Video Production Storage for Home Environment

I know what I'm about to talk about is relatively quite small compared to many businesses, but it's quite large for a home environment (and budget!)....
I've recently started doing some Video Production using kdenlive; my last project was a 12 minute video and all the files for the project totalled ~120gb.
I want to do more VP work, but I'd like to get some ideas on storage for this kind of work; lots of space, but also fast access needed. At the moment I'm using a 4-bay external enclosure in RAID-10 connected via USB3 which seems to work OK, but I'm wondering if I it would be worth turning that into a RAID-6 (more efficient use of raw disks) for archiving projects, and build a smaller internal RAID1/10 array of SSD's for doing "live" work?
Do you do this? How do you handle it? What are your suggestions?

I'm not sure I'm understanding it right, maybe I'm totally missing the point...?
Do you have the project you're working on on the same storage as the ones you don't currently need? Does that mean you need fast access to the old projects, too?
My setup and requirements are far below yours, but so far I'm doing fine with 50-300GB projects on a normal internal drive with only the 2-3 projects I've been working on last (<3 that velociraptor 1TB hd). Isn't one internal drive usually already a fair bit faster than such an USB3 RAID-10? Depends on what bottlenecks play the lead I guess...
In background, I simply sync that drive together with the rest of my system to my backup "array" that keeps hardlinks to deleted files in folders by date... so I can just delete files from the work-drive without fear of loosing anything. Those backup arrays aren't raid either - I simply use backup HD's like it used to work with those C64 "cassette drives" - if it's full, I dump the directory tree to a text file for later reference, put a label on the backup hd, put it in a drawer and stick the next big, cheap, slow, empty HD into my cheap slow USB3 dock. In my case, the redundancy that results from this method turns out just right (all projects end up on at least 2 HDs in the end, only small ones on more than 4). That it works out so well might be partly coincidence though.
I tried to involve RAID arrays in the past... turned out to make more problems & work than it had advantages in my case. I'm clumsy and also like to misplace hardware on occasion. Without raid there's a lot less room for me to mess things up.
Last edited by whoops (2013-07-29 11:45:04)

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Best RAID setup for Home Directories

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That will help track the issue to the host system or the RAID.
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This could also be indicative of a too-full volume (RAID 5 volumes will degrade in performance over about 85% full. At 95% full performance may be excruciatingly slow).
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Server Setup advice for a video production house

Hello Forum,
I recently started working for a small video production company, I need advice on the type of server and other hardware and services that will allow my co-workers to work efficiently. Here are some details:
Currently we are going to buy a new server, I am not sure what we should look at getting,
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Well if your looking for performance. You could get a Promise VTrak E-Class RAID with 32TB of storage, later on you can add more chassis to the raid for more storage space. The raid can be expanded up to 160TB. (80 drive bays, each drive 2 TB)
Using fiber you could attach the raid to an xServer or Mac Pro (running mac os x server). You'll probable want at least 8 or 16 GB of ram on the server.
The server can run a copy of final cut server. Witch makes it easer to work as a group. Mac OS X server, when properly configured, can also be used to create a VPN between both locations.
Final Cut Server will let editors check in/out specific parts of the documentaries. So the project lives on the server; instead of scattered over every ones computers. Part of this is you can pull down thumb nails versions of the video to work off of. Only when you do the final render do you download the HD version of the video.
If you want even better performance on the editing stations. you could also upgrade to Mac Pros. Mac Pros have upgrade slots witch you can use to add fiber networking. You could also use the upgrade slots to add a black magic real time HD capture card.
Or if you want to keep the imacs. you might want to hook the server to a switch by fiber, and have the imacs connected to the same switch by 1000-T
If you call apple i'm sure they'd be happy to help you figure this all out.
for info on Promise: http://www.promise.com/apple/
for mor info on final cut server: http://www.apple.com/finalcutserver/

Will iMac be efficient for Video Production Work Flow? PC to MAC switch.

Hi, I'm a long time Windows user editing in Sony Vegas for my video production work. I've been toying with the idea of seriously switching to Mac and Final Cut for about a year now. I may take the plunge this weekend. I don't think I want to go above $2k. I've been looking at the iMac 24inch, 2.8GHz model for a while now in the store, playing with footage. Nevetheless, I'm certainly nervous about making such a switch! I've been working with Sony Vegas for a couple of years now editing movies.
I do independent video production work, pretty seriously, but not for a huge movie house or anything. Will this iMac with Final Cut Studio work for me? Also should the fact that you can't upgrade specs on the iMac worry me? Will this computer be obsolete by next year.
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Message was edited by: monaya
Message was edited by: monaya

hey there monaya & welcome to Discussions,
the iMac you're considering will certainly run FCS2. Tara Timpone edited "The TV Set", starring David Duchovny on her iMac @ home, see this: http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/kasdan/
i still do some editing on a 17" imac G4 w/ 512 MB, RAM(top of the line 5 1/2 years ago) & it shows no sign of not doing what need. it won't run FCS 2, but i'm still rolling on the home video to DVD part of my video biz w/ it-so it just got repurposed & has been online wirelessly for most of that time(so i can check e-mail, listen to radio for a break). it will run previous versions of FCE, which is how i got into using a pro-style editing app.
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Principles
* Decent computer for Home Video Editing - so when we do it want it to be reasonable from a performance point of view (not annoying). Also want assurance for the video data that a single HDD crash won't mean lost data.
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Is it really worth having a separate drive (D: drive) for Swap?
Is there any real need to have a drive F: (another one) for exports? This is non-real time so it shouldn't be an issue should it?
Any major improvement re moving say the C: drive to SSD? (or not worth the $$)
SATA II versus SATA III drives? (I've assumed both are ok when picking)
The Spec
CPU - Intel Core i7 960 Processor LGA1366 3.2GHz 8MB Cache CPU
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58+ICH10R QPI 6.4GT/s DDR3 2000 PCI-Ex16 SATAII SATA3 USB3.0 RAID GLAN ATX
RAM - Kingston 12GB(3X4G) KIT 1333MHz(PC3-10600)
Video Card - NVIDIA GTX560 - Gigabyte GTX560 OC 1G GDDR5 PCIE DualLink DVI [?? matches motherboard / is this overkill ??]
RAID Card - Adaptec AAR1220SA-SGL SATAII RAID0 1 JBOD/2 PORT/Low Profile/PCIEx1/OEM/No Cables [?? is this ok - seems cheap ??]
HDD (non-RAID) - 2 x Western Digital 500G RE4 SATAII 7200rpm HDD 64MB Enterprise [?? only SATAII this is ok no??]
Case - CoolerMaster RC-942-KKN1 HAF X 942 Black No PSU [?? is this overkill - just took someone recommendation here ??]
Power Supply - Corsair HX-850 ATX Power Supply w 140mm Modular Cables [?? power ok? again just took a recommendation ??]
O/S - 64bit - Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM(Microsoft OEM Terms&condition apply)
Note - I'm looking at the following local site re where to source if this assists: http://www.umart.com.au

Greg (correct me if that's not correct!),
You're spec. looks like a great start for what you are trying to do. I have a few comments, and also two questions!
Comments:
- Spec. generally looks fine
- I particularly like your case and p/s choices!
- For a home PC, you may consider bumping up your OS choice to Ultimate, which adds some nice multimedia capabilities
- Regarding the D drive for swap (and I assume you mean Premiere Pro media cache and media cache database too) will definitely speed up aspects of Premiere Pro, but likely be unnoticeable for other home PC day to day use. Why not build out the system and decide then if you need the extra speed for Premiere Pro - it is so easy to add something like that later.
- I'd vote no regarding a need for a F output drive for this system
- Regarding your OS drive... Speed and responsiveness versus cost - what do you choose? This really is a personal choice. I will say that a 2x1TB RAID 0 OS boot array would probably be a bigger step up in performance than a similar priced SSD option and a 2xSSD (60 to 80GB) array will perform better than a single larger SSD.
- Sata II vs Sata III - I have some of each now, and I would agree with other posters and articles on the Internet that say the often larger cache size on the Sata III models is more important than the Sata III interface. Keep going like you are going, with the assumption that both are OK.
- finally, your CPU; personnaly, with the new lower cost pricing on the i7-970, I'd suggest you downgrade to a i7-950 and same some money or upgrade to the 32nm 6-core i7-970 CPU and jump to a significantly new level of performance and power per watt
Questions:
- what version of Premier Pro will you be running?
- what will be your workflow (i.e. DV, Sony consumer AVCHD, Canon DSLR, etc.)?
Cheers,
Jim

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Could someone please recommend a good website or information resource for creating graphics in Photoshop that are compatible with video production. 720x540, square vs non-square pixels, alpha channels, etc. I have Googled for an hour and am not finding what I need.
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These kids will be the tech crew for our popular Rock School program now in its 12th year. The crew kids will learn to run sound, live recording, lighting, stage set up, video production, culminating in the big concert every 3 months where they will run the show. They will shoot the video, record the sound, and after, edit the video with the audio track recorded and mixed from 24 track recorder. We are a bit new to video and need help with the best way to go about this......software.....curriculum. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

millersgulch
Besides your contact with Adobe Customer Service as SG is suggesting, have you check out Adobe Education
Educational software, academic software | Adobe
and the following Contact link within the above link might provide some telephone number for inquiry specific to your program choice.
At first glance, the above looks like it targets the higher end products. But, there may be Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements opportunities in there also.
Contact | Adobe
ATR

Video Production Storage for Home Environment

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