Storage suggestions for FCP

Hi all,
I'm an AVID editor of 15 years and have recently (finally) established my own company. I can't possibly justify the cost of a new Avid, not when FCP does the same thing for so much less. Also, so many clients are calling for me to freelance and they have all ditched their Avid's and are now running FCP. Time to bite the bullet and crossover.
My main question is..... I need a storage solution. It must be a raid solution. I am currently looking at a Huge Systems rack mounted solution (the system will be road cased from time to time) but wanted to know if there were other suggestions, and would an Avid Media Dock raid array work for FCP? I will be doing both SD and HD (not HDV, full uncompressed 10 bit HDcam and 2k RED Raw format when released). I have allocated approximately $10,000 aussie dollars for the storage solution. Not sure whether to go SCSI, Fibre Channel or ESATA.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

This could do the work:
http://www.barefeats.com/swift.html
(problem: inside your G5... no mobility!)
... or ...
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/sep/13raid.html
(old doc, but you can see the prices!)
Use fibre ... if you´re about to work with HDCam buy a XServe RAID with 14 "barracudas" then you can use multiple stream HDCam!
I´ve been working with Avid for the last 9 years... since 2004 i´m using FCP and Avid (it depends on client´s NLE system!), i don´t know if you can use the Avid LVD´s to work with FCP... it should be possible if you format them and raid them but they are scsi... hum... go to the next step! - if you need a guy to help you ... i´ll fly from Portugal, eheheh!
Best´s!
HBars

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Best storage solution for FCP HDV projects?

What is the best storage solution for Final Cut Pro HDV projects (i.e. internal or external drives, SCSI, external firewire drives, etc.)?

Don't forget you can also use the "Send to Tape" command to send your footage back to miniDV HDV tape. This isn't the ultimate solution, but is a good way to cheaply "backup" large projects to inexpensive tape without killing your drive storage with every project.
Here's a new feature request for Media Manager... Forget that. I'll start a new post for it.

A few suggestions for FCP

Using FCP to record material directly via Capture now, I have sometimes wished for a few more options:
* being able to view elapsed timecode of Capture-Now in a seperate window.
* Having an option of running a 'recording in process' signal out of a USB or serial port whenever capture now is actively capturing. By continually writing out a '1' on any one wire in the USB connector, thus enabling it to be interfaced with an external light thru the use of optocoupler circuitry.
* having an option of rejecting a 'Capture now' request by user if hard disk space or certain capture now time cannot be completed due to hard disk limitations, thus warning the user that capture now will not be able to reach specified time limits.
Some other options or suggestions on my wishlist:
* an option turning off 'beep' sound when playing back unrendered audio
* having an option to 'continue all' or 'ignore all missing media' in every media missing dialog when opening up FCP with multiple projects starting up
* having an option of starting up with no projects open by holding down the apple key (or other key) when launching FCP
* Having an option of cancelling all project openings with the locate media dialogue
* being able to keep playing sequence when you alt-tab or multitask to another application
* being able to disable countdown when using the voice-over utility, thus starting to record directly
* being able to use voice-over utility even where there is no underlying video
I already sent these suggestions via the feedback option in FCP, just wanted to share them with you all for discussion.
Message was edited by: VidarFreyr

Having an option of running a 'recording in process' signal out of a USB or serial port whenever capture now is actively capturing. By continually writing out a '1' on any one wire in the USB connector, thus enabling it to be interfaced with an external light thru the use of optocoupler circuitry.
NO clue what you mean by this. Sorry. Does any other NLE offer this?
having an option of rejecting a 'Capture now' request by user if hard disk space or certain capture now time cannot be completed due to hard disk limitations, thus warning the user that capture now will not be able to reach specified time limits.
You mean a warning that your disk space is running low, and to stop the capture, not ABORT (thus losing what you already captured) when your hard drive space reaches a certain size of remaining space?
option turning off 'beep' sound when playing back unrendered audio
The point of the BEEP is to tell you that your audio needs to be rendered to play. Would you prefer silence? Convert your audio to a format FCP works with...AIFF 16 bit or WAV.
having an option to 'continue all' or 'ignore all missing media' in every media missing dialog when opening up FCP with multiple projects starting up
ALready there. Click FORGET.
having an option of starting up with no projects open by holding down the apple key (or other key) when launching FCP
Already there. Hold SHIFT.
being able to use voice-over utility even where there is no underlying video
The way the VO tool is designed is to add voiceover to existing video. That is the basic design. If you want to record VO without using a sequence, just use the Capture tool.
Shane

MacPro 3,1 (early 2008) - upgrade suggestion for FCP X

MacPro 3,1 (early 2008)
2x 2.8Ghz Quad-Core
GeForce 8800GT
500GB (int hd) / 8GB (ram)
10.6.8
Will be installing FCP X, Motion and Compressor to work on various video projects in coming weeks, and want to upgrade to prepare for data storage and memory. Mostly 1080p/720p footages, motion graphics, photoshop work, etc.
Looked through OWC, and want to know if below choices are good for my needs.
Seagate 2.0TB / SATA 6.0Gb/s / 7200RPM / 64MB Cache (x2 of these for 4TB.. for video storage)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST2000DM001/
4.0GB OWC Memory 2x 2.0 GB Matched Set PC6400 / DDR2 ECC / 800MHz 240 pin (x2 of these for 8GB.. so Total 16GB)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/64FB2MPK04GB/
Will these be sufficient for High Def video edits?
Are these compatibel with MacPro 3,1?
Thanks in advance~

I have Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) I bought NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT on EBay and it works great. I guess yours is first generation http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2006-2007-Apple-Mac-Pro-nVidia-GeForce-8800GT-512MB- Video-Graphics-Card-/270853036314?_trksid=p4340.m185&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC.NPJS%2 6its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUA%26otn%3D5%26pmod%3D160544871829%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D63 94630316659221609#ht_3616wt_1141

Mouse suggestions for FCP Studio2

Hello,
What is the best mouse to use with FCP Studio2 that is compatible with Leopard?
Thanks for any and all help.

Scroll down a few days for some other threads or search for MOUSE. We see this post once a week or so.
the question is not eaisly answered. Go to any computer store and look at the variety of input systems, CompUSA has more than 60 different mice and tablets and wheels for normal computing, dozens more for gaming and some of those controllers have been succssfully adapted to editing.
My idea of "best" is meaningless to you. I prefer the simple might mouse. My partner cannot live without his Contour wheel.
bogiesan

What Size Hard Drive(external) is Suggested for FCP?

Hi,
Any suggestions? Also brands, speeds, buffers, partitioning?
Thanks

Brand: OWC (low-end), G-Tech / CalDigit (high-end)
Speed: 7200 RPM at least
Buffer: 16MB at least
Format (do this in Disk Utility once you get it): Mac OS Extended
Partition: do what you want, it will not affect performance
Size: depends on your video format. You may want to use this handy tool to help calculate:
http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/videospace

Storage suggestions for photos

Hello everyone I am new to lightroom so please for give me if this question was ask before. I am using my computer as a combo video editing and Photo editing setup. I using a raid 5 for my video editing work, and two 1TB drive setup as raid 1 mirror where my photos are located. I am down to my last 325 GB that may sould a lot but I am planning on really taking off with my picture taking. I have a NAS were I also have my photos backed up. I have not added my photos to Lightroom catalog. I also have Photoshop. I understand it is better to have the photos located on the computer instead of external. How dose Lightroom handle photos on multiple drives?Should I separate the two 1TB drives so I have two 2TB available and if so were to place lightroom Catalog folder? Or should I make it easy on myself and just purchase a 2TB drives and place all the photos at that location?

If you click on one of the folders of your internal drive, then - in the Grid View - only the images of this folder will be displayed.
The Grid View shows all images that are on all your drives (and some with question marks) when you don't have a folder selected but - in the Catalog Panel - have "All my photographs" (or something similar) selected. You have to click on one of the folders to display only the photos that are in this folder.
To display only the images of your internal drive you have to display the top parent-folder that contains all folders (as sub-folders) that have images.
If you have such a parent folder - for instance the folder <My Pictures> (or whatever it's called on a Mac), you just have to display this parent folder in the folders panel. To do this right-click any folder of your internal drive and select <Show parent-folder). Do this repeatedly until the top-level parent folder for all your images is displayed. Then in the <Library> menu make sure that <Show photos in sub-folders> has a check-mark. If it doesn't check it. This means that all photos of all the sub-folders under this parent folder will be displayed when you click on the parent folder. This will then show all the photos on your internal drive - provided you have not solitary image folders sitting somewhere not under the parent folder.
If currently you do not have such a parent folder for all your image folder, you have to create one.
You do this in Mac Finder: Create a folder, name it "Images on XYZ-drive". Then - still in Mac Finder - drag-and drop all your folders that contain images into that just created folder. So then all image folders will be sub-folders in this parent folder.
Now, in Lightroom you will see you folders with question marks because you have moved the image folders outside of Lightroom.
Right-click the top-most folder and select <Update folder location>, navigate to the new location of the folder and click on it. Lightroom will - probably - find also the other folders in this parent folder. If not, you have to do the <update folder location> for each folder.
After this - in the folders panel - you should see the parent folder and all your image folders as sub-folders. When you click on the parent folder (and <Show photos in sub-folders> is checked) you will see all images on your internal drive.

Suggestions for setting up external storage for video editing please?

I am just starting up as a one-man video-editing business, using a 24 inch iMac running Snow Leopard, with Final Cut Studio. I have realised I'll need an external hard drive for HD footage, and I also need to get some back-up solution in place. Looking for speedy i/o, I would like to connect via the ethernet port (if only eSata was included in the iMac, eh!)
I've been planning to get a Drobo, but looking around the forums I see that people say it's too slow for using as a working drive to keep all my source footage, so I've been looking at the G-tech 4 Tb, as it says it is designed for media-content production. Does anyone know if I could use two of the drives for working from and two as back up? Or would it be better to keep back-up entirely seperate, and get a Drobo for that for the G-tech to back up to?
But I am also wondering whether a Mac Mini could be a worthwhile addition to this set up? I find myself sitting around waiting for rendering to complete on clips in my timeline (not to mention exporting to Quicktime conversion!), and I wondered if I put a Mac mini with Xserve installed (Apple store offers this with two 500gb hard drives inside), maybe I could farm the rendering out to the mini while I get on with editing on my iMac? That would require two installations of FCP, which I thought was allowed, but just today in a forum I saw that one would have to be a laptop... anyone have any suggestions for getting rendering done without stopping FCP from doing other things simultaneously?
Also I don't know if that arrangement is even feasible... I see all these things like Xsan and Artbox... as a one workstation editing suite, does FCP handle all the dataflows for external working drive and external back ups okay without having to introduce more controllers?
And can anyone explain to me how I could set up an ethernet connection to an external hard drive, or does that require the extra controllers mentioned above? I've seen it said that you can do it via ethernet, but haven't seen how you can actually go about doing it.
Thanks for overlooking my newbie quality, any answers received with humble gratitude!
Cheers, Syd

Hi there,
as NLEdit said, there will be loads of answers to this.
IMO i'd avoid drobo like the plague. G tech drives have served me incredibly well working on a huge variety of broadcast projects (just over the water from you in Bristol), I've had no probs with FW800 when using DVCproHD, pro res is ok, sometimes a little slow with multiple layers and of course it eats up storage space. so I'd go for 2 4tb drives, keep the backup one in a different location.
one tip that has saved me countless times is to format them as follows:-
mac os extended (not journalled)
create 2 partitions
partition 1 - make this small (1gig) and call it "drive a - do not use"
partition 2 - the rest of available storage and call "drive a"
this is because the boot sector of the drive is within the first partition and with this method if it goes down it can be re erased without losing all your footage.
If you call your backup drive the exact same name and have the exact same folder structure, you will not have to relink if you get a problem.
Ignore getting a mac mini for rendering, won't help at all in FCP. instead I would make every attempt you can at buying a mac pro rather than an imac. much more expansion/speed possibilities and a more robust solution.
best of luck
Andy

I just received a new macbook pro. I am looking for a usb3 external storage 500 GB drive. Some manufacturers of drives aren't for sure their drive will work with the new lion system. Does anybody have any suggestions for drives that will workw

I just received a new macbook pro. I am looking for a usb3 external storage 500 GB drive. Some manufacturers of drives aren't for sure their drive will work with the new system. Does anybody have any suggestions for drives that will workw

There seems to be a problem, just now, with the USB 3 ports on the new MBP's supporting eternal USB 3 drives. Some people have no luck at all - can't even recognize the drive - and some are reporting USB 2 speeds (those who drives are recognized). I'd call a dealer such as LaCie or OWC to see if they have USB 3 drives that actually work with MBP's with USB 3 ports. You may have to wait for a software/firmware update.
Clinton

Any suggestions RE: aftermarket cards to accelerate rendering for FCP?????

Any suggestions RE: aftermarket cards to accelerate rendering for FCP? I will be purchasing a Mac Pro system when FCP6 gets released.
I'm about to come over from Adobe Pre Pro2 & the Matrox Card(which added a tremendous amount of RT to Premiere)
What cards would you recommend to do the same in a Mac Pro?
Are they reliable?
My budget for a card is under $2000.
One with some aditional inputs & outs wouldn't hurt but my main concern is as little rendering as possible.
I will be doing mostly DV, but within a year or so will be doing HDV.
Here's your chance to turn a PC guy,
Steve from NY

Their cards will enable MORE effects to be RT for certain codecs, like HDV and DVCPRO HD. The 3-way color corrector is an RT effect already. But what also helps with RT effects, mainly with PiP and multi-layers is a really fast RAID array. MULTIPLE STREAMS is the term used for multiple layers of video. So with a single firewire 400 drive, you can get one stream of DVCPRO HD. But with a 5 drive RAID, you can get about 6 streams.
Shane

Suggestions for Prelude to FCP workflow?

We have a project with 22 hours of footage that has been brought into Prelude and logged. The media represents a variety of formats including 5D, 7D, GoPro, FS700, etc. Although originally intended for a Premiere edit, we need to now pass this project over to one of our FCP suites instead. I can't figure out any way to both export a FCP XML file AND convert all the logged media to a usable FCP format such as DVCProHD or ProRes. Any good workflow suggestions for getting all this work out of Prelude and into FCP if I didn't already convert to ProRes when we originally imported and logged the footage in Prelude?
I need something like Media Manager that would let me point to a folder, move all the selected media to that folder (while renaming the clips what they have been named in Prelude), AND convert those clips ot a new format as it copies them. I tried sending the project to Premiere and using Project Manager from there - but Project Manager appears to give me everything but an option to convert the footage into a different format when it copies it.
I feel like I'm missing something simple somewhere.
Thanks for any help.
Don Hertz
AC Media Inc.

Prelude allows you to transcode during ingest, but does not have a way to transcode clips AFTER ingest. This is a great suggestion and I have it noted from the feature request you submitted in July.
You can send all of your clips through AME to transcode them. Getting the metadata you've already created can be applied to the new transcoded clips, however it is a one-by-one operation. For original each clip choose File->Save Metadata As... to save off the XMP to a separate file. Next ingest the transcoded versions of the clips and for each you can apply the XMP metadata via the Window->Unassociated Metadata panel.

Suggestion for Apple or Third-party software company?

My first question is, where should I post the following suggestion for an improvement in FCP or for the creation of a third party software – suggested sites, blogs, etc.?
Next, my recommendation, and then my explanation of the reason why (including my personal semi-disaster):
Recommendation: That someone create a “Project Management” software for FCP (essentially a file management program that runs in the background) that organizes and tracks all of the files created during editing/post production – including the log/capture or log/transfer of the original footage, the audio files, stills, effects, etc, AND all of the files created by the program -- Live Type, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, and Color (especially color). The reason for this is that FCP has an incredibly complicated filing system that results in shots, files, documents, etc., being distributed all over the place – and not all known to the filmmaker or identified in the documentation. And, that condition can lead to disaster – see below.
Explanation: I just finished my first HD project using Studio 2, including sound track pro and color. After completing what I though was the absolute final version, I burned a one-off DVD and ran it by several filmmaker and non-film maker friends. They all spotted a small sound problem with one cut, so I went back to tweak it – and discovered that ALL of the footage had gone offline. I had nothing, nada, zilch. I had saved earlier sequences (rough cut, polished cut, etc.) and all the original footage appeared, but I had taken the final version into color for some corrections and adjustments, and ALL of those shots/files were missing.
After burning what I believed to be the final cut, I had cleaned up my hard disk, moving stuff to my backup hard disk, to my RAID array, and to the trash. So, after the initial shock and complete panic, several hours of searching all of these drives, led me to the file that contained the files that contained the color corrections – in my trash, which fortunately had not been emptied. I have no idea where the files were before or how they got into the trash – obviously they were not added to the scratch disk with all of the original footage.
Part of the difficulty of finding the shots was the discovery that color creates a file folder, that holds a set of file folders, each of which holds only one shot. In order to reconnect, I had to move the parent folder to the desktop, and then move all of the shots, one at a time. into a single folder, and then point reconnect to that folder. Problem solved.
However, now I face that question of archiving the project, moving all of the files off my hard drive so I can use the space for my next film, and I am terrified that I will leave something out, and not be able to recover the project in the future. Having a project management software that organizes and coordinates all of that would be a lifesaver – and well worth the purchase price.
Anyone who would like to explore this idea, please feel free to contact me – [email protected].

You've just learned a hard lesson. Put your current energy into your education, not finding a way to wallow in ignorance.
There already is a hardware device that will do what you want. It's called a "manual". In particular, the sections that relate to "where the program stores media". Pay very close attention to those sections and set up your computer so that all the scratch and storage pointers are aimed where you want. It's very simple to have them all go to one drive.
Then, when it's time to archive the project because you are starting a new project, just purchase another hard drive for the new project. They are absurdly inexpensive these days.
Remove the drive with your project to be archived from your computer (since you now know how to keep all the files organized, they will be all together) - and plug in a new disk for the next project.
If you want a backup, use carbon copy cloner to simply duplicate the drive (or simply just copy the relevant folders- you'll know which ones) to another drive (or get a RAID 1 device)
good luck,
x

Need Suggestion for Archival of a Table Data

Hi guys,
I want to archive one of my large table. the structure of table is as below.
Daily there will be around 40000 rows inserted into the table.
Need suggestion for the same. will the partitioning help and on what basis?
CREATE TABLE IM_JMS_MESSAGES_CLOB_IN
LOAN_NUMBER VARCHAR2(10 BYTE),
LOAN_XML CLOB,
LOAN_UPDATE_DT TIMESTAMP(6),
JMS_TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP(6),
INSERT_DT TIMESTAMP(6)
TABLESPACE DATA
PCTUSED 0
PCTFREE 10
INITRANS 1
MAXTRANS 255
STORAGE (
INITIAL 1M
NEXT 1M
MINEXTENTS 1
MAXEXTENTS 2147483645
PCTINCREASE 0
BUFFER_POOL DEFAULT
LOGGING
LOB (LOAN_XML) STORE AS
( TABLESPACE DATA
ENABLE STORAGE IN ROW
CHUNK 8192
PCTVERSION 10
NOCACHE
STORAGE (
INITIAL 1M
NEXT 1M
MINEXTENTS 1
MAXEXTENTS 2147483645
PCTINCREASE 0
BUFFER_POOL DEFAULT
NOCACHE
NOPARALLEL;
do the needful.
regards,
Sandeep

There will not be any updates /deletes on the table.
I have created a partitioned table with same struture and i am inserting the records from my original table to this partitioned table where i will maintain data for 6 months.
After loading the data from original table to archived table i will truncating the original table.
If my original table is partitioned then what about the restoring of the data??? how will restore the data of last month???

Sony Z1U HDV Capture Settings for FCP 6.0

Hi, I am shooting a project on Sony's HVR-Z1U HDV camcorder at HDV 60i NTSC. Does anyone have suggestions for settings to capture the material into FCP. I have FCP Version 6, part of the FC Studio 2 upgrade.
Appreciate any feedback!

There are definiitely some advantages to editing in DV rather than HDV for easy workflow and faster renders, etc.
To capture, you'll have to get the settingns on the deck and in FCP to match. If you have the deck/camera set to HDV then choose the appropriate easy setup in FCP such as HDV 1080i60. If you want to capture as DV, then set the deck to downconvert to DV, and choose the DV NTSC easy setup. You'll want to check the anamorphic box for you capture settings and sequences, but keep in mind if your are working with DV or any SD format, that the anamorphic setting can be esaily applied to clips and sequences after creation or capture.
When you export your web clips with compressor, figure out a square-pixel frame size that is some multiple of 16:9.

Is there an EASY way to submit podcasts to the itunes store? i've tried creating podcasts in garageband, then somewhere after wordpress itunes doesn't recognize the feed. my process has been (i am open to suggestions for other free and EASY services/me

is there an EASY way to submit podcasts to the itunes store? i've tried creating podcasts in garageband, then somewhere after wordpress itunes doesn't recognize the feed.
my process has been (i am open to suggestions for other free and EASY services/methods):
garageband : create & edit audio. add 1400x1400 image.
share to itunes.
drag file to desktop.
upload .m4a file to google drive.
create a link post in wordpress using "podcast" tag & create "podcast" category.
click on "entries rss" in wordpress, which takes me to the rss subscribe page (which is basically just my wordpress address with "/feed" at the end.
i copy this url.
go to itunes store > then "submit a podcast"
itunes gives me the error message "we had difficulty downloading episodes from your feed."
when i try to subscribe to my podcast in itunes, it does, but gives me no episodes available.
i went back into wordpress and changed settings/ reading settings to : "full text" from "summary"
still the same error message.
i added a feedburner step after wordpress but got the same errors. i don't think i should have to add feedburner.
wordpress seems to be encapsulating the rss, what am i doing wrong?
this so much easier when you could go directly from garage band to iweb to mobileme; i miss those apple days (also idisk).

if anyone has a super EASY process, i would LOVE to know what it is. EASY, meaning no html and also free. there are many free online storage systems available, many of which i currently use. the above process was just me trying to figure it out, if you have an easier method, please share. thank you so much!

Storage suggestions for FCP

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