Mark Raudonis
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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You may want to try this: https://singularsoftware.com/autosync/
It’s software that syncs by audio waveform, NOT timecode. Of course you need to have a common
audio signal on all sources, but usually that’s the case.Good luck.
mark
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5.1 discreet channels are NO different than laying back any “regular” audio. If you’re doing a
Dolby “E” encode… that’s a whole different scenario.To repeat: 5.1 is just assigning tracks and rolling tape. For Dolby “E” encoding I’d suggest you
use an expert if you’ve never done it before: Hint: The audio channels aren’t even set to audio, they’re set to “data”.Mark
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[Fin Hirschoff] “at one point the project file was over 400MB – this is around when the crashes started happening”
I’d say your project is TOO BIG! This is the threshold after which you’re going to start seeing issues.
Unless you can bring the project size down significantly, you’ll probably continue to see issues.
Mark
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I like the “lady bug” grfx! Nice way to put all the bug fix requests in one place, and as more
people log in, you can really get a good idea of which bugs are a priority for the general user.Mark
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Off-line RT HD. Looks like crap, but gets the job done.
mark
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Chrispy,
You’ve hit the “hot button” for anyone entering the “shared storage” pool. Now that you’ve placed all of your eggs in one basket, what happens when that basket breaks? Mr. Z has outlined some of the LTO options and they are recognized by IT professionals as the most economical, viable choices for back up. I’d suggest that you choose one and use it.
The bigger your bucket, the harder/more expensive it is to have a complete back up in place. It really comes down to money. You can have a complete mirrored SAN off-site for 100% disaster recovery capability, but you’ve increased your costs by over 100%. Most post houses simply can’t afford this. Video editors have an advantage over the IT world in that our original data (media) is coming off of an existing data storage format (videotape), and by definition, that is a backup. The project files are infinitely smaller, and therefore more easily backed up. We insist that editors back up their project files three places: locally (to their local drives), globablly (to the SAN), and mobilly (USB drives).
Our storage pool is too big to deal with LTO tapes, but we’re using a reliable SAN (X-SAN) with dependable storage (Active Storage). It’s been in operation for over 5 years now, and we’ve yet to lose any media (other than to operator error). Plenty of drives have failed, but that’s what RAID 5 is for.
There are other pieces to this issue that contribute to your data integrity: Back up power supply, and most importantly, adequate air conditioning. Almost all of our drive failures can be traced to the few times that our AC has conked out.
Here’s my take on it. Your original camera tapes/discs/chips are your ultimate back up. If you have a project that’s close to the finish line with a deadline looming, you may want to back up just the media for that project. Unless you have a complete mirrored SAN, the time to restore from LTO tapes will take so long that you’ll miss your deadline anyway. So, back up your project files regularly and to multiple places, but pick and choose what media you want to back up. That’s just my opinion. I’m sure others will differ, but there is no “right choice”, only what makes sense for your situation considering budget, deadlines, and “tolerance for failure”.
Good luck.
mark
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In my opinion, Prores HQ for this may be overkill. You can probabally get away with plain ole pro res (No HQ). In any case, you better have a very fast raid array to pull 8 streams.
Suggesting an “off-line” resolution really depends on your own personal needs, the expectations of your clients, and how well versed you are in the “uprez” workflow. We use “off-line rt” all the time, since we’re
regularly handling 12 camera shoots with multiple editors. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone, but it works for us.Mark
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Quick answer: You’re on the right track.
Long answer: Typically, people use Off-line RT to solve either storage or bandwidth issues. In our case, it’s both. So, we never keep the high rez media on the drives long enough to do anything but transcode it to Off-line RT. From your post, it sounds like you’re doing that step in FCP. It’s much easier and faster to use Compressor to do that step. Read up on how that works. Hint: If you have multiple computers connected to a network, compressor can take advantage of this “cluster” and using distributed rendering
chomp through mountains of media in minutes. That’s how we do it.Back to your situation: If you have the space on your drives, then there’s no harm in keeping the high rez media available. I’d suggest doing an experiment with a couple of “test” clips to experiment with how media manager and reconnecting works.
Good luck.
Mark
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Harsh? Maybe. Perfect business person? No way. But we have been known to play “high stakes” poker with delivery of masters vs delivery of checks. That’s really the only leverage you have. That’s what I mean about “paying attention to business”. For example, adding a clause in your contract that states you own the copyright of the work UNTIL the invoice is paid in full. It’s much more valuable to go after “Breach of copyright” in court than just “unpaid bills”.
One more comment. It’s often NOT the director that deals with business issues. If you can successfully separate the two (creative and business) and navigate both waters, then you will be fine. Ignoring one over the other is where the problems arise.
Mark wanted advice, I supplied it. The “harshness” was thrown in free of charge.,
mark
[Tim Baker] “Mark R. I’d say you are being a little harsh…unless you are one of those perfect business people in this crazy business of ours and has never run into this situation…you too missed the point that he brought it up early and tried to confront it…as long as he has documentation to prove it…he can most certainly go after the extra money…he did the work…it was out of scope and he is most certainly due the overruns.
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Ben,
We use this classic “off-line RT to on-line” all the time. Some of our shows use up to 12 cameras, and in HD, that’s a lot of bandwidth… especially with a team of 15 editors working. So, we HAVE to go to off-line RT to make it through the day.
The uprez process is dependent on what format you use (tape or tapeless). In our case, we’re using Sony’s XDcam disc based format, and the up rez is MUCH, MUCH faster than tape based.
So, don’t fear the off-line process. It works well. We’ve been using it for almost five years now, on hours and hours of network TV shows.
Good luck.
Mark