online 10 bit UC - internal or external raid?

Hi from Australia! I am setting up a system to edit and online a 1hr doco shot on DigiBeta. I have read a number of posts talking about different drive configurations and would like some advice / clarification from those with more experience! What is going to be most effective solution for the money? And will these options work?

1) filling a new mac pro (2.6 DC) full of large, fast drives, and (software) RAIDing them?
2) buying an older G5 (DC 2 Ghz) and adding a calDigit external array (1.5TB) ?
3) take the plunge and buy the mac pro with spec HD and add the calDigit array?
4) any other suggestions? FW800?

Can FW 800 deliver data rates high enough to cope with online 10bit UC? What will stand the test of time?

Thanks in advance!

Gavin Banks

any of these approaches will be fine. just depends on how much money you want to throw at it.

1. will be fine, but ram for the macpro is pretty pricey right now
2. definitely the cheapest option and will work fine. render times may get tiresome if you go HD.
3. same situation as option one, just cheaper and easier (and less portable)
4. fw800 is okay, but dollars for megs its not substantially cheaper than a caldigit solution.

as you'll read here on the forum, the caldigit products SCREAM and their customer service is almost without peer.

A SATA RAID of some sort with at least 2 drives will allow you to capture DigiBeta tapes with overhead bandwidth for no worries.

Firewire is not as fast and is, at times, flakey operationally. You will also need to decide how to get the content into your Mac. Is it from a SDI equipt tape deck? Or can you have those files captured elsewhere and load them onto a disk drive to transfer them into your edit system?
If you are going to need to capture those DigiBeta tapes yourself you will need a Deck and a capture card.

Finally, what is your delivery method?

Thanks to you both for your input.

The DigiBeta footage has alll been catptured on another system and will be trasnferred via a FW800 drive. The plan is to hire a DB deck for output (was going to buy the DecklinkHD Extreme)., or to use another post facility to master out.

Are the fast drives all that is needed to online in UC 10bit? I thought that the Decklink card (or similar) was mandatory too? Up until now I have been working with DV, HDV and cheating output to 10 bit UC (when needed for motion graphics work) by outputing a QT file (which I could not play but instead compressed for DVD) - an option that doesn't fly when needing to work with DigiBeta footage and deliver on tape.

Sounds like I need to go for the mac pro for render capabities. I thought, too, that the caldigit option would be more expensive than the internal drive option???
Any other comments about software raid internal vs caldigit external?

Thanks again,

Gavin Banks

if you are buying, i'd go for a Mac PRo.
the G5 is now old technology, and will only get older.
not a good investment, even if you save a buck or two.
(this assumes that this wont be your only project)

a card of some sort is required if you want to monitor,
and as you;re doing the online, then yes you want to monitor

will al the rushes at 10bit UC fit on the internals?
if so, then that;s fine.


if you need a FCP facility to play out to Digibeta, i can recommend 2 Dogs Post in Annandale (if you are Sydney based)
8594 2000