1000 GIG Video Drive

Well I never though I would see the day that I would have a 1000GIG (1T) hard drive.

Pretty funny....should hold a few hours of DV and HDV footage.

And it was like only $260 AUD.

Well I never though I would see the day that I would have a 1000GIG (1T) hard drive.

Pretty funny....should hold a few hours of DV and HDV footage.

And it was like only $260 AUD.

Yeah they are great, but you know what, no matter how big they get, they always seem to fill up

FWIW some people have complained a bit about the performance on the WD Green drives since some (maybe all?) fluctuate the RPMs between 5,400 to 7,200 RPM, but I have not found it a major issue on the drives I have (I have a few of those, and a bunch of the Seagates and Hitachis 1 Terrabytes right now), though I think there were a couple of times there was some slowing down which affected playback a bit, but may have been me just playing around with too many things at the same time to the same drive

At some point I will go back and do some more tests.

Something you may want is the enclosures to pop them in and out. I have a few dual bay enclosures (SilverSata and RTX by Wiebetech) where it defaults to RAID 1 hardware (can also make them RAID 0). Nice way to have backups. The RTX are cool, trayless, screwless, just pop trays in and out. (Has USB, FW and eSATA connections) A bit bigger than some other ones, but the ease of use is nice.

Gee have to see how it goes then, it's that the GREEN side of it...slows down to save electrons

Only comes up as 930 GIGS yes it's that small little marketing white lie they use......decimal definition as to binary terms....just like those 1080i High Definition READY TV"S

Yes will look into removal trays later on. I'm mainly doing this for my archive...it's a pain having to go through the tapes to find stuff.

Gee have to see how it goes then, it's that the GREEN side of it...slows down to save electrons

the tapes to find stuff.

LOL, should be fine...

Only comes up as 930 GIGS yes it's that small little marketing white lie they use......decimal definition as to binary terms....just like those 1080i High Definition READY TV"S

Yeah that is one of the downsides. Not as noticiable on the smaller drives. Like with the old 80 gigs, did not seem like that much missing, then those 200 and 250s started noticing. Then the 500s. Got a couple of 750s in front of me now that are really 698.

Yes will look into removal trays later on. I'm mainly doing this for my archive...it's a pain having to go through the tapes to find stuff.

It does make like a whole lot easier. My guess you have a pretty extensive collection, so (though you probably worked this out figured I would throw this out there) set a naming convention that works for you (perhaps crossed to things you have written out or otherwise logged?) I usually name reels/clips by YYMMDD-DiveSite within a folder for the reel, though people have different approaches to know where the shots are.

Also another FWIW, the 750 Gig drives are still a good deal, about $150 U.S. as opposed to $230 for one terrabytes (when they are on sale, usually they are otherwise more towards $260-$300). Using rough numbers of 12-13 gigs per hour for DV/HDV they will hold 53 hours or so (while the terrabyte will hold about 70 hours). The one thing you should have high on the hit list is making a copy of the drive as soon as you can. The last thing you want to do is go back and recapture it all again. And the best part is if you make a back-up it pretty much guarantees the other drive will not fail

One last thing I can think of is make sure you give yourself a bit more space than you need when capturing on the clips itself (did not know if you are just going to let the tapes run or mark all the in/outs you want). If marking the in/out make them a bit longer than you think on either end. I did that once or twice where I thought I marked what I wanted and the realized I could have used a few more seconds.

Update

Well it seems to be running great and it's faster than my tiny 300 GIG drive

4 x 1440/1080 m2t tracks of the same clip in realtime seems easy enough.

1000 GIG

300 GIG

I just let it suck the whole tape in, the program keeps going if there is any time code breaks and even if you come back in after it has well and truly got to the end of the tape... it just stops so you are not capturing nothing.

The tapes are all logged in a book...but will tranfer that info to digital later one.

Back up drive...mmmm....maybe later on. I can capture from 3 DV cameras at the same time but only one in HDV mode.

Update

 

Well it seems to be running great and it's faster than my tiny 300 GIG drive

4 x 1440/1080 m2t tracks of the same clip in realtime seems easy enough.

to larger faster drives.

I just let it suck the whole tape in, the program keeps going if there is any time code breaks and even if you come back in after it has well and truly got to the end of the tape... it just stops so you are not capturing nothing.

As the price of drives dropped I started doing the same thing myself a few years ago Alot easier than marking in and out points:)

The tapes are all logged in a book...but will tranfer that info to digital later one.

Back up drive...mmmm....maybe later on. I can capture from 3 DV cameras at the same time but only one in HDV mode.

That should not be too bad then. Guess as long as the names match up to the log book as start you sound like you are in good shape.

Well I have now 16 tapes of HDV on it so far...I only have 738 GIGS left

Long way to go but at least I can still work on the computer while it's coming in.

Drew are you editing with RAID setups or just on single drives.

Well I never though I would see the day that I would have a 1000GIG (1T) hard drive.

I have been imagining it for ages ... whistfully until recenly

still find it hard to fathom that would be 763 549 742 3.5" floppy disks ... a stack about 2672 km high !?!

Put 2 1T drives in raid0 and then really watch them fly

Cor

Well I have now 16 tapes of HDV on it so far...I only have 738 GIGS left

I love glee of boys and their new toys

Long way to go but at least I can still work on the computer while it's coming in.

A long journey starts with a single step....

Drew are you editing with RAID setups or just on single drives.

When I am not out and about, I am using the RAIDs. I have RAID 0s and RAID 1s set-up for speed and backing things up. Though I have not had data loss now in many years, I do enjoy having a RAID1 where I keep things so it is automatically backing things up (though of course I have a back-up plan in addition to that. Yeah I know, seems like a bit much, but having lost data once or twice (fortunately recovered) I really try my best to keep up on things as much as possible.

In the past I was able to edit DV and HDV without RAIDs, but now use them whenever I can.

u do know u now need a second TB drive to back up that first one and store it offsite eh?

Well it's not a toy...I need to get this stuff onto drives so I can make demos for companies that are interested in buying our footage. Just uploaded a 2 GIG file to a mob overseas...easy money....

I'm sure I will be getting a second drive pretty quick don't worry.

I did not realize I had so much cool stuff just sitting there on the tapes.

A RAID setup would be good but I seem to be doing okay with just single setups for now.

Here is a small clip I just made.

The damm thing played back in realtime even, CPU was at 83%

4 tracks.

Track 1 is DV 4.3

Track 2 is WMV

Track 3 is 720/576 DVD MPEG2

Track 4 is 1440/1080 m2t

http://www.hdvundersea.com/view/112/multiformat-editing/

I've had a lot of bad luck with Western Digital in the last 3 years or so. I used to think they were the business but I've had about 4 fail on me. Just sent a MyBook external back under warranty because the drive failed.

Maxtor has let me down in the past too.

Maybe it's just me but now I try to get Seagate or Hitachi.

Well it's not a toy...I need to get this stuff onto drives so I can make demos for companies that are interested in buying our footage. Just uploaded a 2 GIG file to a mob overseas...easy money....

You know what is cool? When toys can make you money Dive gear, u/w photo gear, u/w video gear, stuff to store it on, all toys.

I'm sure I will be getting a second drive pretty quick don't worry.

 

I did not realize I had so much cool stuff just sitting there on the tapes.

The drives do help find things you may have missed.

Seagate 750 Gigs $140 U.S. sale yesterday (off today) though I am not sure if thy ship your way though. It seems the prices have evened out more. ( My friend in Melbourne used to have to pay alot more for the computer items when I last visited...)

A RAID setup would be good but I seem to be doing okay with just single setups for now.

Here is a small clip I just made.

The damm thing played back in realtime even, CPU was at 83%

4 tracks.

Track 1 is DV 4.3

Track 2 is WMV

Track 3 is 720/576 DVD MPEG2

Track 4 is 1440/1080 m2t

Sounds like it is working fine without the RAID for you. As mentioned I do alot of HDV and DV without RAIDs. The RAIDs are nice (and for some things needed) but not necessary. For things like DV and HDV I like the RAID 1 for automatic dupes and rebuilds. I now capture to two drives in RAID 1. Pop one drive out and place it somewhere safe, then rebuild another to have two on hand.

How many hours have you gotten through? And idea how much left? Must be quite a selection of tapes...

Nick I lost a 300 GIG WD drive as well but I think it was my fault as it was loose in the computer so it bounced all the way to Cairns and back in the back of the car...like 11,000KM....

Sucked in like 34 tapes now.

Some tapes are not full.

Still got 594 GIGS left on it and about 50 HDV tapes left.

DV I have like over 120

It's pretty good as I just keep it going while I work on my latest website job.

Yes Drew anything you buy in AUS cost more.

500 GIG WD is like just $120 AUD now though which is pretty good.

I wonder how long it would take to copy a 1T drive for backup.

Do you know what kind of data speed the RAID gives you...100mbps+

Nick I lost a 300 GIG WD drive as well but I think it was my fault as it was loose in the computer so it bounced all the way to Cairns and back in the back of the car...like 11,000KM....

11,000 KM in a bouncing car probably can loosen things up

Sucked in like 34 tapes now.

Some tapes are not full.

Still got 594 GIGS left on it and about 50 HDV tapes left.

DV I have like over 120

 

It's pretty good as I just keep it going while I work on my latest website job.

Yeah you are going to need another drive it sounds like

Yes Drew anything you buy in AUS cost more.

500 GIG WD is like just $120 AUD now though which is pretty good.

I wonder how long it would take to copy a 1T drive for backup.

Do you know what kind of data speed the RAID gives you...100mbps+

It seems it is not as bad (the differential) as it was when I was last there, which is too long ago

It is not too bad to copy the drives, but takes some time. Usually when I do the RAID 1 automatic dupe I just stick the back up in the drive in the evening and it is done in the AM. Using things like Super Duper, Retrospect or other back up software also can speed things up after the initial back-up by just writing/deleting changed files, and I still use that for back-ups, but the RAID also makes it easy. I have one set up just to handle the duping for the most part.

Wiebetech indicates (generally) about 50 MB/s with 4 eSata connections (200 MB/s total) to the 4-Bay RTX with eSATA connection for each drive and software RAID set-up. Not sure if they are being a tad optimistic or not (and not sure which software RAID they were trying or drives). I have not done any benchmark software testing....

anyone seen the ickle wee 16 gig thumb drives that I gawped at in the shops the other day!!!

or the tiniest of teensy weensy little Micro SDs that now come in 8 gig flavour - but remain no bigger than my well-bitten little finger nail!?!?

now THAT'S development!!!