offloading p2 store into an external hard drive

[Michael23]

I am going to be doing alot of offloading from a P2 store onto an external hard drive. We want to back up the video onto DVD. Does anybody know an easy way to do this? Also, if you want to view the video in FCP are you going to be doubling up the space used in the hard drive by converting it all into a quicktime movie?

Thanks,
Michael

[gonzo44]

It best to use 4gig card if you are backing up footage onto DVD. If you use 8gig cards you have to split the load onto 2 DVD's which is a dog.

[Michael23]

Is there a program to help divide a 8 gig card into 2- 4 gig DVDs and what about the last clip txt file, doesn't that apply to the whole 8gig card. Can I use dual layered DVDs? Is it better to convert them and back them up as individual QT movies?

Michael

[Cees Mutsaers]

Isn't there something like a double layer DVD which can hold a 8 GB P2 card ????

[THoff]

It best to use 4gig card if you are backing up footage onto DVD. If you use 8gig cards you have to split the load onto 2 DVD's which is a dog.Since the P2 cards are formatted using FAT32, any individual file is limited to 4GB, so the HVX splits files in the middle of a recording session when the file size limit is reached. You should therefore never wind up with a file that doesn't fit on a single-layer DVD.

And yes, dual-layer disks are certainl an option for backing up an entire 8GB P2 card without having to split or move anything. The only downside is that burning of dual-layer disks is generally limited to slower speeds such as 2.4x or 4x, and those are the maximum rated burning speeds. While some DVD burners may be able to burn them faster than the rated speed, in the interest of data integrity, I would avoid doing that.

[Reactor88]

Has anyone tried to take a pcima card which is what a P2 card as i've heard is and get a pcima card that accepts flash media and or like SD cards which is what a P2 card is suposed to be an Array of SD card. Will the HVX200 reconize a PCIMA adaptor that allows you to plug in a SD card...i know you can get SD 4gb cards very cheap compared to the P2 4gb...again this might be a dumb question but might this work? and if you havent tested it could someone try it to see what occurs?

Thanks,
-Reactor

[Cees Mutsaers]

Burning speed is not an isue is it? Even if it would take a whole day to burn a double layer DVD (which it does not) who cares.



Since the P2 cards are formatted using FAT32, any individual file is limited to 4GB, so the HVX splits files in the middle of a recording session when the file size limit is reached. You should therefore never wind up with a file that doesn't fit on a single-layer DVD.

And yes, dual-layer disks are certainl an option for backing up an entire 8GB P2 card without having to split or move anything. The only downside is that burning of dual-layer disks is generally limited to slower speeds such as 2.4x or 4x, and those are the maximum rated burning speeds. While some DVD burners may be able to burn them faster than the rated speed, in the interest of data integrity, I would avoid doing that.

[THoff]

I never said you shouldn't use DVD media for backups -- I'm only pointing out that with dual-layer media, the time required to burn a disk goes up significantly, and this can impact your workflow.

You can reliably burn a single-layer DVD with 4GB of data from a P2 card at speeds of as high as 16x using the right combination of drive and media.

Burning a 8GB dual-layer disk will take between eight and sixteen times as long (you've go twice the amount of data and are restricted to burning speeds of 2x to 4x).

[filmstox]

Burning speed is not an isue is it? Even if it would take a whole day to burn a double layer DVD (which it does not) who cares.

I've been shooting 5 to 18 cards a day, everyday for the past week. I can assure you, burning times matter. I am working on a system to let an assistant burn 4 at a time at 16x from the p2 store to be able to keep ahead of the flow.

I shied away from the 8 gig cards for this very reason.

-filmstox

[Cees Mutsaers]

probably I do not understand the issue. If you have a 8 Gb P2 card you can offload it 7 times to the P2 store. Ones the P2 store is full (56 Gb) you transfer the footage to a HD, delete everything on the P2 store and you can start filling it up again. Transferring the footage from HD to DVD can be done later when you have all the time. Am I missing something?

[filmstox]

I guess the issue is that you don't have all the time in the world, after completing the day you described, you are going to need to transfer those cards from the P2 store to dvd before filming can begin the next day. I insist on burning the DVD's directly from the p2 store to maximize the redundancy of process as well as the redundancy of media. I had an entire 15 card transfer to HDD go bad and the independently burned DVD's were the saving grace. Had I burned from the HDD copies, all I would have done is duplicate the corrupt files.

Using the Lacie D2 Dual Layer drive as the benchmark, it burns 4 gig dvd-r disks at a 16x in under 7 minutes, while 8 gig disks take around 40 minutes. At the end of the day, if I fill my p2 store with the same amount of footage (14 4g cards or 7 8g cards) I will get to sleep about 3 hours sooner with the 4 gig cards.

I pulled the numbers for this math from The ZD Net review of the Lacie drive when it came out. (http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/LaCie_d2_DL_16X_DVD_RW/4514-3212_16-31114082.html) Note that these tests were conducted before 16x media was available so the 7 minute number is actually conservative. I haven't burned any dual layer disks so I must take ZDNet at their word. After some searching I did find the best posted Dual Layer burning time at about 27 minutes which means I get an extra hour and a half of sleep with 4gig cards.

I know this seems trivial, but when you are shooting day in and day out for long periods of time, these numbers have real world consequences on your ability to keep up with the work of the day.

I hope that helps explain better where I am coming from. At the end of the day, go with what works for you. On my first day with the camera (a rental) we used an 8 gig card and I immediately started seeing how the longer record time wasn't necessary and was actually going to be a liability in the long run for my style of shooting.

-filmstox