HD Challenge!

Okay,

So here's the question guys! Set up a FCP suite with the necessary hardware/software to be able to handle ANY form of HD you may throw at it! Even 150Mbps of a full length feature. How much is enough, RAM, storage, processor, the lot..??

Marcus T
iCreate! digital|post
12 Core Mac Pro, Snow Leopard, FCP 7.0.3, 8Gb Memory.

""ANY form of HD you may throw at it!""

You just open up a large can of works with the ANY statement.

Assuming you call HDV = HD, then all known forms of Digital HD are captured via Firewire (IEony) or P2 card (Panasonic) or even SDI (Canon), but MOST everything goes over Firewire as compressed HD.

On notable exception is uncompressed HD, which like DigiBeta is compressed to tape and uncompressed over SDI pipe to a capture card. This requires a Mega RAID with gobs of storage and very few are using this compared to the gaggle of HD contenders afore mentioned.

Except for the uncompressed HD mentioned, just about any current MacPro with 4+ GB RAM and a SATA RAID would do the job easily.

On (sic) notable exception is uncompressed HD, which like DigiBeta is compressed to tape and uncompressed over SDI pipe to a capture card.

Uh, if the HD is compressed on tape, it isn't UNCOMPRESSED when it is captured. The compression is still there. Digibeta is compressed 1.67:1, and that doesn't change. When you capture it as 10-bit uncompressed, you aren't adding any FURTHER compression. HDCAM is compressed, D5 is compressed, but a far better form of compression than HDV. It doesn't UNCOMPRESS when you capture it.

Marcus, I suggest you contact the guys at PROMAX for a quote on a system. www.promax.com.


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