), require digibeta as their delivery master format for SD programs. HD is well entrenched in primetime with almost all of the schedule now available in HD. D-5 is the defacto standard for HD, with Sony HDCAM SR quickly picking up steam.

I’m afraid that the transition from SD to HD will NOT be overnight and we’ll be doing “multiple format” deliveries for years to come.

There are many people spending a great deal of time and money trying to answer your “it must” questions. It would be nice to have a tapeless deliver workflow, and in the commercial world that’s starting to happen, but in longform it’s quite a ways down the road.

Hope this info helps.

mark

[Mark Raudonis]

doh! As soon as I posted this I saw that you DO have DnXHD! Sorry. How about Apple’s Off-line RT and the SD compressions for AVID anyway?

mark