Which external drive for HD work?

[triciclo]

Looking to know what is recommended to do HD work using an external (swapable) drive for video capture/playback:

firewire 400

firewire 800

SerialATA

SAS

[STORMDAVE]

eSATA...it's much cheaper to configure them than FW800.

[triciclo]

I was thinking about an iMac 2.8 extreme to test the HD waters, but it only offers firewire 400/800, so I want to make sure I don't corner myself with that choice.

[tingsern]

And what software are you proposing to use on your iMac? Certainly not EDIUS, right?

Actually, there is nothing to configure for FW400/FW800 ... you just plug it in and that's it.

I have seen Western Digital sells an external HD that comes with USB 2.0, FW 800 and eSATA all in one casing. Grab that fellow - and you can test till your heart contented.

[triciclo]

I believe iMac 2.8 extreme with Bootcamp/WindowsXP Pro could run Edius Broadcast (software), I am just doing a dry run to see how I would use it with XDCAM files.

# 24'' glossy widescreen display
# 1920x1200 resolution
# 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
# 4MB shared L2 cache
# 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
# 500GB SATA 7200rpm hard drive
# 8x slot-loading SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-ROM)
# ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB GDDR3 memory

Upon a trip to an Apple store, did a 5 second HD project from a Motion template, in 1440X1080 30i XDCAM, the export time on a MacPro 2.4 was 12 minutes at about 60% when I quit. Those were some of the longest 12 minutes of my life, but did I have a few thoughts meanwhile!
Does anyother HD editing/compositing package even compare to Edius using the HQ proprietary codec?

[tingsern]

If you use EDIUS Broadcast 4.54, you don't even need to "import". Canopus / GV - please correct me ... if EDIUS Broadcast does it the way it treats Panasonic P2 data, you can import your XDCAM data into BIN in native mode (ZERO conversion upon import).

[STORMDAVE]

Yep, EDIUS works natively with XDCAM and P2 footage, unlike other NLE's who need to convert the file before editing.

[The Dane]

My daily work is editing XDCAM and XDCAM HD footage.
Use FAM to import the clips to your drive, and they can go straight to the timeline.
EDIUS cope quit well in realtime, with the native MXF files.

About the drives, have considered a gigabit network and a drive with swappable hard drives?

[triciclo]

Hi Dane,
could you tell me what FAM stands for?
How fast does your computer ingest the XDCAM footage (tape or SxS?): less than RT / RT / over RT.

I was thinking about swapable trays, which is what I use for DV25 and find of great efficiency for my line of work, but because of HD I was wondering how high up in speed do I have to go, and also because I need to edit on the road I would like to carry a portable external drive.

It looks like eSata can handle XDCAM, and that a high end intel computer is the way to go. It doesn't look very portable but it sounds like the way for now.
Maybe the new breed of laptops with dual drives will do, time will tell.

[The Dane]

My XDCAM is the full size blue-ray disk version PDW F330.
I don’t know if the new EX acts as the blue-ray version. I suspect it will, as it also is a file based camera.

FAM stands for file access mode. When the camera is in this mode the blue-ray disk acts as a drive. You can select any clip and move it around just as you can between two hard drives.
You can pre edit the low resolution proxies and only ingest the parts of the clip you need, or you can select the clips for edit, and move them to your hard drive.

My ingest time is limited of the speed the camera can read the disk and put the data out trough firewire.
Usually it means 1.5 to 2.5 real time, depending on the bitrate of the clips.

In my experience, two years, with HD/HDV a SATA2 disk can do a decent job, depending on the type of job you do a raid of two or more disks are needed. Mostly the limit lays in the computers ability to process the data. No need for a twelve lane freeway if there is a tractor track at the end!

Have you thought about backup? When the SxS card is emptied onto the disk, your takes is gone if the disk breaks down…A raid 10 or 5 will give you some protection.

[triciclo]

I plan to transfer the SXS files to an external hard drive, and will be using one per job, I then plan to burn a BR disc for backup of files on location.
This was my idea for field work with a laptop, I will know by Edius 4.6 if the files can even playback RT with a slomo on it, by then some powerful laptop choices will be available with dual internal 500Gb Sata's and a Blu-Ray burner.

[tingsern]

Dual hard-drive equipped laptops? I worry about the battery lifespan then. I won't call it a laptop anymore :-). Some are equipped with hotswap bay - and you can remove the optical drive and replace it with another HD - then you have two internal HDs inside. But, I haven't seen one that comes with 2 hard-disks + optical drive inside .... You will definitely need to wait for fuel cells to power that juke ... LiON won't drive it.

[triciclo]

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=9182

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123729-page,1-c,notebooks/article.html

I am just waiting to see the right combo for my work:

2 internal SATA
or
external eSata+internal SATA
HDMI
Express Card Reader 34 or 54
Blu Ray Writer

[Blast1]

But, I haven't seen one that comes with 2 hard-disks + optical drive inside ....

Most 17" laptops have bays for two sata drives + the DVD burner, I've a HP 17" with 2 Satas, MD used to have a Dell with two drives +, battery life was only reduced by less than a 1/4, viewing a DVD will burn up more battery, you can mitigate battery usage if traveling by air to request a seat with power or use the lounge's powered outlets if you can get past the RoadWarriors, in a auto you can use the cig lighter to power the laptop, I use a cig lighter fan out connector and power the laptop + two eSATA external drives(12v) which make the ultimate in sneaker net

[STORMDAVE]

Even if you don't use the laptops internal drive, you still have to power the external hard drive setup through an AC outlet....so in other words, both your laptop and the external drive setup will run on an AC Outlet.