p2 Archival proposal

rgdfilms

rgdfilms

Wet poodle
Shane Ross made a great video showing the breakdown of p2 archival and ingestion, sorry, I do not have the link off hand - anyway, it got me thinking, archive

Right now I keep a 500 GB G-Raid for all media - I import p2 data and save the converted DVCPROHD quicktime files - this is what I'd like to do,

I'm going for cheap and reliable...just like craigslists jobs ;)

I was thinking of investing in this

SATA enclosure that will be hooked up to my g5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145237

Then I will put one of these bad boys into it,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144417


My workflow method will then change to, shooting on p2, hooking up the HVX to the G5, copying all p2 data onto the SATA external, erasing p2 - from the SATA, I will import through FCP and keep storing media onto the G-RAID -

then, after I fill up the SATA drive, I will simply pop it out, wrap it up in antistatic, put it back into its box, and into the closet it goes until Holographic Versatile Disc is the norm - then all I will need to do is purchase another cheap drive and continue the archive

Figured it out,

720P 24PN will come out to $9.40 per hour (almost miniDV prices)
1080 will cost $23.50 per hour

And of course, this figure drops every day - I remember buying my internal 250 gb drive 2 years ago for $250 bucks, damn, now when will p2 come down? i predict summertime blues
 
This is a solid plan, and one that has me reconsidering.

My current approach is to shoot on 4gb P2 cards and back up to DVD-R (roughly 5 cents per gig).

Your hard drive on the shelf approach runs about 60 cents per gig, but has a massive time savings vs. burning DVDs... as well as a much faster startup time in the event that archived footage needs to go online again for a re-cut.

I have a few hard drives full of DV footage (self contained Avid projects) sitting in their anti-static bags on the shelf right now. The only thing that scares me is the fragile nature of the hardware.

On the "unlikely" side, there's the fact that the EM pulse from a nuclear blast would wipe your hard drive clean, but a DVD-R backup would remain intact. ;)
 
I just can't wait for Bluray to get the bugs worked out an become cheap. I'll sign up when drives are sub $500 and a 50gig disc costs $10. :D
 
I would only think that the EMP from a nuke erasing the info off your drives would be the last of your worries in that situation.

I have one of these for storage and it works great.

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1en2/

I'm thinking about going with the four bay one because that HD footage is going to eat up the space for a feature.

http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-2eEN4/

I was thinking about getting one of those enclosures that can take SATA drives but can be hooked up via USB 2.0. Would be nice on the go with my PowerBook.
 
Drew,
That 2 bay enclosure looks pretty awesome - question though, why does it come with 2 serial ATA cords? are there two seperate SATA outputs, one for each drive? Or can you raid the 2 drives together? I would like to keep them seperate for what I'm doing - are there FW ports on the back of that?

thanks for the link - what types of drives do you use? I heard seagates are great, I use WD in my g5
 
There's a SATA port for each drive and yes you can raid the drives together. The only ports on the enclosure are SATA, no FW or USB.

I only use Seagate drives. I keep seeing them at work for picture and sound work. Even thou I heard that WD bought Seagate or something like that.
 
Sweet- this thing scored really high reviews all around - I just bought one + a 250GB WD SATA drive to start with - this seems like the perfect backup solution for now, plus this thing is lightening quick - I like the idea of the swapable drive solution - one minute it's p2 archive, the next its a high powered RAID

sweet..

I have to seriously stop spending money and start making some

someone need a camera operator with diamond eyes? I see things in BLING-vision
 
That does look right nice... hmmm..

AND check it out!: two shielded Serial ATA ports which meet regulatory requirements for electrostatic discharge (ESD), electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions, and susceptibility.

But seriously, I like this. I'm so tired of taking out all the screws to open up an external enclosure and then more screws to remove the drive. This looks MUCH faster and easier to work with.
 
Rich, smart buy. I really like my two drive bay. Being able to just pull the drives out and put in another one is really cool. Plus you can back up all your project files and finished projects onto another drive and keep that somewhere else. Also its good that your getting that because when I build my HD play back box what kind of drives and trays do you think its going to use.
 
I couldn't find how big your drives could be in this thing - I wonder if you could slap in two 500 GB drives for a lightning fast terabyte RAID ?
 
The spec sheet says:

Hard Drive Types Supported
  • 3.5" Serial ATA hard drive
  • Any capacity
Sounds promising...
 
Sounds awesome...

These FirmTek guys have the best reviews all around

If I was running a film school, I would buy a bunch of these
 
That's what I heard and was the reason why I bought from them. Plus they are a little cheaper than Sonnet.
 
How does the setup connect to your computer? Do you have to install a SATA card or something on your computer? I've got a PCI-x G5.

Secondly, it looks as if each drive is individually hooked up with a Sata port; does this mean if I have a 4 Bay system, 4 individual cables will be running to a card attached to a PCI-x slot on my G5?

I'm new to this kind of stuff; for a while I thought the best route to go was just getting a 1TB or 1.2 TB LaCie Extreme, but I'm very interested in setting something like this up... just not to sure how to go about it.
 
I'm excited abou this for achiving! Would you use something like this for connectivity to a laptop in the field?

P511-1103b.jpg


http://sewelldirect.com/SerialATAPCMCIACard2Port.asp

http://sewelldirect.com/serial-ata-pcmcia.asp

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215765&CatId=1422

Also, would this show up in XP as two separate devices - sounds like it? For transferring from my P2Store, it would be nice to copy/paste to one recognized external device, containing two drives for simultaneous back-ups - one for the client, and one for safety.

e
 
I'm thinking two identical copies - one for the client and one for my archive. I'd like to offer vaulting services for my clients.

Seagate has a few Barracuda-class 7200 Serial SATA options that feature the 350G / 3D defense rating. Does this look right?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148039

That puts two P2Store offloads onto one drive - offering about 300 minutes of 720/24PN for less than $70 or $.23 a minute. Not bad for long-term storage. Naturally, you could always increase the drive size for larger projects. At the same time, you wouldn't generally find a shoot day that exceeds five 60 minute tapes.

What do you think?

e
 
Last edited:
Bump!

Bump!

Bump this up - anyone tried this yet? I'm getting the PCMCIA to Serial SATA card today.

e
 
I think it would be better to have one of the firewire/USB SATA drive enclosures. If its just for location work. But if your going to be editing on a laptop the whole time then that PCMCIA card does seem like a good idea. I'm not sure if those drive bays can be used with that card.
 
Keep it simple. SATA is over kill for the transfer/back-up drive, save that for your desktop work raid. My plan is to take a cheap 5.25" firewire/usb2 enclosure for IDE drives and slap a mobile rack into it. Trays only add about $10 to the cost of a drive and it is easy to swap out when needed. This rig can move between your desktop and laptop and if you have AC or an inverter could be hooked up to the hvx direct in host mode. The cheap IDE drive is your master tape, as soon as the contents have been imported to your work disk you put it up on the shelf.
 
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