Archiving

B

Boomerang

Well-known member
So I wanted to open a discussion on how everyone is handling there footage.

My initial thoughts are....

Import SD cards as is into two of my internal drives.

Transcode out ProRes to an external for work.
Than Media Manage the final cut on the external and delete unused footage.

This gives to Raw backup version of all the footage and Media Managed version in ProRes on the external.
 
Not very efficient, sorry.

Read manual of FCP and how it handles your source material first,
then make assumptions/decisions. Test with small amount of source
and adjust accordingly.


Best Pe.
 
Purely from an archiving approach I have 3 USB hard drives and I place my PRIVATE folder from the SD card into a ProjectNameofProject folder.
This will go on two USB drives.
My Premiere “finale” edit will stay on my laptop and on the last USB drive.
Once my boss gives me the green light on the “finale” edit I will delete if from my laptop but keep the CS3 on the last USB drive because my boss is the freaking king of “hey, can we go back and do this?” after he says “oh this is great. Just what I needed. Print it!” Yeah, right....


For the record I've never had a hard drive fail on me yet so I feel very good with USB backups and no tape.:thumbup:
 
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Boomerang - how big are your two internal drives because I for one like what you're saying in theory. And if you have other drives besides... Hm. If you can occasionally dump that on BluRay...?
 
JohnnyHa - My internals are 1TB each. So roughly 80 hours of original AVCHD footage per drive.
BluRay would be a good way to add safety beyond HD.

As for PE what are some opinions on what would be effiecent.
 
has anyone experimented with breaking up the private folder, storing the contents across dvds, then recombining again? to see if still will work properly?
 
With Dual Layer Blu Ray discs already down to around $20 Blu Ray could be the way to archive.... One 50Gb Blu Ray would hold 3 16Gb cards plus 2 Gb of relevent project files.... About the same price as HDV tape (remember that?!?). :D

This is sounding better all the time! Good thing Toast 9 supports Blu Ray since Apple doesn't. Does anyone have drive recommendations in IDE? (I want to use it in a firewire case)
 
Keep in mind that you can archive 25 minutes of PH Mode on 1 DVD. Or if you have a dual layer burner, you can archive 50 minutes.

This is barely any different from having a 30 minute tape or a 60 minute tape and we have been using that workflow for years...

Just a thought :)
 
i;ve thought about just shooting to 8gb SDHC cards, have some 16's for longer things, but backing up 8gb would be easy to dual layer dvds. and probably to hard drive as well.
 
gint12b said:
Keep in mind that you can archive 25 minutes of PH Mode on 1 DVD. Or if you have a dual layer burner, you can archive 50 minutes.

This is barely any different from having a 30 minute tape or a 60 minute tape and we have been using that workflow for years...

Just a thought :)
Click to expand...

Well it is the splitting of the AVCHD file system that worries me... I would rather backup complete cards as they were shot without messin with anything

Perhaps a good argument for shooting 8Gb (or even 4Gb) cards....... I like the idea of using my existing burner
 
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I suspect that Blu-ray will be ordinary before too long; then, 25GB and 50GB discs will be the order of the day. By deleting poop, it should be pretty easy to store content on the chips.
 
What I like about splitting the files into 3.99Gb files (you know, fat32 won't accept more that file size) is great for dvd archiving. Just put your 3.9 file in the dvd along with other smaller one.
 
I can't predict the future, but Blu-Ray might just skip over like 8-tracks did and never truly get accepted due to the ridiculous costs of burners, disks, and write speeds...

A dual layer burner is standard on all second generation and beyond macbook pro's and 8GB DL Disks which can hold 45 minutes of PH mode and only set you back about a buck a piece.

Also, an 8GB SDHC Card is only 50 bucks which is nice in case you lose or misplace them. This way you know you will always be fitting exactly 45 minutes on one for archiving.

It all depends on your workflow really...

Blu-Ray technology may eventually come down in price but i fear by the time it does, we will have a better technology to handle our media like 100 GB ethernet internet connection. I can dream right? :)
 
Yep...

DVDs will still take the max FAT files sizes anyway, and one could put 8GB on a 8GB disc, quid pro quo.

And it's possible Blu-ray won't come down, either. It might hang in that upper cost range. Who knows?

I'm more impressed by the notion of AVCHD everyday, though. I'm saving my pennies.
 
When i buy the camera i will archive the data like this:
1. Shoot with the camera
2. Copy the media to internal drive and edit
3. Copy the media to external drive A
4. Copy the media to external drive B
5. When done editing, export the result and save it to external drive A+B

External drive A will be in my house while external drive B will be at another physical location. Yes, i will swap drive A and B monthly, IE drive A is in my house in january and drive B is at the other physical place. In february i bring drive A to the bank and take home drive B, etc, etc. I will use ~160GB drives, so i will have to buy more than two external drives as well.

Other physical location is *not* in the same house, such as in the attic, in the basement or in another room.

Why all this?:
If external drive A dies i still have external drive B and vice versa. Since i use rather small drives i will not lose too much footage if both drives dies. It may sound cumbersome (and it is) but the day i want to re-use footage or if my house burns down, or if my internal drive dies i will thank myself big time since i will have a drive with the footage on it.

Lots of "ifs", but its better to be safe than sorry IMO! :)

/Roger
 
Averdahl said:
When i buy the camera i will archive the data like this:
1. Shoot with the camera
2. Copy the media to internal drive and edit
3. Copy the media to external drive A
4. Copy the media to external drive B
Click to expand...

Roger, I'm absolutely with you. But why copy to a HD and not burn DVDs instead?
They are cheap, cheaper then HDs and they do rarely fail. Burn three (3) of each card
and if you use big cards burn A1, B1, ... A2, B2... A3, B3...
Toast for example does split big cards so that essential files are not chopped into
several pieces but distributed onto separate DVDs.

Security: More then two DVDs never fail at the same time. The remaining DVD is
good to make a one ore two copies of to replace the bad DVDs.

Storage: Store them at a place with CONSTANT LOW temperature (5° C max ),
NO light and constant LOW humidity (less then 55%). That is how big archives work.
No need to re-invent that wheel again.


Pe.
 
PKraft said:
But why copy to a HD and not burn DVDs instead?
Click to expand...
I get a better overview with HDD's and faster access to the footage when needed when it is on HDD's plus that DVD's have less space. I do loong shootings and will need the large storage space only aviable on HDD's. I am planning to capture the footage via HDMI into my Intensity Pro card and may archive the file/s i capture as well, thus the need for more space than DVD's. :)

I may change my mind though, but what i described earlier is the planned workflow for now though.

/Roger
 
I do loong shootings....

I see you point ;-)

However would buy the fastest burner/reader I can afford (cheaper than any HD anyway).
Mind you, this is only an archive copy for safety just in case the internal HD fails. So speed
does not matter that much.

Pe.
 
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