Editing DV over a ethernet network?

Hey there, about to start editing a feature in FCP, shot on RED down-converted to DV to edit.
I want to connect my 2 MacPro towers together so they can both read the same source (a high speed RAID).
Has anyone have any experiences of trying this? Whats the best solution? Any help or advice would be fantastic!

Cheers,

As long as you don't care about dropping frames all the time and losing media links from day to day, it works great.

What about a 1 GigE Jeff? Would that make it possible? There's been muttering about that in one of my offices here.

That's what I was talking about, Jude.

The problem with network I/O isn't the pure bandwidth available. It's the software stack involved, and to a much lesser extent, the latency.

The most important fact in the Final Cut universe is that paths to network volumes are not fixed. They can change from session to session. They're not guaranteed to change, but they aren't guaranteed not to either. This is true regardless of the underlying protocol used.

So today all your footage shows up in /Volumes/Somedrive. Tomorrow it's in /Volumes/Somedrive 1. And poof. All your media is offline.

Final Cut works with locally attached and Xsan filesystems. If you happens to work with any other kind of storage, it's pure coincidence.

We've been doing this for a four and a half years. Our system is six users connected to an xsan over fibre channel. Then we have three other stations connected over gigabit ethernet, a producer's review station, a second feature feature editor and an assistant's station. We started with DV offlines, then SD ProRes no problems then last year moved up to HD. DVC PRO HD, HDV and XDCAM all work fine with this setup. ProRes HD will drop bog down, but that's it. I've also had the assistant's station working off my internal raid while I work, using DVC PRO HD, again no problem.

i think it IS possible to create a simple and effective ethernet network between TWO computers without much trouble.

i don't know the details, but i recall seeing something within the last 2 years from Bob Zelin describing how to set it up.
(over on the FCP-L at yahoo, i think, but also could have been the SAN forum at creative cow)
this is NOT his cheap multi-computer ethernet solution, but something even simpler that requires no extra hardware or software.


nick

I think you are talking about Final Share Nick

[maxxdigital.com]
Bob demoed it at lafcpug and it works great and is drop dead simple

Michael Horton
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Hi Mike.

you know, if i lived in LA, i'd come to every meeting!
i've seen a bit about that system and it suer looks great.

but i do recall an even simpler, cheaper solution from Bob for two (only) computers.

hang on... here it is:


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you write -
So I am still learning alot about the whole networking of 2 computers. -

REPLY - you only want to network 2 computers, so you can share the drive from one of the computers, right ?


Trying to find a good solution for a good cost.
REPLY - I will show you how to do this for free, right now.

The ethernet over a network isn't fast enough.

REPLY - oh yes it is.

We do alot of HDV and HDCAM. (Compressed at the moment of course for WS Standard)

REPLY - HDV is nothing. If you are doing compressed HD, specifically ProRes422 or ProRes422HQ, ethernet is just fine.


WE have:
1 - MAC PRO 8-Core -
REPLY - ok, this will be our temporary "server".

1 - Quad G5
REPLY - ok, this will be our temporary "client"

1 - XRaid -
REPLY - I hope this is on the MAC Pro, for this demonstration, so you can share the Xserve RAID with the Quad G5.

4 - 1TB Externals
REPLY - even if it's not, we can use the 1TB externals for our demo if they are on the MAC Pro.

4GB Fibre Channel Cards in Both Computers
2 Seperate Final Cut Pro Linceses

REPLY - ok, here we go. Connect a regular boring CAT 5e ethernet cable between MAC Pro Ethernet Port # 2, and the MAC G5 Quad Ethernet port 2. Nothing else can be using ethernet port 2. If you have your network setup on these computers, just use ethernet port 1 for your regular network, until we finish this demo - ok ?

OK, so now you have a single ethernet cable between the MAC Pro and MAC G5 Quad on ethernet port 2.

On the MAC Pro (our server), go to System Preferences>Network>Ethernet Port 2, and MANUALLY configure this port. Assign a manual static IP address of 192.168.2.3, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Noththing else. Hit APPLY. Click on ADVANCED. Click on the ethernet tab. Change from Automatic to MANUAL, and say 1000baseT, flow-control, full-duplex, and
MTU CUSTOM:8100 (you have to enter the number 8100). Click Apply, OK, etc.

On your MAC G5 Quad, go to System Preferences>Network>Ethernet Port 2, and MANUALLY configure this port. Enter a manual IP address of 192.168.2.4, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. Nothing else. Hit APPLY. Click on Advanced. Click on the ethernet tab. Change from Automatic to MANUAL, and say 1000baseT, flow-control, full-duplex, and set the MTU size to custom - 8100 (manually type in the number 8100) . click Apply, ok, until you are out of this menu.

On your MAC G5 Quad, go to System Preferences>SHARING, and on the top, you will see the name of the computer. Make it something nice and simple, like "edit1". Click on System Preferences>Accounts, and make sure that the same name appears here, like "edit1". Make sure that this computer has a password, and if it doesn't, give it a password, like "RAY".

Go back to your new "server" computer - the MAC Pro. Go into the System Preferences menu>SHARING, and make sure this computer has a nice name, like "edit2", or "server", or wahtever you like. Then go into System Preferences>Accounts, and make sure that it has the same name (like "edit2", and make sure it has a password (like "RAY".

OK, now, on the server computer - the MAC Pro, click on the System PReferences>SHARING Icon, and you will see on the left hand side - FILE SHARING. Click this on. All of a sudden, 3 columns open up. The first column is for drive volumes that you are going to share. Click the "+" key, and add your XServe RAID (or your 1 terabyte external drive, or anything else) to be your shared drive volume. In the next column is USERS. Click on the "+" sign in this column, and add a NEW USER. The new user box will open, and you will enter the NAME AND PASSWORD of the MAC G5 Quad - like "edit1" for the name, and "RAY" for the password. Once you click on this, you will now make "edit1" able to share the XServe RAID on the MAC Pro. In the third column, it now says "READ ONLY" next to "edit1". Make that say "READ AND WRITE".

OK, we are ready.

Walk over to your MAC G5 Quad computer. Click on GO>Connect To Server. Enter this number - 192.168.2.3 (this is the address of ethernet port 2 of the MAC Pro). It will now ask you for a name and password. Your name is "edit1", and your password is "RAY". Click CONNECT. WOW, there is your XServe RAID appearing on your MAC G5 Quad computer.

Click on the drive. Open up a Quicktime file, or FCP file. HOLY CRAP RAY - you are now playing the compressed HD movie from the MAC Pro on your MAC G5 QUAD computer.

YOU DID NOT SPEND ONE PENNY, and now you have shared storage. Wow, Ray, how did this happen ?

Now, if you want to have true shared storage, all you need is a dedicated MAC Pro, and about $2000 in special ethernet equipment, and THAT IS ALL. Pretty amazing - huh ?

See Ray - it DOES work - stop asking dealers whose only concern is to get $50,000 from you.

Bob Zelin

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here is the original:
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