Mark Raudonis
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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If you don’t want to spring for a brand new Mac Pro, just get a Mac Mini and BOOM!, you’ve got a new stand alone digitizing station.
Mark
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David,
We’ve been using that camera and the XDCAM HD format for years. For a certain level of production, it hits the sweet spot of affordability, quality, and convenience. (Boy, do I sound like a Sony sales rep!)
You do know that the XDCAM format creates it’s own low rez proxy, don’t you?
In any case, even though we use the classic “off-line to on-line” workflow that you’re suggesting, I’d recommend NOT doing that if at all possible. Storage and bandwidth costs have come down to such affordable levels, that you REALLY have to have mountains of media to use the “Off-line” codec. (Yes, we have mountains of media)
The amount of time, effort , and stress saved by avoiding this “conforming” process is well worth the additional cost of storage required. That’s my opinion.
Mark
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Bob,
I think you’re misunderstanding the “rebuilding” process. When a SINGLE drive goes bad in a raid 5 config, you may continue to work accessing that raid set. You may experience slightly lower performance, but you still can use the raid… that’s the whole point! The “rebuild” process is typically a ‘background” activity, so while it may take hours to complete, it really doesn’t impact workflow that significantly.
Our entire SAN is based on Raid 5 level security. We’ve been up and running for over five years and haven’t missed a broadcast deadline yet. During that time we’ve probably replaced and “rebuilt” over a dozen individual drives. At around the three year mark, it seemed that drives were dropping like flies, and we were popping in new drives just about every week. Since then, it’s stabilized and we haven’t had a drive go bad in awhile. But, make no mistake, EVERY drive will die if you run it long enough. That’s why they invented the RAID schemes.
Having said all of the above, when we’re facing a critical deadline, I make sure that essential media lives somewhere OTHER than our primary SAN, like on a the internal drives of one of our computers. You’re absolutely correct that “time to restore” media if the whole SAN goes done should be considered. I always have the original media on disk or tape, but by the time I recreated what I need, my deadline would have passed. So, if you’re down to the wire, make sure you have a plan “B”.
Mark
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[Casey McGee] “I called promise tech support to check, the guy was no help and told me to call Apple.”
WTF!!!! Check out “Active” storage… their tech support can answer that question with a simple, “Yes we do support FCS 3”. While you’re at it, look at their cool iPhone app for monitoring system status.
Mark
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Music costs are a HUGE variable. They can easily whipsaw your budget from “attractive” to “impossible” if you’re not aware of the costs involved. Most networks want “world wide in perpetuity” clearance, and that is VERY expensive. If you’re thinking about anything OTHER than library music, it should be clear from the outset with everyone involved, and budgeted accordingly. In my experience, this is one of the most commonly UNDER estimated costs.
Mark
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[Charlie Carr] “Color is great, but the editor sitting behind the color is not on par with the person sitting behind the davinci, if they were they wouldn’t be sitting in front of final cut.”
Mr Carr.
There’s plenty of people using “Color” to do high level grading on long form projects. The creativity and skill evidenced on those projects would put your average Cheetos spot to shame. To make such a sweeping generalization about the skill level of someone using Color is just myopic and uninformed.
Mark
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[John Baumchen] “so they don’t muck up my workflow”
Good luck with that!
Mark
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Who was the brainiac who suggested this workflow?
Going cross platform with any project is problematic at best. Throwing RED into the mix is a guarantee for confusion. You’re not going to get any simple answers from here. There’s no substitute for doing exhaustive tests on the process BEFORE you actually need it. If you had done tests, you would have identified these issues and either found a workaround that’s acceptable or abandoned this plan.
I would have stuck with ONE NLE. Start in Avid, finish in Avid. Or, stay with FCP the whole way. As you’ve noted, anything else is just a world of hurt.
Good luck.
Mark
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Not much of a market.
I’ve got a mountain (10K) of used IMX tapes. I’m headed for the recyler too! (Unless someone here wants them)
Mark
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Alan,
The Spherico plug in is only $50 bucks! Are you really that cheap! Don’t say you want a “low budget” solution. What you really want is FREE! Good luck with that.
Mark