What Tower Should I get?

S

SquidLips

Well-known member
I am about to do an online edit of a feature we shot on a 24P DV and have about 15 hours of tape. What Tower should I get to be able to do an uncompressed edit for the film? I have only used my 160Gb of space on my hard drive for smaller projects. I have a G4 Dual Proc with 1.5GB of SDRAM. I just wondered what I will need to get an uncompressed output done.

Thanks.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Yeah, I am wondering what the specs I should be looking for in a storage tower? I know I need to figure on 80GB an hour so need over a Terabite for sure. Since I have never worked with one (with the exception of the little Lacie storage systems) I just wanted to ask around...
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?


Well, I am talking about storage of any kind. Are you saying that different towers store footage from different sources? In other words, if I use digibeta or Mini DV or VHS they all require different storage towers? I thought once you drop the footage into the storage, it does not matter what the source was as long as you have the correct settings and cards, etc. I mean, this film was shot mini DV on a DVX100A but my next project may be a 16mm film transfered onto HD tapes. Aren't there devices available for both?
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

4-5 minutes of your DV footage will eat up about 1GB of hard drive space.
Do you need to purchase a new computer or just a new drive?
The G4 towers have space for up to 4 drives inside.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

HD and beta can not be transfered at full res from normal firewire. If you are just using MiniDV you can just pick up more firewire drives, but bumping up to another source you are going to have to talk about a faster data transfer.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

meauxfeaux makes a good point. It is one of the advantages the G4 towers have. And iin fact you can put in five internal drives. One in the second optical slot as well. This enables you to have a system drive, and you can RAID the other four drives if you want to.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

[quote author=Prairieboy link=board=FCP;num=1103159431;start=0#6 date=12/15/04 at 22:09:54]HD and beta can not be transfered at full res from normal firewire.  [/quote]
I haven't paid any attention to this thread, so forgive me if this is totally irrelevant, but if you want to transfer HD, keep in mind that DVCPRO-HD can now be transferred over firewire. The full data stream is 100 megabits, I believe, and FCP-HD supports it, and it works over standard firewire, right?

Obviously you couldn't transfer uncompressed HD, and Beta is an analog format that can't be transferred via firewire at all unless you convert it to DV first...
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Hey Barry, but once again that(DVCPro) is a compressed HD, where I believe you would be comprimising data. I was talking about full, the DVCpro-HD would not be the same as full HD where you would need the higher data rates to online. Not that many of us have that luxuary. And it would be the same for a Digi Beta would it not.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

[quote author=Prairieboy link=board=FCP;num=1103159431;start=0#9 date=12/16/04 at 06:40:59]Hey Barry, but once again that(DVCPro) is a compressed HD, where I believe you would be comprimising data.  I was talking about full, the DVCpro-HD would not be the same as full HD where you would need the higher data rates to online.  Not that many of us have that luxuary.  And it would be the same for a Digi Beta would it not.[/quote]

But that said, DVCPRO-HD looks absolutely amazing. Order the free demo dvd from panasonic including raw files and FCPHD files to play with.

If you're looking for an all out uncompressed storage solution, Apple just released the 5.6TB Xserve Raid. Pop in a fiber card in your G4 and you're ready to tackle any format imaginable.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

"If you're looking for an all out uncompressed storage solution, Apple just released the 5.6TB Xserve Raid. Pop in a fiber card in your G4 and you're ready to tackle any format imaginable."

This seems to be along the lines of what I am looking for. I directed a 100K feature last year that we used a Lacie storage unit and firewire for the final online. Though it was acceptable and we sold the film, I am trying to find something to hold UNCOMPRESSED video forr the next one. That is why firewire will probably not work. I will need a scuzzi drive most probably (unless there is something else I am missing out there).

So, to try and clarify better, I am looking for a seperate storage tower that will hold about a terrabite and can transfer uncompressed footage to my Dual 800 G4 for editing.
:)
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Thanks for the link, is there some product there you recommend?

My second question would be, could I get away with a fairly clean 1:1 output using a firewire and one of the Lacie Drives? I mean, this project was shot on digital and will most certainly never get a blow up, etc., so wondering if I can get away with an inexpensive 200 gb drive with fire wire instead of cracking the $1000 mark.

Also, do I need a DVX100 to transfer the footage into the drive or can I use any DV camera to do that?

Thanks!
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Any Dv camera will do, infact it is a good idea to get a cheaper one to save your DVX heads. As for this project a normal firewire drive will be fine. I have been buying the Lacie drives for years and I am on my sixth external and have yet to have a problem with any of them. Although ther is rumours the porshe drives have some problems.
As far as the link goes I have not gone this route, I have been thinking about it. The SATA is a fairly new thing, but it sounds great. Good luck.
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Thanks Prairie, etc.

So, let me understand something, if one is to get the best possible image output (ie: uncompressed, 1:1 type image) from different source inputs (ie: HD or DV) that the transfer method can vary? In other words, if I shoot on a DVX100 and want to get a online output, a Lacie Drive and firewire can work where as for, HD let's say, one would need a more expensive tower and SCSI drive to get a "non-degraded" image?

I shot a super 16mm film last year that was sold direct to video and was cut and edited from DVCAM through a Lacie tower on firewire. At the time I was told it was a 1:1 transfer but thought that firewire never gives a true one to one. The image looked very nice, but then maybe to a more trained eye there may have been a difference.

:)
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

If you had id mastered to DVcam you lost nothing. Now you can start the argument that if you transfered the footage to a Dbeta ot Hd source you would have more information. So that was something that should have been done at the lab during transfer.
But any DV source will be lossless with firewire. Once you jump up you can either transfer that source at less quality (offline) the online elsewhere. Or go the SCSI, or SATA route at full quality and do the online your self. That is where math gets invloved. Stinky math!
 
Re: What Tower Should I get?

Thanks Prairie,

I suppose then different stanards hold for DV and HD/digibeta transfers. I will go find a 200GB Lacie tower and firewire today and get busy learning how to load via time code!

Thanks!
 
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