[Neil Sadwelkar]

So Tim, what did you end up getting?

I’m curious because I was in your boat about a year ago. After mulling over various options, I went out and got a Tandberg LTO-5 and Atto SAS card. Popped it into a MacPro and thought (like you) “I could use the extra $500 so why bother with BRU-PE”.

I tried Tandberg LTFS and try as I might couldn’t get it to work reliably. Some tapes formatted some didn’t, some mounted some didn’t. Maybe it was some Fuse incompatibility maybe something else. Changed systems too. A newer MacPro system worked slightly better.

Eventually went and got BRU-PE. Just bought it didn’t even bother with the demo. I was handling data for a multi-million dollar feature and simply couldn’t take chances with LTFS tapes.

A year later I’m happy to say I’ve managed data for about a dozen features all with BRU. Did a few restores as well. Bought a second drive and second BRU for one of my clients. Then last week another LTO-6 and another BRU for another client.

Just today I reexamined LTFS as some clients are asking for an ‘open’ solution. So I downloaded the OEM LTFS package at Tandberg site and managed to make LTFS mount as a drive. I dragged and dropped a folder on to the tape and then tape began whirring away.

After about 15mins I got the Mac -36 error some file couldn’t be read. It was a Compressor droplet. Which when double-clicked on the source worked fine. So I tried the copy again, this time just the unreadable file. Again same error. I copied the same file to another drive and it copied, but LTFS simply didn’t like it.

So I’ve postponed trying out LTFS for another day. Maybe LTFS works better with IBM or HP tape drives.

Maybe your experiences are better hence I’m curious to see how you’re managing with LTFS. For me, BRU is doing fine. Maybe LTFS works better with IBM or HP tape drives.

People who use StorageDNA seem to have better experiences with LTFS. Or maybe ProRoll Post which is also LTFS based.

I’m now going to start a large portable backup at a client site with BRU-PE running on a 15″ MBP and driving a Tandberg LTO-5 drive off a Thunderbolt – SAS converter which is an Atto SAS inside a Mercury Helios. Done test runs. Seems to work. Will try with a large set of data and see.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

This has nothing to do with India.

There are stupid people everywhere. I live and work in India and often visit the US. I haven’t still been able to resolve some issue with my AT&T phone and Verizon phone. And I have had to deal with stores in the US with executives who just bumble along with no clear solution to my issues.

I don’t blame the US for that. I simply blame some stupid people and stupid policies that these companies use, for billing.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Wow what an interesting set of insights. I hope the original poster got his response, but even if he didn’t, the ‘casual bystander’ got a peep into what people are doing with FCP X.

I think as editors, once we understand and and accept the fact, that FCP X is just another new editing tool in the same way that FCP was when it appeared in 2000.

In that sense if we accept it as a new companion, or spouse, we can be happy with it. Once we start comparing it with the previous one – with whom we may have parted, or maybe we continue dating – we run into grief. Best is to accept it as it is, and move on. Or not.

FCP X definitely works for many people, even makes as much money as whatever they were using before it.

For me, I use it like an ‘instant’ FCP 7. But use FCP 7 for some stuff that FCP X can’t do as well.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I’ve just run the Blackmagic Speed test on my G-Speed Q 8 TB (RAID5 – 6 TB) with 1.15 TB free. I’ve connected it to a MacPro 8-core through a Sonnet 2-port SATA card. I’m seeing about 230 MB/sec write and 250 MB/sec read.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

This has been my experience too.

G-Speed Q and G-Speed eS drives are picky about the eSATA card you connect with. I’ve also experienced the same speed bump with the Atto H680 and SAS-4x eSATA cable. But that card-cable combo doesn’t work with G-Tech RAIDs if they are ‘RAIDed’ using the G-Tech SATA card.

It’s also very interesting to read all the other comments about your write speed issue.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Can you link to the single slot 640? Or is it on your ebay page?

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Isn’t the GT640 a dual slot card? What’s the replacement for the GT120 which is also single slot? So that one can fit the Titan in Slot 1, GUI card in Slot 2 and have two slots available for a Blackmagic and some other, maybe SAS.

Also, how well do these (Titan/GTX780) cards work in a PCI expander?

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

After Creative Cloud, re-installing PrPro, is not easy. Huge download.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I have the exact same setup except 8-core, 16 GB RAM, G-Tech RAID and I get way more fps doing 2k ProRes4444 to HD ProResLT dailies. I think close to 50fps.

I always read from one drive and render to another. So the ‘read’ drive is a location G-Drive over eSATA and the ‘write’ drive is the RAID. But reading off a RAID, processing, and then writing back to the same RAID will likely be slower than reading off the RAID and writing to a single internal SATA drive.

Also, since you’re doing sound sync, sound and video files off the same drive and then write back result to the same drive will slow things down. Try keeping video, audio, and result drives on different drives.

Maybe Disk I/O is your problem.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Did you get this resolved. I’ve just installed MC 6.5.2 on a new MacBook Pro and I can’t get Red AMA to work. Volume or even file level. It simply can’t do anything with Red R3D files from a Red Epic.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India