This IS the Avid L2: Re: [Avid-L2] Possibly OT: Anybody using 2.5" hard drive arrays?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Re: [Avid-L2] Possibly OT: Anybody using 2.5" hard drive arrays?

Wilson,

Yeah, I live in the same virtual reality as you do, but you've missed the important points I'd tried to make :-)

Nevertheless, i've filled up these exact drives while capturing 4 streams 50 Mbits.

Should be way sufficiient for location work. If not, the OP should not be asking this questions, as he would have bought good stuff for real money from someone who knows what he was talking about, AND there would have been real world testing.

(I've seen so many people dive head first into water of unknown depth…)

Bouke

Edit 'B / VideoToolShed.com
van Oldenbarneveltstraat 33
6512 AS Nijmegen
+31 24 3553311

On Jul 26, 2016, at 18:50, Wilson Chao wilsonchao@gmail.com [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

oulRoger - good to know; thanks!
Bouke - it's about data rate, but it's not simply "xx mB/sec." First, my tests of spinning hard drives show that the inner cylinders typically have 30%-50% lower throughput than the outer cylinders (which is what manufacturers most often publish in their specs.) so I wouldn't count on that $50 drive sustaining that 90 mB/s when it's mostly full. Second, I'll bet that $50 drive won't get anywhere near 10 streams of 50mb/s video if those streams include audio AND they are scattered across the outer, middle & inner cylinders. In this real-world scenario, the big challenge is seek time, not throughput.
It's almost impossible to figure this out theoretically. That's why I'd like to hear what real editors are doing. Thanks!
On Jul 26, 2016 11:38 AM, "Bouke" <bouke@editb.nl> wrote:
Yeah, i'm a wise guy….
1080 is meaningless in this context.
It's about data rate. 50 Mbits XDcamHD (that is 1080) is, well, 50 Mbits, that is 50 / 8 = 6.25 MBYTE per second.
A single Toshiba Canvio basics USB 3 drive of one TB (50 bucks) does 90 MB / sec.
So that could / should achieve (real world) 10 streams…

Now for mobile application, one backup is no backup. Offloading cam originals have to be done to more than one drive/ system, so IMHO, getting a good backup strategy is important, more important than having a protected raid for editing.
(that will drop/burn/get stolen/left in hotel/eaten by dog)

The Toshiba comes also in 2 TB nowadays, have not tested them yet, but I doubt they will be slower.
Now, a couple of those, how much storage does one need on a location job?
(In shooting / editing 50 Mbits, one 2 TB drive holds 70 hours of footage….)

Bouke

Edit 'B / VideoToolShed.com
van Oldenbarneveltstraat 33
6512 AS Nijmegen
+31 24 3553311

On Jul 26, 2016, at 13:31, Roger Shufflebottom rogershuff@yahoo.co.uk [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I'm using a G-Raid enclosure with a couple of 2.5" 1TB drives in shuttles running as a striped pair using Apple Disk Utility. At least 5 streams of 1080 reliably (Thunderbolt connection to iMac or MacBook Pro).

With Best Wishes
Roger Shufflebottom
rogershuff@yahoo.co.uk
+44 7973 543660

On 26 Jul 2016, at 04:57, wilsonchao@gmail.com [Avid-L2] <Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Anybody using 2.5" spinning hard drive arrays as storage for Avid editing? I'd like to have some tiny RAIDs for portable editing w. my laptop, and I'd like to hear your experiences if you've done this. P.s. I know SSDs would work fine, but I'm trying to keep the cost-per-TB down by using spindles. Thanks!