Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

RED Drive alternative?

R

Rafffaello

Active member
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hi
I just interesed,can i connect(usb,FW800) other HDD to RED and use it
Or it works only with RED Drive?

Thanks!
 
LilRed said:
I was wondering the same.. if I already have a 3gbps RAID... or made one (buy a case, add drives).. why wouldn't it work? I don't think Red re-invented the protocol for the data transport?

~S
Click to expand...

connecting that to the camera would be a challenge without the right know-how.. it could also be very cumbersome to drag around an off the shelf version...

it would be cool though if there was a way to rig something like a GRaid mini to the red (if it had eSata)... who knows what they have going on in that little box...
 
Right.. saw this one or similar @ Fry's Electronics too!

Athena Power BP-ESAS1822UESR Mini SATA 2.5" HD External Back Plane Unit / External Multi Enclosure RAID Sub-s - Retail

mini backplane
Host interface: USB 2.0 + eSATA
Disk interface: SATA I & SATA II
Raid Level Support: Raid 0, 1, Safe33 & Safe50, JBOD, Span, Strip, GUI
Cooling Fan x 1
Key-locked type sliding tray x 2
Hot swap, plug & play
Power Adaptor: 100-240V, 5V, 2.0A
Dimension: 6.8" x 3.3" x 2.1"
Weight: 1.0 lbs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...erver+-+Accessories-_-Athena+Power-_-16119016


~S
 
Does it make a lot of sense with a $17,500 camera to save a few bucks and risk your footage with an unsupported drive? :cold:

Noah
 
RED has made it clear in the past that non-RED drives will not work. The drives have custom firmware to extract the optimum performance from them.
 
Red drives are cheap when viewed as part of the overall system, if you start picking pieces out, sure you're going to find cheaper alternatives, but then you've compromised the overall system that is allowing 4k to CF and external Red Drives. It is amazing, and it costs a little more than your standard drive, but it's worth investing in more than one drive or a whole bunch of CFs.
 
I'm a technogeek.. I'd build it just to try it out to see -if- it would work! Also.. if it -did- work.. then that's 1/3 of the cost for a drive.. plus I can see perhaps about mirroring and upgrading the drive size = more shooting capacity. -If- I can get a $300 raid to work.. then I can have -3- of these for the price of one Red Drive... plus it would be cool to have mirroring = redundancy = not a bad thing...

--just ideas of course-- I don't even have a Red One to experiment with right now.

Just found this...

"The DRIVE interface utilizes standard eSATA protocols..." , page 8 of the Build 16 Ops Guide.

~S
 
It's also possible that the firmware on the bridge board could control how the Red One sees the Hard Drives
 
Even if you could get all the custom wiring figured out I'm sure you'd be disappointed. It is crucial to Red's reputation that the camera works, full stop. So they will definitely have routines that check that the drives and memory connected are of a sort previously tested and approved by them. Of course you may be able to set up a faster drive setup but there are way too many combinations out there for Red to test and approve. They've taken the safe route: only allow what they know.

Avid used to do this for the same reason, with the difference being a horrendous markup in what where really pretty much off the shelf drives. The Red Raid is unique: I know of no other bus powered Raids out there with Esata, FW400 and FW800 and is well worth the not terribly large amount of money for what you are getting.

Eventually Avid added a setting that you could use to bypass the checking of the drive firmware and digitise any resolution to any drive, but at your own risk. Perhaps in time Red will do the same, but hopefully seriously buried in a menu with triple confirmations.

I think Jim has already said Build 17 will allow other CF Media to attempt to record in 2K only, but at your own risk.

James Milner-Smyth
 
LilRed said:
I'm a technogeek.. I'd build it just to try it out to see -if- it would work!
Click to expand...

I think that's what creative/inquisitive people do. Give it a shot. I remember a year ago some people were positive SLR lenses wouldn't have enough resolution work on RED compared to high end PL glass. Uh. Wrong.
 
its worth a try. if someone can figure this out then it may open up the door for other manufactures to offer more storage options for the Red Camera, which is never a bad thing. That could include SSD's.

Red have a lot on their plate and may not always be the first to develop the latests add ons if their attention is elsewhere. I guess firestore did a similar thing to the DV cameras and managed to get their device approved.
 
joelnet said:
I think that's what creative/inquisitive people do. Give it a shot. I remember a year ago some people were positive SLR lenses wouldn't have enough resolution work on RED compared to high end PL glass. Uh. Wrong.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Resoloution was never a main factor in those discussions.

Stephen
 
Yeah sounds like a great idea. You should figure out what custom firmware they use in the bridge and then plug some ghetto ass drive into it.

But seriously it's not a stock drive/enclosure. And I think if you really thought about it, would you want to be responsible for any lost footage because of your frankenstein experiment.

If you are using your camera to make money it's a small price to pay considering the overall price. And if you aren't using the camera to make money then...
JUST RENT, DON'T BUY
 
Sycophant said:
RED has made it clear in the past that non-RED drives will not work. The drives have custom firmware to extract the optimum performance from them.
Click to expand...

Yes they need a handshake with the camera, one suspects for commercial reasons as well as technical.


Mike Brennan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top