the official website of the dallas final cut pro user group

The June issue of DV Magazine will feature my article on 3 RAIDS in a range of price and features. I'll be looking at a 2-drive unit from CalDigit, an 8-drive RAID 5 from Sonnet Technology and finally a Fibre-Channel server-level device from Dulce Systems.

Due to space limitations in print, I noted that I'll also be reviewing for the web an extension of an 8-drive array using SAS-Expander chassis and controller technology.

He is the testing so far.

For this test, I'm using another HighPoint RocketRaid 4322 cards, referenced in my Ultimate Raid article here on the blog as well as in DV. The HighPoint 4322 is my choice of RAID controller cards. It's dedicated Intel processor is faster than the prior generation; it is expandable with a battery backup daughter card; it supports both eSata and SAS drives through miniSAS 4-channel connectors; it is expansion chassis ready. My tests have already shown that the 4322 is faster than the 3xxx series. And at a price of $599, there is simply nothing on the market that comes close to its price/performance benefits.

I'm testing a 16-drive chassis from AIC, the XJ1100, which retails around $1600. It is a sturdy chassis with pop-out swappable drive trays requiring screws to secure the drive to the tray. Unlike many enclosures I've seen or tested, the drives trays are not lockable.

The unit is effectively 2 8-drive devices connected internally by an expansion circuitry. 4 miniSAS connectors on the rear allow dual connections to the controller card and dual connections to other 16 drive expansion chassis. Chaining multiple enclosures together can create some significant storage with blazing speed!

Like any enclosure of this class the XJ100 contains heavy-duty fans. Heat is, after all, a hard drive's greatest enemy. If you are using this enclosure for editing, you will definitely want to locate it in another room or within a soundproof enclosure. It sounds like a windtunnel. In justfication, however, all large enclosures such as this are noisy as they really are designed to be servers.

I'm testing this enclosure with 400gb Seagate Cheetah 15K SAS drives and Seagate 1tb ES-class eSata drives.

This is a preliminary report on testing the Seagate drives.

The Seagate Cheetah drives came pre-initialized as a RAID 6 and formatted to a little over 6 tb.

Note that 15K SAS drives are not available in the capacities of eSata drives, but the advantages are significant. The SAS drives are built for 24/7 heavy use with 1.6 million hours MTBF. Seagate designs them with specific error-checking algorithms. They are dual-ported, allowing the next drive in the array to take over immediately in the event of failure. For purposes of video, and this would apply specifically if the drives were being used in a SAN configuration, latency is a mere 2ms as opposed to a 4.1ms latency of eSata drives.

Because of this low latency and immediate response, EditShare only uses SAS drives in their turnkey SAN systems. I am certain this is the case for other vendors as well.

A faster rotational speed will naturally pump data faster and more reliably.

Take a look at the AJA System Test results for the Cheetah drives. Note as well that this speed is not just a function of the drives; the RocketRaid 4322 contributes significantly.

All I can say about results like that is WOW!

To test this in the real world, I copied to the drive several Red R3D files and exported 2K Quicktime files. I brought these into FCP which transcodes the files to ProRes 422 HQ. These 23.98 fps clips played without a single glitch. I also transcoded to Blackmagic 2K 2048x1556 4:4:4 RGB. All footage played without a hitch. Now something else-- I was able to play these files in FCP with scopes open and updating in real time. Even on my 8-drive array, I will sometimes drop frames while playing back live scopes (seems to be a common FCP problem). I always suspected the culprint was drive speed and this array helped prove my point.

As I write this entry, I'm now initializing a raid using the 16 Seagate ES drives. I'll report on those in the next installment and then the whole article will reprint on DV.COM once my June article appears.

Who is the logical customer for this technology?

For the RocketRaid card, the answer is any of us wishing to create the fastest raid with parity that relatively little money can buy.

The XJ1100 is definitely an enclosure for someone who stores massive amounts of data and needs the luxuries of speed, capacity, and redundancy. As one documentary filmmaker friend who dropped by the studio as I was testing the unit said, "I'd fill this in a year."

The Seagate 15K Cheetah drives are suitable for high end work. Their speed and dependability makes them candidates for SAN applications, whether in this enclosure or in another system. Any user loking for the top performance in any hard drive regardless of the system, should strongly consider the Cheetah drives. Keep in mind that the 400gb 15K Cheetahs run in the $525 range. But speed and data security... priceless.

Stay tuned for results with the Seagate ES (Enterprise Series) eSata drives.

The heart of any RAID system is its controller card. You can buy the highest capacity, fastest drives on the market and install them in the most sturdy, power-redundant, shock resistant enclosure you can buy. But if you controller card is merely a software-based "dumb" controller or if your "smart" controller with onboard processor does not deliver optimized performance, then you have less than optimal performance. Mediocre performance in a video raid can mean dropped frames. Worse than that, it could even mean loss of data in the event of disk failure.

On this blog as well as in the pages of DV Magazine, I created what I called The Ultimate Raid based upon the HighPoint Technologies RocketRaid 3522 card, a ProAvio 8-drive MiniSAS enclosure and 8 Seagate 1TB drives.

But I should have known better than to call it my Ultimate Raid. The minute I created the title, HighPoint Technologies went beyond ultimate with their release of the RocketRaid 4322.

Priced at $699, the RocketRaid 4322 delivers all of the performance that the most demanding editor would ever require.

Like its previously-ultimate sibling RocketRaid 3522, the 4322 is based around an on-board Intel processor. But the 4322 is based around Intel's IOP348 rather than the 3522's IOP341. This new speed demon clocks out at 1.2 ghz.

As a result of this faster and more powerful chip, the 4322 boasts a cooling fan rather than the heatsink design of the 3522. Yet the fan runs so quietly that I cannot tell the difference between the two chips.

The 4322 gains speed as well by now installing in an 8x PCIe slot in your Mac or PC workstation. It also supports both eSata as well as SAS drives thorugh its dual 4-lane MiniSAS connectors, just like the 3522.

Likewise, the 4322 supports every imaginable RAID configuration-- JBOD, 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 50 an single drive.

As I had written in the prior article, I recommend Raid 5 for video work. This level of protection which writes parity across all drives and can sustain the loss of one drive represents the optimal compromise between capacity and performance. The less-secure among us might want to configure Raid 6, reducing capacity and possibly speed to a degree but insuring against the loss of 2 drives.

Now, that about speed.

Let's take a look first at my earlier results from the RocketRaid 3522 in the above mentioned configuration using the AJA System Test utility, positing 1920x1080 10-bit uncompressed video.




Not shabby results at all. No wonder I thought that nothing could ever top this and could call it Ultimate. That data rate could sustain and in fact did in real-world work 10-bit uncompressed full HD without dropping a frame or missing a beat.

But look at the results from the 4322, this time assuming 2K video.



Wow! My read/write speeds increased by 50%! I can edit Red footage!

One more significant result comes from the Blackmagic Disk Speed test. Take a look at its read/write results as well as the maximum potential frame rate for a range of video scenarios.

I've been playing with this remarkable composition tool for some months now and honestly have had so much fun with it that I could hardly break away to review it!

Muse is an intelligent scoring application which analyzes the color values and other properties of your video and then creates a music bed appropriate to the video.
On the surface, it seems quite simple. Open a Quicktime movie in Muse and click Compose. A dialog box will appear with choices of 7 different library styles, each with several variations. In seconds, Muse creates a music bed. Don't like it, modify it using keyframes which pop up choices of instruments, volume, transposition, scale or pan. Add a color tracker to alter the score at that timeline point to the color selected.



It that basic composition mode is insufficient, click Compose on the main preview window and then click Advanced. Options include style of composition (melodic or freestyle), color tracking options, tempo, complexity and jingle (repetitive elements within the track).

When done, export as a wav, aiff or Quicktime file. Bring it into your NLE and sync with the clip. And it's all royalty free.

To illustrate, I started with a quick edited sequence of a fast-paced ride through Dallas shot on a Sony EX-1 at 1 fps. Naturally, I would want a fast paced track to accompany it.



I selected Retro Tech from the Band pop up and experimented with a few presets, adding a few keyframes and bringing in instruments, fx and some fades. The video seemed to lend itself more to a freestyle composition than a Melodic method, Melodic following traditional more structured rules of composition.

In just a few minutes of tinkering, I produced what I consider to be a very fitting music bed.

One of the complaints that editors often voice about royalty free music is a certain mundane sameness of the tracks. No one could ever accuse Muse of producing such auditory boredom. It is as if you actually had a composer sitting beside you scoring to the music. Of course, a side value here is if you actually do have a composer, the Muse track can be a guideline to tell your composer "I want something that sounds like this."

At $299, it is a bargain. Anyone who has licensed music knows that $299 doesn't go very far in buying clips. And those clips are of stock lengths and don't always match up to the video. Muse produces music beds which just sound like custom compositions and with the almost-infinite variations which can be applied, no two clips ever need sound the same.

I would wish that future versions could include a greater variety of libraries and that a preview function of various styles could be added. My other significant wish-list items would be the ability to track luminance values in addition to color as well as to have a color-picker to choose within the video a more exact color.

I love it; I commend it to you. There is no other product even remotely like it. Muse is a simple and fun tool to add tremendous value to any production.

By the way, here's the clip with the final music bed--




Check it out at www.abaltat.com

If you haven’t gotten a chance to read the Cow article The Truth About 2K, 4K, and the future of Pixels by John Galt then consider yourself missing out. While much of it can get a bit technical and in-depth I think it’s a great look at what is really going on inside of today’s cameras. We throw the terms HD, 2K, and 4K around without probably knowing much of what is going on to give us that resolution.

I especially enjoyed the section about the RED camera (also the Dalsa) and how he calls the RED’s claim of 4K resolution “marketing pixels.” What does he mean….well that’s just to wet your appetite. Hit the link to read the article. Who knows, it may change the way you see what you see!

Ryan

For those who are interested in perfecting their knowledge of post-production a plethora of DVD tutorials exist. And you can’t leave out lynda as a great website for further learning, especially at a $25/month price point. That’s hard to beat. The one drawback with both DVD tutorials and lynda is the lack of interaction. It’s very difficult to get answers to questions on the software or have your work critiqued during the process. That’s where fxphd.com steps in.

fxphd is a training website geared specifically towards post-production effects. They use a simple Quicktime movie interface but offer direct contact with the professor and students of the class via forums. So while you get the same DVD quality walkthrough, you also get the chance to interact with the instructor of the course. The site is an invaluable resource for students of the post-production world because it covers industry standard software. Classes revolved around Avid, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Maya, Houdini, Nuke, After Effects, Flint, Flame, Smoke, Combustion….the list goes on forever. Through the magic of VPN you can have access to many of these pieces of software when you signup with fxphd. So you aren’t just watching someone work on software that you can’t get your hands on. Nope! You get to work on the software yourself side by side with the artist/instrucutor. This semester they are offereing 35 classes. I can’t recommend them enough as a tool for those of us in the production and post-production industries.

The only warning: it ain’t free. 3 classes at fxphd will run you $330US. The benefit is that you get in depth training and personal access to not just an instuctor, but someone who is actually a current artist working on the software in the real world. So what are you waiting for?!! Hit the link and check them out.

All Red. Footage, shooting, acquisition, & color correcting.

Red Digital Cinema I am sure everyone has heard about it.
It was shown and demonstrated at our October meeting, we normally meet on the second Thursday of the month, but due to the availability of the camera we met a week later on 10.17.2008.

Major Litton has arranged a good program. He and Phillip Thomas Director/Cinematographer of  www.torquefilms.com, both have shot some footage with  Red Camera , starting at the State Fair of Texas and finishing at Major’s daughter High-Schools football game.

Major demonstrated a workflow with Red footage, he utilized Apple’s newly designed MacBook Pro, a perfect opportunity to test both products. Red provides 3 different files of your footage, this is an option of 3 proxies depending on the delivery medium, web, TV and other resolutions. In FCP change the Sequence settings to whatever HD or 2K; 2K footage is a resolution of 2048×1152, all Red cameras shoot Progressive.
Here for a screen shot of Red footage

RED has a codec referred to as REDCODE, for instance; it compresses 4K RED RAW into a manageable file size that can be recorded on any media from a compact flash card to a spinning drive. Without REDCODE, a 4K 24 fps information stream runs as high as 20GB/min.
Some Red resolutions
4K 16:9 (4096×2304)
3K 16:9 (3072×1728)
2K 16:9 (2048×1152)

Click here to download a screen shot captured from Red. This is untouched, unadulterated, for anyone to download. Warning – this file is large!

The Audience at the meeting were beyond our normal crowds, they seem to have interests in cinematography elements of Red.
The camera was provided by Brain Mayo of Mayo Production & Equipment, Inc. www.mayovideo.com
for more information about Red Digital Cinema,  log www.red.com
Other important links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinematography
http://www.reduser.net/forum
Some movies have been shot by The Red One
The Argentine 2008, The Informant 2009 both Directed by Steven Soderberg.
Game 2008, Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor.
Jumper 2008 Directed by Doug Liman of The Bourne Identity fame.
and Knowing 2008, Directed by Australian Alex Proyas

October meeting re-capped by Yasir Salah

Yasir sent me these notes last week – and I forgot to post them. Thanks for the reminder Major.
During my lunch hour ~Wayne

Ned led our meeting tonight.
Ned unveiled the Matrox MXO2 – which ships tomorrow.
He’s had one under wraps for 2 months! [Ned - Where's the love? Share sooner - I thought we were close.   ]

Matrox gave him special permission to show it at our meeting and we were the first group to see it in action.

Major features are portability (12volt power source), multiple formats, multiple input/outputs (HDMI, HD/SD SDI, Analog)
From the website:

the first truly portable device that gives you broadcast-quality input/output, monitoring, and up/down/cross conversion to streamline your workflow with Apple Final Cut Studio 2. It’s MacBook Pro and MacPro compatible, fits in your laptop bag, can run for hours off a field battery, and weighs under 3 1 lbs. It lets you work seamlessly in any format you want.

You can read more about the MXO2 at http://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo2/

Ned also told us about a recent SxS card hack for the Sony EX1 and EX3. He took a $36 Kensington 33407 7-in-1 Media Reader for Expresscard Slot (that makes an SD card fit into an express 34 slot) and an SDHC Class6 card - and now he is recording 8GB on his Sony EX1 for less than $60. (The Transcend SD cards are working)

This is compared to the $500 8GB Sony card.
I’ll try this one tomorrow!
Note – you must have the latest firmware for your EX camera.

Ned also gave us a demo of Abaltat’s Muse software $495 (Get it for $295 if you use the promo code “DALLAS” and order within one week of our meeting)
From the website:

Abaltat Muse™2.0 enables anyone, regardless of musical ability, to compose royalty-free, multi-part soundtracks that are perfectly timed and aligned to edited video. Now, Abaltat continues the evolution of video driven soundtrack creation with the release of  Abaltat Muse™2.0. New features including dual compostiion methods, new bands with presets, easy to use User Interface and much more, make short work of composing temp to final soundtracks – and all 100% royalty-free.

Choose music genre and tempo, complexity level and how repetitive.
It will generate the music based on color, light levels, or manual settings. You can keyframe points in the video to have it change tempo, instruments, or style. You can keyframe on color (every time red is on the screen play the guitar, etc…)
On the website it calls the software a “digital composer complete with band, composing a customized soundtrack to your edit picture sequence”. It composed royalty free music for your videos. It works with FCP and avid.

Next meeting with Oct 16 – third  Thursday
Meeting with be all Red.
Footage, shooting, acquisition, & color correcting

Tonight’s meeting started with a discussion on copyright by Yasir Salah. We discussed some of the issues related to Broll and grabbing video and images off of the internet. We discussed the good and bad of YouTube and we all received some great handouts.

Yasir passed these URLs for your reading pleasure:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

He showed us a video of the founders of YouTube discussing copyright:

This is a six minute portion of an hour long interview found here: http://fora.tv/2007/05/23/Chad_Hurley_and_Steven_Chen

Ned showed us his new PMWEX3. Sony’s latest XDCAM model has a similar small form factor as the EX1, with a few noticeable upgrades.  The viewfinder on the EX3 uses the camera’s flip out LCD – with a eye cup/lens system to allow you to look at the LCD through a viewfinder. The camera is a little larger and most impressive – it has replaceable lenses.

Changing Lens On Sony EX-3 from Ned Soltz on Vimeo.

Ned showed us how “easy” it is to replace the lens. It was Ned’s first time – and it took a few minutes to walk us through it – but a very simple process. He replaced the standard lens with a longer Fujinon lens.

Don recorded the process so we could demo the editing and workflow process. Ned loaded the Sony SXS card in his MBP. Ned again showed us ShotPutExpress – an app used to copy the media from the Sony SXS card to multiple locations. He then opened Final Cut and opened “Log and Transfer”, renamed the clips and imported them into Final Cut. (He noted that it is good to change your sequence settings to use the Apple ProRes 422 Codec for rending. (this is not XDCAM specific -just a tip from Ned)

Ned also showed the DVRig Jr for easing your day if you plan on holding your EX1 all day.

We took a few user questions about Quicktime files not loading in FCP and an issue with burning an HD DVD – where the output video looses resolution and clarity.

I've been too busy enjoying my new Sony PMW-EX3 even to post!

There has been some chatter on the discussion forums that the Sony EX1, EX3 and indeed even Red exhibit an unfortunate trait common to CMOS cameras-- poor rejection of the IR spectrum. This could potentially result in color shifts or inaccurate reproduction of colors.

I'll be testing both for this site as well as for a future article on the EX-3 the IR rejection capabilities of the B+W True-Cut 750 IR filter. This new filter is touted by Schneider Optics to be superior to its earlier 486 and 489 IR cutting filters, reducing the potential for a greenish tinge which could potentially occur with the 486 and 489.

The IR 750 is currently only available in a 4x4 filter and that meant using a mattebox.

The Petroff 4x4 has long been my favorite and courtesy of Petroff, you see a Petroff 4x4 mounted to the EX3 using a lens mounting ring which Petroff developed for the EX1. Petroff had not yet tested the EX3 but I was convinced that there would be no issue with fit since the lenses are identical other than the interchangeable feature of the EX3. I was right.

The unit I am testing here is a two stage 4x4 model with optional side wings and a French flag. It is mounted with the Zacuto baseplate and rod system, my unqualified favorite plate and worth every penny.

Why do I like this product so much?

It is sturdy yet lightweight. The mattebox is made from a combination of metal and virtually-indestructable polymide. It has flexibilty while also being able to bend without feeling that you are permanently bending metal.

It is modular and can be assembled/disassembled without tools. You can add or remove stages, insert/remove filters, assemble/disassemble the mattebox and not have the need of a screwdriver.

Each stage can rotate or be locked in place. In the case of the IR 750 filter, I would not want to rotate the stage. A 4x4 polarizer would be an entirely different manner. Those same thumbscrews over which the lock fits are also the screws you would loosen to remove the filter holder. Then it is a simply matter to drop the filter in the holder and return to the mattebox, tightening the screw.

Note one concern with the design of the EX1/EX3. That infernal (and, in my opinion useless) built-in mike protrudes too far forward. It does partially block the thumbscrew in the stage closest to the camera. It is not a major issue but a bit of an annoyance requiring deft small fingers or a needle-nose plier to operate the screw. I suspect it might be possible to design a donut to extend the entire assembly slightly. Petroff does manufacture a "universal" mattebox designed for Sony HDV cameras where the built-in mike constitutes a more significant issue. EX owners might want to consider this universal model.



In this shot, note how tightly the mattebox components fit together and how securely the lens adapter, large lens mount screw and rod attachment both hold the mattebox together as well as secure it to the Zacuto baseplate.

No light leaks, no wobbling, secure snap in filter holders give the user of this mattebox complete confidence that it is doing what a mattebox is supposed to do-- light control, hold filters, and fit securely to the supporting rods.


The Petroff mattebox accomplishes all of these tasks and then some.

The P44 two stage as shown lists at $1370. Follow-focus is also available.

Check out the full product specs and product line at www.petroff.ws

Check out the baseplate, rods and tons of other related accessories at www.zacuto.com. Conveniently enough, Zacuto is also a Petroff dealer.

That's the mattebox part of this installment. Will start shooting with the filter in the coming days to determine whether the IR problem is pervasive or just infrequent.