HD-SDI with RAID at DVinfo.net

Guillaume Tremblay · March 15th, 2006, 04:14 PM

Just have a short question. I just would like to know how many hard drive do you need to record uncompressed HD-SDI 4:2:2 direct to computer and which card is the best for that kind of shooting. the AJA KonaLH or the BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro PCIe™, Thank you, Guillaume

Barlow Elton · March 15th, 2006, 05:35 PM

You probably need at least 5 SATA HD's in a RAID O config. Go to www.barefeats.com and read some of the reviews of self-configs. Also good to partition the capture scratch to the fastest portion of the HD. Again, read that site for info on how to do this.

Thomas Smet · March 15th, 2006, 07:48 PM

If you are using a Mac then you can use the bitjazz codec for lossless compression around 2:1. This doesn't seem like much compression but it cuts the needed bandwidth for the harddrives in half meaning you may be able to get even decent results from a good 2 drive raid. If you are shooting green/blue screen then you may get even better compression due to redundant solid color pixels covering most of the screen.

On Decklink products you can capture to the bitjazz codec live in realtime. FCP however cannot playback and edit the codec in realtime which is a small drawback.

For strict compositing in Shake or Combustion this is a great workflow.

Robert Sanders · March 15th, 2006, 07:53 PM

Fascinating, Thomas. Thank you for the info. I never heard of bitjazz before. Cool.

March 15th, 2006, 04:14 PM	#1
Guillaume Tremblay Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Ascension, Canada Posts: 27	HD-SDI with RAID Just have a short question. I just would like to know how many hard drive do you need to record uncompressed HD-SDI 4:2:2 direct to computer and which card is the best for that kind of shooting. the AJA KonaLH or the BlackMagic DeckLink HD Pro PCIe™, Thank you, Guillaume

March 15th, 2006, 07:53 PM	#4
Robert Sanders Starway Pictures Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Studio City Posts: 581	Fascinating, Thomas. Thank you for the info. I never heard of bitjazz before. Cool. __________________ http://www.starwaypictures.com http://starwaypictures.blogspot.com/

March 15th, 2006, 05:35 PM	#2
Barlow Elton Major Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: UT Posts: 945	You probably need at least 5 SATA HD's in a RAID O config. Go to www.barefeats.com and read some of the reviews of self-configs. Also good to partition the capture scratch to the fastest portion of the HD. Again, read that site for info on how to do this.

March 15th, 2006, 07:48 PM	#3
Thomas Smet Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Milwaukee, WI Posts: 1,719	If you are using a Mac then you can use the bitjazz codec for lossless compression around 2:1. This doesn't seem like much compression but it cuts the needed bandwidth for the harddrives in half meaning you may be able to get even decent results from a good 2 drive raid. If you are shooting green/blue screen then you may get even better compression due to redundant solid color pixels covering most of the screen. On Decklink products you can capture to the bitjazz codec live in realtime. FCP however cannot playback and edit the codec in realtime which is a small drawback. For strict compositing in Shake or Combustion this is a great workflow.