[Neil Sadwelkar]

If you have FCS 3 you have Apple Color installed. Apple Color can convert DPX or Cineon to Quicktime and scale it to HD or SD.

Here’s your workflow…

Open Color
Set project settings to 720×576* and fps to your original DPX frame rate
Set the Render file type to Quicktime and ProRes 422HQ
Set a Project render directory. This is where the converted QTs will go.
Navigate to the folder containing the DPX sequence
When the seq shows up select it and click on import
The DPX seq will come into your Color project
It will undergo a log-lin conversion automatically, but you can override this.
Set the size in the Geometry room. You may have to set the scale to match and Aspect to 0.5 if this is 1:2.35

After all is well, you can go to the Render Queue and add this clip. Then click render

Now your DPX seq will be converted to Quicktime and it will appear in the folder you marked in the Project render directory. it will be called 1g1.mov or some such thing.

You can now Quit Color and import that mov to FCP. Add sound and graphics if any. Then make a DVD from that.

* If you need NTSC you need to set this to 720×486

If you need a simpler workflow and can spend some money, get GlueTools. This will enable you to open DPX in Quicktime or even FCP and convert it to Quicktime to make a DVD out of. GlueTools is by far the best DPX handling tool on PC or Mac.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

One cheapo method is to use the two extra SATA ports in your MacPro as external ports with this adapter cable.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/MPQXES2/?APC=XLR8YourMac09

Mind that these parts are not hot swap. So I guess that means you need to power down the mac Pro when you need to swap drives.

I haven’t tried this myself.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Hey Matt,

How are you doing? Great to hear from you. We’ve corresponded, we’ve spoken on the phone. We’ll probably meet one day if we haven’t already.

Your explanations are always so honest yet so informative. I appreciate that.

Times are not what they used to be. We now go over every expense with a loupe, and then mull it over for a bit. Which is not altogether a bad thing. I guess we are actually getting more value for money now. I wish we’d been so careful when times were a rockin’. Maybe we wouldn’t have gotten into this mess. But that’s another story.

I hear your suggestion of laying down expectations first and then figuring out how to meet them. I plan on studying the problem carefully before laying down requirements. Then, yes sure, if there’s a solution that one can be reasonably assured will work, I’m sure we can go in for it.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

The local storage idea is a good one and I can attest it works.

For one 24-seat VFX group of MacPros, we found when they all hit the SAN over GigE (its a Bright SAN) they all fall down. So we devised a workflow around giving all systems 3x1Tb internal drives. They copy relevant frames from SAN locally. Work like mad on Shake. Render out locally too. Then copy back to the SAN.

This creates copies, of course. But copies means crucial data has a back up. And copying in two bursts, rather than zillions of small hits means the network is freed up from ‘small arms fire’.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I completely agree with you John. And I’m coming from a background where we have Bright, SGI, and Discreet storage, so we know a thing or two about paying premiums for storage.

The thing about paying a ‘bit more’ to sleep well at night depends on where you are located. Caldigit, or AJA, or Atto, or whoever may have good service but that’s just where you are. What if you are in Cape Town, or 40 miles outside Amsterdam, or in Mumbai? How soon will anyone with ‘terrific service’ in L.A. service your RAID?

The best RAID, like the best anything, is something that does not need service. That just works. And to build that kind of a RAID, some amount of study, of hard work, is essential. If you do it, and it works, so be it.

If it doesn’t, then with effort, your second RAID will work for sure. And the bulk of the cost of parts you ‘wasted’, is drives. These can be used anywhere. Just get a SATA dock, and your drives become ‘tera-floppies’ or ‘tera-cartridges’.

So with RAID, please experiment. And keep reporting… here, or over at the SAN forum at the Cow. Yes, there’s a SAN forum with some great insights on large storage systems.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Actually what I referred to as ‘editing SAN’ is the kind of SAN over GigE that the link referred to. Not XSan or some such FC SAN. I know about XSan and have used it very successfully in an editing share situation.

Anyway, I’ll take this up with you over at the XSan forum as well.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I think there’s a way to capture Varicam 720p60 at 24fps via some pulldown or pull up. Then just conform that to 25fps in CinemaTools, and you’ve got smooth video.

Or, you can convert 60 to 24 (or 59.94fps to 23.976fps) in Compressor and then conform that to 25fps to get PAL. Just make sure you convert 720p to 720×576. Not 720×486 which is what NTSC is.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I think its Blue at the low end and if you need PATA.
Green at the high capacity, but low power segment. These are variable rpm, so I’m not sure how that affects editing video.
Black are the fastest.

If you need rock-solid reliability, and don’t mind paying for it, consider Enterprise drives.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

For a slightly different solution, consider the Pipeline from Telestream. ($ 1950 for SD-SDI version). It connects to one VTR via SDI and RS-422 and then to a network via CAT5. Anyone on the network can now access the VTR, capture, control the VTR. It won’t do uncompressed SD, but captures as DNxHD, DVCPRO HD, ProRes SQ, DV IMX & MPEG 2 – all over GigE.

There’s a HD version PipelineHD dual, and a Quad SD version permitting connection to 4 VTRs. Both $ 9,950.

Not sure if this addresses your query, but it’s an interesting way to share a VTR without a router. And best of all, it works with iMacs and MacBook Pros and doesn’t need all systems to have any capture hardware.

These devices may not be very popular with post, but I believe the broadcasting and re-purposing industries use them. Mind that there’s a latency in playback through the Pipeline, so its not exactly like a capture card and can’t probably be used as a monitoring solution during editing.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

[Aaron Neitz] “98% of 24p media is actually 23.976 media, and 98% of workflows should conform to that.”

Hang on a minute. In many NTSC countries, a large part of HD media at 24fps is expressed as 23.976. But where did the 98% come from? 98% of all media in NTSC countries, or worldwide?

In the PAL world, we have no use whatsoever of 23.976. Film (as film everywhere) runs at exactly 24fps. And when we make that out for HD tape, we make a 1080p24 tape.
When one makes a ProRes Seq at 24fps, Apple FCP, ‘helpfully’ sets it as it 23.976. We ‘respectfully’ change that to 24fps and make a HD master.

When run out to PAL Digibeta this is transferred at 25fps for PAL TV. And when shown on a HDTV station, its shown at 24fps. We don’t do any thing at 23.976, unless we have to send it to the US. Which is not 98% of the time.

So, 24 fps is probably not 23.976 fps, 98% of the time and 98% of workflows need not conform to that.

I’m bringing this up because budding editors in PAL world where this forum is visible, often mistakenly set things up for 23.976 which causes serious headaches when inter-working with ProTools and unimaginable sound sync issues. Especially because the difference between 23.976 and 24 is so small but it becomes an issue if you have films about 3 hrs long.

So if anyone is doing 24 in a PAL country, it should be 24 all along.

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