[Petros Kolyvas]

We had an intel 520-series SSD fail this week. It was two weeks old. We also had a shoot which required the Shuttle2… to record some iPads being used in classrooms. The only choice was to stick a 2.5″ WD Scorpio Black (7.2k) in it. It worked fine, the recording light flashed, but we were recording DNxHD (I made a request for lower bitrate DNxHD options too) and it all came out fine.

I’m not saying it’s supported or recommended, but in a pinch it seems to have worked. We recorded over an hour of material at 720p60.

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

[Cassius Marques] “Petros said “The building is theirs and they can do what they want with it. ”

I understand from this analogy that the building here is the final delivered video format… and not the tools that created it from ground up. ” “

Actually I disagree and that’s ok, I think this discussion is vitally important whether any one of us is “right or wrong.” In my mind, my metaphor follows two issues that have been brought up here:

3rd Party plugins and the above statement. You give them a file.

Keyframes and equations are not proprietary; this is very western-thinking in my mind, the kind that relates to the IP issues our societies are struggling with.

Now, let’s say they need the trapcode suite and some other third party effects (like the Foundry camera tracker) – well this goes right back to my metaphor. You gave them the building, and even (to extend it) the blue prints. But they can’t have your hammer and nail gun, they need their own. They need those and they need to know how to use them. And again, this is where a true artist’s value lies, in their knowledge to get what they want and need out of a project.

I think there are lots of great points raised in this thread, all of which bear weighing against the final outcome: does that client come back to you, do you really want them, and are you trying to protect something because you’re emotionally hurt or something like that…

No matter what, the most important thing mentioned here (and not by me), is to discuss it upfront and get it in writing, but again, remember to put yourself in the client’s shoes. You were paid to work on x, it is not entirely unreasonable for them to ask you to hand over work and assume the time you spent on it covers that. You may disagree, I may disagree, but is it worth fighting about?

Your value isn’t in what you own or what you’ve done, but your ability to put all that together with that indefinable something that makes you an artist whether you’re working on something mundane like tracking a shot for logo placement or some amazing 3D composite.

This is all just, like, my opinion, man. 😉

Be well folks!

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Are you running 5.5.2? (that was the update which fixed the lion-related timecode overlay issue.)

The other thing we discovered, using a timecode preset that matches our requirements is that it references XY positioning in absolute relation to the original source clip.

So, say you have 1080p clip with the burn-in running in the upper right hand corner. Then you apply the preset to a 720p clip, it may very well be offscreen.

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

This may not be what you want to hear, but I’ll try to be clear.

I like to think of what we (collectively as professional post folk) do as something akin to construction. There can be lots of artistry involved, but typically we’re building something for the client. It’s not really that simple in practive but let’s use that metaphor for the sake of my argument.

I’ve been asked for project files before. My general rule of thumb (and this is simply my own) is that if they paid for the work to date, I will give them what they want.

There are some caveats. In some cases project files are extremely complex; do they want them simplified and organized and annotated so someone else can, as easily as possible, take over? If yes, that takes time. Billable time. Is the project data-intensive. Again, it will take time and hardware to transfer.

If they want the project as-is, and, again, have paid for the post production time to date, I see it much like (to tie the room together) as me moving off one construction site to another. The building is theirs and they can do what they want with it.

I will, under no circumstances, give out project files for open accounts unless there was some contractual agreement or requisite workflow that neccessitates such an exchange.

After all this, in the end, it’s up to you. I can say that, no matter what, it’s never a nice feeling to have to give up something you worked hard at, only to have it hacked at by someone else, whether that reason is they’re cheaper or not.

In some ways, it is one of the realities of many professions, but rarely a pleasant one.

I will add this to close though, there’s a good chance they’ll be back when they realise what you’re worth!

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Are you working on Lion? This issue was fixed in CS5.5 (5.5.2) on Lion (it was Lion specific if that wasn’t clear) but I don’t know if Adobe addressed it in the 5.x series.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

I don’t believe there’s any ability to export to ProRes on PC short of that PC being built to run OS X.

If you have to “go Apple,” an old, used, intel mac ($cheap) with Snow Leopard and purchasing Compressor from the app stop ($49) could suffice depending on how much footage you have an how quickly (or slowly) you need it converted (but I do mean slowly in some cases.)

Then there’s the possibility you already use or have access to a recording device that supports ProRes and you just play-out to it? This probably isn’t ideal, but it could work.

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

I beleive one of the LHe’s limitations (the LHe Plus as well as indicated here: https://www.aja.com/products/kona/kona_comparison.php) is that it can’t upconvert in hardware. You’ll have to use software to do so (IE capture SD and then render to HD via Media Encoder.)

🙁

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Once you get the hang of it (some of the Adobe variable speed nomenclature/interface elements can seem confusing at first) you’ll appreciate it’s power and ultimate simplicity. I find speed ramping in Premiere to be far more clear than it was (for me at least) in FCP. IE. when you want to achieve something, you don’t really have to fiddle too much to get it done.

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There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

You can use the variable speed (time remapping) and it works like you hoped, more or less.

You can find all the info here:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/premierepro/cs/using/WSE0FF41A8-3D13-4f54-A1A9-D85E08011161.html#WSC2C228EB-953F-496d-B1C8-47C2146971B9

Good luck!

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

The DS-24e uses a well-regarded Areca Expander that, as far as I know is fine with SATA drives. Do you have any links to the issues? Here is the expander used in that chasis: https://www.areca.us/products/sascableexpander.htm

We use an 6G Intel Expander (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/servers/raid/raid-controller-res2sv240.html) in our in-house array build (in the 4240) and if I had to do it again I’d use the DS-24e and save some sweat and tears. However, if what you say is accurate, in this case, the Intel card has had no trouble with 3G and 6G SATA drives in addition to SAS drives. It’s running on a cheap, headless, ASUS motherboard with no CPU or RAM installed.

Something else to think about, though, is the size of the cables. It sounds like you intend to run the 6 internal SAS cables (which will connect to the 6 SAS backplanes in the 4224) through an unused PCIe slot bracket. You might (having made similiar mistakes in the past) want to check just how large those cables are; because when we did our build, I was very surprised by the, well, “robust” nature of SAS cabling.

No matter, it’s a very fun and rewarding DIY job if you have the time and are ready to accept the occasional challenge. Our DIY array setup has been running 24/7 since the build and hasn’t missed a step.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger