[Neil Sadwelkar]

Yes. Compressor will preserve timecode. But do the Canon 5D MkII files have time code? I would have imagined it makes .mov all starting at 00.00.00.00.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

This discussion on RAID types, beginning with a user finding a spare RAID at the back of his closet, makes me wonder on one aspect of RAID. Safety.

I’ve been through various RAID types and solutions. And I’ve been through disaster. When drives fail. And the temporary loss of data. The nerve wracking hours when the RAID is rebuilding after a drive replacement.

RAID 1 is a mirror, but if one drive/volume fails, you can’t get access on the good one till you rebuild the whole RAID.

So how about this? Let your RAID 10 remain as it is. So your facility has no down time.
Then configure the new empty one as RAID 5. Place it on the network and have some backup utility backup files daily or at regular intervals. Not compressed, and with the exact same folder structure. So you effectively have a mirror, but a working mirror.

Then if your main RAID 10 fails, you simply have to access the mirror which is current. And in the background rebuild and fix the bust RAID 10.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

[walter biscardi] “The tape transport runs faster, spreads the information across more tape, slightly less compression, slightly better color.”

No wonder.
My spreadsheets always looked crisper and sharper when I saved them to a 5.25 in. floppy back in the day. With the 3.5 in floppy the data is spread over a smaller surface and hence more compressed.

And that also explains why even pictures look better on a MacPro than a MacBook Pro even if you connect them to the same monitor to compare. The MacBook Pro uses a 2.5 in hard disk so the data is more compressed than the MacPro’s 3.5 in hard drive. Less area.

I think there have been enough resources pointing to the fact that DV and DVCam process the same signal when recording to tape. Tape speed is different and tracks are wider, but that does not in any way contribute to quality.

DVCam camcorders recording to DVCam look better than DV camcorders recording to mini DV simply because the camera is better, not the recorder or the recording.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Canon movies will import directly into FCP. But how they will play back in an HDV or DVCProHD timeline will depend on the system you have.
i recommended Compressor to batch convert Canon movie into Apple ProRes Quicktimes to make them easy to play back. But if your Canon movies work fine directly in FCP. just go with it.

You will probably capture HDV as HDV or Apple Intermediate codec. And you’ll capture DVCProHD as DVCProHD from within FCP. You’ll probably do both over Firewire, I guess. Unless the DVCProHD is P2.

And Apple ProRes is a Quicktime codec, a type of Quicktime, not an independent movie format like Quicktime or AVI. ProRes was made to enable near-uncompressed-like quality at very low data rates. You can actually make a broadcast master from Apple ProRes. ProRes works on PC and Mac.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I think you can import the movie straight to FCP. However, it might be a better idea to convert them to HD Apple ProResHQ first. You can do this in the background with Compressor.
Working ProResHQ will preserve the original quality and make editing easier for the system.

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

[Neil Sadwelkar]

To be fair, I checked out this storage solution at the HP site.

It is termed
“HP ProLiant DL380G5 Cluster Solution with MSA2012fc”

There are two servers and two switches and 8 clients can be handled.

And the actual storage module is a StorageWorks 2000fc which can be configured with a variety of drive types.

This, according to HP is ideal for

“Large companies that have multiple smaller departments and/or remote locations, and smaller companies whose storage needs demand shared resources.”

I have doubts if this can be successfully used formatted as an HFS+ volume. Even if it did, it probably will have trouble streaming DV over long timelines. Uncompressed SD or HD, extremely unlikely.

Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

You should download these software encoder demo versions. Make short encodes of a variety of types of shots representing the work you normally do. Then play each out of a DVD Player and capture as ProRes or uncompressed into your edit system. Lay them out side by side on the same monitor and compare.

If you don’t have capture hardware you can open the m2v files and compare them side by side.

Personally I use Apple Compressor with a variety of settings for different occasions. And it works beautifully. I’ve compared Compressor encodes with the source file on my Mac monitor and reached the conclusion that for my use Compressor works best.

Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

If your backup needs are modest then blu-ray is an attractive choice. Disks are cheap, as is the drive. LTO is more reliable but drives aren’t cheap. And, accessing one file from an entire LTO is not as easy as it is from Blu-ray.

Blu-ray is not quite as delicate as people make it out to be. It has a pretty tough coating. To find out how tough, make a blu-ray disk and then place it in your bag without a cover. Carry it around for a few days with keys, loose change in the same pocket. Then take it out, wash it with soap and running water and run it. You’ll be surprised.

Blu-ray will also one day become obsolete but when that happens you will need to migrate your entire blu-ray disk collection to the new medium whatever it is. Maybe it will be solid state, maybe larger disks like 100 Gb or even 1 Tb per disk.

One more thing. dual layer blu-ray disks hoild 50 Gb all right but they write slow. One dual layer takes more time than 2 single layer disks done separately.

Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

Chrispy,

Good to find you here.

I tend to agree that video, your original ‘data’, if off tapes can always be recaptured. That being said, if its a PAL film project with the average 50-100 hours of material, an equal quantity of BWF files, sub clips and FCP’s fantastic inability to relink 24fps conformed clips. Recapture is not always an option.

Then there’s tapeless media – AVCHD, XDCamEx, Red, Phantom, etc etc.

But most of this backups are really short term backups. Once the program is edited, the value of the original unedited media diminishes over time.

For my film DI clients, I advice a bunch of Firewire drives. If you’re really paranoid, do a simultaneous backup to LTO3 – one reel per tape. In the worst case, the film is always there. Can be rescanned.

With LTOs, my observation is they’re not like hard drives. You need to have the software that wrote it, just to read them. So, a Bru backup, needs Bru to restore. Retrospect needs retrospect and so on. Windows Backup (its a software built in to Windows) seems to be common across Windows systems.

Some tape libraries don’t normally work like a cupboard full of drives but like a giant volume which is the sum of all LTO tape cassettes in them. So, if you need a particular file, they can get it. but only the software knows which tape or tapes it is in. You can’t just write to a Library and then pull out one or more tapes and keep them away.

So unless the world comes up with a storage device that’s as long lasting as film, video tape, and hard disk – in that order – we’re going to pretty much take our chances with storage. Or, get two of them of two different makes… and still take our chances.

Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

*They* may have made the choice but now *you* don’t have a working storage. I’ve been through many a ‘suit-n-tie’ presentation form normal IT vendors who try and sell you their banking and insurance storage, and tell you it will work with video and with a Mac.

HP, IBM, Hitachi, EMC, all make great shared storages, but absolutely none of them work with a Mac. And definitely can’t handle video.

The surest test comes when one calls the SE (system engineer) from any of these companies and ask them to demo. They make the connections, sit in front of the Mac and move the mouse screen bottom. Then they ask you where the start button is. It is then you realise these guys aren’t even aware of an operating system other than Windows and maybe Linux.

Quicktime HD uncompressed needs about the same bandwidth of about 20,000 ATMs vending cash simultaneously. Except that this bandwidth has to be sustained and not in 5-10 k packets every few seconds or so. This is the part that they find out after trying out. Which is what you’re doing for them now.

I’m sure there’s a simple fix for your problem. Just don’t expect it to come from *them*. Its up to you to get it to work.

Please let us know how you managed. When, (not if) you manage.

Neil Sadwelkar

FCP Editor, Mumbai, India.
Completely PAL.