IoHD for recording HD video for long uninterrupted periods

[James Venturi]

Hi,

I have a Sony EX1 camera that will be inaccessible for 24 hours and I need to record high def video during this period.

I was thinking of the following scenerio:

AJA IoHD
MacBook Pro
XDCAM EX1 (firmware 1.11)
6 Tb external Hard Disk Drive

The MacBookPro would be set to record to the external hard disk via the IoHD in ProResHQ 1080p24 at a rate of 60gb for 50 minutes.

Is there a size limitation of file? Is there anything else that would cause a problem here?

Another idea would be to set up some kind of remote desktop and remotely connect via wifi into the MacBookPro to stop and start the video. But is this possible with final cut?

Is there another better solution? I love the use of 4:2:2 color space over the 4:2:0.

Jim

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by James Venturi

Hi,

Is there another better solution? I love the use of 4:2:2 color space over the 4:2:0.

Jim

...Actually, it is not easy to see the difference in color between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 unless you have a really high end flat screen TV or a studio Monitor. As for your solution to tether yourself to a laptop which is in turn tethered to a large external hard drive, it makes no sense to me. I'm in production, and when you have to shoot at external locations with all kinds of weather and available AC power challenges, then it's better to be self contained on the camera with an onboard SSDR and large capacity battery technology. This approach may increase the overall weight of your camera, but this inconvenience is far outweighed by the simplicity of some form of onboard tapeless and/or tape solution. You are either looking at a Flash XDR CF media recorder, or a FireStore (But that's 4:2:0), or perhaps the mini Sony CF recorder box (HVR-MRC1K), but that's also 4:2:0 streamed out of your camera to a single CF card.

[James Venturi]

Originally Posted by Mark Andrew Job

...Actually, it is not easy to see the difference in color between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 unless you have a really high end flat screen TV or a studio Monitor. As for your solution to tether yourself to a laptop which is in turn tethered to a large external hard drive, it makes no sense to me. I'm in production, and when you have to shoot at external locations with all kinds of weather and available AC power challenges, then it's better to be self contained on the camera with an onboard SSDR and large capacity battery technology. This approach may increase the overall weight of your camera, but this inconvenience is far outweighed by the simplicity of some form of onboard tapeless and/or tape solution. You are either looking at a Flash XDR CF media recorder, or a FireStore (But that's 4:2:0), or perhaps the mini Sony CF recorder box (HVR-MRC1K), but that's also 4:2:0 streamed out of your camera to a single CF card.

Cool, thank you. The issue is I have to shoot for 24 hours straight with the camera unattended. The XDR doesn't offer this much capacity. The only think I could think of was a massive hard disk connected to a macbookpro with the IoHD.

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by James Venturi

Cool, thank you. The issue is I have to shoot for 24 hours straight with the camera unattended. The XDR doesn't offer this much capacity. The only think I could think of was a massive hard disk connected to a macbookpro with the IoHD.

....James, would this be an indoor or outdoor monitoring situation ? If this is a static scene (Like a parking lot or a large front or back lawn), then your setup with a MacBook and a large external hard drive is actually the best way to go, but if this is an open air type wildlife monitoring situation, then you're into building a climate controlled enclosure for a small camcorder and the laptop and the hard drive. You would then need to have some sort of large battery power supply in that case as well.

[James Venturi]

I am shooting from inside a house moving on a barge where I won't have access to the camera for 24 hours. I'd like to get the key footage but I have no way to control the camera. I am assuming that I can get power from the tugboat to the barge and plugging into a UPS that will plug into the macbookpro, ioHD, camera and external hard disk.

I'm also wondering if an expresscard34 USB card plugged into an external USB hard disk will work? Another way would be to take apart Sony's USB hard disk and adapt the cable to my own, powered unit, but this is expensive and the ioHD to the HDSDI will produce better quality images anyway.

[Tyge Floyd]

I am assuming that I can get power from the tugboat to the barge and plugging into a UPS that will plug into the macbookpro, ioHD, camera and external hard disk.

Assuming that the tugboat will supply power for 24 hours UNINTERRUPTED may be the weakest link in this setup. If I were you I would make sure that the tug can even do that before I made any big plans for this. Otherwise you may have to supply a generator that can run 24 hours on a tank of gas. (Not likely to find one with that sort of capacity, plus the crew of the tug may not allow gasoline engine to run unattended.)

I'm not trying to torpedo your shoot idea, just helping you cover all the bases.