Archiving

PKraft said:
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.
Click to expand...

Which version of Toast are you using? I'd like to know more about how Toast spans big cards. It does it without modifying the PRIVATE folder structure? I need to test this out..........

Another good suggestion is to burn the A/B/C copies on different media brand/lots.

PS: I have seen pretty serious arguments against hard drives for long term data storage... Check this article out from Larry Jordan
 
One little tip for PC users is to use the AVCCAM viewer to grab footage off the card. I thought this program was completely useless until I tried its "copy to pc" function. It allows you to copy selected clips over and keep the proper file structure. This way if you have multiple shoots on one card or wanted to split things up into 4/8GB chunks, you can easily do so after the fact without needing to buy smaller cards.

This program is pretty weak, stupid and annoying right now (stop asking me Yes or No!), but could be useful if improved. Otherwise I could see similar simple tools coming about in the future that give you a basic explorer based interface.
 
I agree with the DVD burn but for instance this weekend I may film on 20x 16gig cards....... That many DVDRs would be way to time consuming. Also even if BluRay was mainstream the burn time is so much longer. So for now it is about organization and back up drives.

I have had my share of HD crashes in the past and I am definitely nervous. For the most part this was how I handled P2.

I may even with having two internal backups get a Raid 1 for external editing..... whatever it takes.
 
Boom,

for SD Cards, you might even opt to keep those 20 cards for archiving. From a certain production volume upwards, the card costs do not really matter any more.
 
mcsmooth said:
One little tip for PC users is to use the AVCCAM viewer to grab footage off the card. I thought this program was completely useless until I tried its "copy to pc" function. It allows you to copy selected clips over and keep the proper file structure. This way if you have multiple shoots on one card or wanted to split things up into 4/8GB chunks, you can easily do so after the fact without needing to buy smaller cards.

This program is pretty weak, stupid and annoying right now (stop asking me Yes or No!), but could be useful if improved. Otherwise I could see similar simple tools coming about in the future that give you a basic explorer based interface.
Click to expand...

I can't figure this thing out. It has my 164 clips grouped into 8 different "videos." They are somewhat related. These clips are from 4 different shoots, and I would like to export them based on that. It will have some clips from one shoot and then some others in there.
 
mcsmooth said:
One little tip for PC users is to use the AVCCAM viewer to grab footage off the card. I thought this program was completely useless until I tried its "copy to pc" function. It allows you to copy selected clips over and keep the proper file structure. This way if you have multiple shoots on one card or wanted to split things up into 4/8GB chunks, you can easily do so after the fact without needing to buy smaller cards.

This program is pretty weak, stupid and annoying right now (stop asking me Yes or No!), but could be useful if improved. Otherwise I could see similar simple tools coming about in the future that give you a basic explorer based interface.
Click to expand...

I tried using the avccam viewer on an older laptop but it would only play the video at 10fps and I couldn't see timecode. Could you see timecode when you used the viewer?
 
ChrisPrine said:
I can't figure this thing out. It has my 164 clips grouped into 8 different "videos." They are somewhat related. These clips are from 4 different shoots, and I would like to export them based on that. It will have some clips from one shoot and then some others in there.
Click to expand...
Hmm, maybe it has more flaws I haven't run into yet. Do you know if by chance these groups are the playlists? If so, maybe some of the shoots were in the same day? I can't find the documentation that explains how playlists are split up, but remember seeing it in the past. I'm guessing it isn't smart enough to split clips in the same playlist, weak.

Bucknfl said:
I tried using the avccam viewer on an older laptop but it would only play the video at 10fps and I couldn't see timecode. Could you see timecode when you used the viewer?
Click to expand...
Let me clarify that I've only found this useful for copying files. It sucks at everything else, and isn't even that great at copying files (but I am not aware of other tools yet). I get 2fps playback, this program does not deserve the title of "viewer". It would help you find which clip has content you are looking for though. I don't think it shows timecode, maybe date/time?

Another limitation for those that want to write to DVD is that they offer the feature of writing the structure to bluray, but not DVD... WHY?!? They make cameras that write to DVDs! One of the benefits of the AVCHD format is that it can be played by bluray players, but bluray burners still too uncommon to not support DVD.
 
^ Kind of a pain if you are trying to copy only a few files over as mentioned above and want to retain the file structure. For the entire folder, I agree. It would have been simpler if the clips were just single files like on a digital camera, but they thought (close-to) bluray compatibility would be more desirable.
 
shrigg said:
Which version of Toast are you using? I'd like to know more about how Toast spans big cards. It does it without modifying the PRIVATE folder structure? I need to test this out...
Click to expand...

Using Toast 9. Does transcode the files I want/need. To check file content and quality, I prefer VideoPier, however.
 
Averdahl said:
The compability thing is more due to the Mac's file system that limits the file sizes to 4GB than Blu-ray or anything else. :)

/Roger
Click to expand...
???????
Sorry, never heard or experienced that the MAC's file system does impose any size limits? Must be on another planet ;-)
 
Averdahl said:
The compability thing is more due to the Mac's file system that limits the file sizes to 4GB than Blu-ray or anything else. :)
Click to expand...
The 4GB limit is a FAT32 limitation, it has nothing to do with macs. I was talking about the file structure, maybe you were thinking file system.
 
From Apple's Help WEB Pages...

Summary

Learn the limits for files and volumes on disks that use the Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) in Mac OS X, including journaled HFS+ volumes.

Products Affected

Mac OS X Server, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X 10.1, Mac OS X 10.0, Mac OS X 10.5

Volume and file limits in Mac OS X​
Maximum number of volumes (all Mac OS X versions)​
no limit​
Maximum number of files (or files and folders) in a folder (all Mac OS X versions)​
up to 2.1 billion (2)​
Maximum volume size and file size (Mac OS X 10.0 - 10.1.5)​
2 TB (1)​
Maximum volume size and file size (Mac OS X 10.2 - 10.2.8)​
8 TB (1)​
Maximum volume size and file size (Mac OS X 10.3 - 10.3.9)​
16 TB (1)​
Maximum volume size and file size (Mac OS X 10.4 or later)​
close to 8 EB (1,3)​
Notes

  1. The theoretical maximum file size for a Mac OS Extended file system is millions of terabytes. In practice, the maximum file size is equivalent to the maximum volume size, except for a small amount of disk space reserved for file system information.
  2. Specifically, 2^31, or 2,147,483,648. However, the actual number of files that can be stored on a Mac OS Extended (HFS Plus) or journaled HFS+ volume depends on the volume's size and the size of the files. For example, a 160 GB Mac OS Extended volume with the default block size of 4 KB has 40 million available blocks. This volume could store up to 40 million very small files, but not 2 billion. A bigger disk with the same default block size could hold proportionately more files.
  3. 2^63 - 2^31 = 9,223,372,034,707,292,160, which is just under 8 exabytes (EB). One exabyte is roughly equivalent to one million terabytes.
For definitions of some of these terms see "Macintosh: File System Specifications & Terms".
Click to expand...






Bob Diaz
 
Hi all

I wondered after trying out a HF10, how to split those monster avchd file to keep only the usefull part, I it got me quite stumped that no native splitter existed.
I filmed in continuous mode while playing guitar, ending up with a 4gig file and quite a few mis-takes in there.

I asked Canon, but got the usual careless answer...go see your software vendor.

I contacted TMPeg team, and they say that the long GOP in avchd make native splitting a problem.

So basically, I would be stuck with a 4gig file to store even if there if only 1/3 of it I want. Or i have to recompress and loose some quality, on top of loosing time to go thru this step... bad.

on the other hand i've read that some low end editors/(dvd softwares?) can do smart render of acvhd files, meaning they do not recompress the data required for output... pretty much what i'd like...

Am i the only one concerned about this splitting problem of avchd?
 
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