Archive for the ‘near-line’ Category

Mobile Video Editing Hardware: Thoughts, Ideas & Dreams (continued)

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Following-on from my earlier post, Mobile Video Editing Hardware: Thoughts, Ideas & Dreams, where I considered an eventual migration from my laptop to a luggable PC, my thoughts veered (possibly having spotted cash-icebergs among them) towards an alternative solution:

  • Use the laptop for lightweight editing & compositing.
  • Use the desktop as a number-crunching RADI-attached server.

The two could be linked by:

  • Remote access / remote sessions (some of which via smartphone)
  • DropBox, e.g. have an active folder where I can drop Adobe Premiere XML and have it processed remotely by Adobe apps installed there.

Some links:

  • http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/11/virtualisation_at_home_part_2/
    • (There’s no equivalent “_part_1” page.  I guess it’s just “Part 2” of that guy’s story).
    • DIY virtual machines: Rigging up at home, by Trevor Pott, 11th January 2012 14:33 GMT
    • Personal Virtual Machine (PVM) (in use) for about seven years with retail boxed version of Windows XP.
    • VM has been moved from virtualization platform to virtualization platform over the years … the most recent incarnation … inside Hyper-V.
    • …nothing beats Windows Server 2008 R2. It comes with a top-notch virtualisation platform (Hyper-V), and added RemoteFX support with Service Pack 1. You can still use the desktop operating system for all your HTPC needs, and a single Server 2008 R2 Standard license allows you to run both a host copy and a single virtual instance of Server 2008 R2.
    • In my case, the host instance does little more than play movies on the projector via VLC. The virtual instance of Server runs my Plex media server, and aggregates my many storage devices into a single share using DFS.
  • Shuttle Inc (Taiwan)

Posted in Adobe, building, collaboration, DropBox, Encoding, file mgt, gigabit, Mac, MacBook Pro, near-line, network, Networking, offline, Premiere, RAID, remote access, Setup, Video Computer Technology, XML | No Comments »

Mobile Video Editing Hardware: Thoughts, Ideas & Dreams

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Want a mobile “suitcase” editing system, something more (and more expandable) than a laptop but not too expensive.  Primarily to be used for Adobe CS5.5 for media enhancement / editing / compositing etc.

Nearest I found was NextDimension’s range around $7000 I think (but just guesswork – could be way off – would need to get a quote).   That would (if true) be around £4500 at current rates.  Plus import…  NextDimension call such machines “flextops” (Maybe they coined the term? Google searches on it mostly come up with them.)

Apart from the (mil/broadcast-lite but me-heavy) price, it might possibly be undesirably heavy to lug around much.   If so (just guessing, not assuming), it would make more sense to go for a modular quick-setup system.  So, starting to “think different” in this direction:

  • Standard tower, capable of taking new CUDA etc. graphics cards etc. as they emerge, but no need for more than say a couple of disks, maybe if SSD could even get away with just a single disk? (For system and media – inadvisable for traditional disks of course, what about for SSD’s?  I have much to learn about SSD’s though).
  • “Laptop-Lite” to talk to it.  With robust shuttered-stereoscopic HD monitor.
  • Gigabit network to NAS fast storage (SSD and/or RAID ?).

Maybe in that case it would be far more logical/affordable to use an existing laptop as a client working together with a luggable tower server, sufficiently light and robust for frequent dis/re -connection and travel.  And remote access of course (no heavy data to be exchanged, assume that’s already sync’d).  And some means to easily swap/sync applications and projects (data) between laptop and tower, giving the option to use just the (old) laptop on its own if needed.  All such options are handy for the travelling dude (working on train, social visits etc.) who also occasionally has to do heavy processing.  Then would just need a protective suitcase for the tower, plus another one for a decent monitor for grading etc.

I certainly won’t be spending anything just yet, but it’s good to have at least some kind of “radar”.

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Posted in Adobe, Avid, backup, building, collaboration, Encoding, file mgt, gigabit, GPU, graphic card, MacBook Pro, near-line, network, Networking, offline, Premiere, ProRes, QuickTime, RAID, remote access, Setup, Uncategorized, Video Computer Technology | 1 Comment »

FCP Project Folder Structures: Advice

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

What’s a good folder structure for FCP?  I read and heard lots of tips from great sources, but some of them (e.g. keep [.fcp] files on local drive not Media drive) sounded questionable, at least from my context, and anyway I always want to know the underlying reason for anything.  So it’s research-time again…

  • .

There are several aspects:

  • .

Context

  • Participants
    • Individual, small team or large team
    • Standards-based, methodical or haphazard
  • Application(s)
    • Apple (FCS etc.) -centric?
    • Combination of several apps e.g. several makes of NLE
  • Media
    • File size and value.
  • Storage system(s)?
    • Local
      • Normal or (relatively) slow drive
      • Fast drive e.g. RAID
    • Remote (probably shared).
      • Exceedingly Slow (e.g. web via standard broadband)
      • Slow (e.g. NAS such as WD MyBook)
      • Fast but with possible latency (e.g. “Fibre Channel” / SAN)
    • Integrated
      • Final Cut Server giving seamless access to all storage including near-line (easily-retrievable archive)?

Requirements

  • Tidy organization
    • Easy to find stuff, including serendipitously.
    • Easy to manage stuff, e.g. archiving / shelving and reinstating.
  • Performance
    • User-level.
      • Keep
    • System-level
  • Security

My Conclusions (so far):

  • The typical professional situation involves multiple users on a SAN.   In this case:
    • Each user should configure their apps (e.g. FCP) to save small and transient files to local disk.
      • Local disk has less latency and minimization of small-file traffic on SAN improves its performance to all users.
    • An individual (or item) -specific project file, which counts as a “small and transient file”, should not be saved routinely or automatically to shared media server but only saved there on an occasional basis (e.g. at end of day or project).
      • Restricting this operation to end-of-project might “discourage” users from corrupting each other’s files, though really that’s what Permissions are for (in Mac OS X / unix).
  • Much advice relates to the “typical professional situation”, not all of it is appropriate to other situations.
  • .

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Posted in backup, Final Cut, folder structures, Mac, near-line, storage, tidy | No Comments »