DIT and data management help: which format?

[moroccodriver]

I'm new to this process and have been in charge of setting up data management for an ultra-low budget feature. I've been reading here extensively, but I'd greatly appreciate your advice and answers.

My plan for on-set is to use a MacBookPro to offload CF cards via FW800 onto 2 eSATA drives through a dual-eSATA express card, use R3D Data Manager with checksums, and visually QC the footge in Quicktime or RedCine-X. Then back at home I'll copy one of the eSATA drives using R3D Data Manager with checksums onto a Windows 7 system SAS RAID 5 or 6 and view/edit in Adobe Premiere CS5.

Many days we will use RED Drives instead of CF cards and only transfer the footage at home on the PC simultaneously to both the RAID and one of the same eSATA drives often used on set. Here will also visually QC and use R3D Data Manager with checksums (if I can get the Windows version which is currently delayed??). On these days we won't use the Mac at all.

I also have all kinds of backup plans for emergencies (cables, adapters, power, extra drives, etc.), but my main question is about drive formatting:

FAT32, NTFS, and HFS+.

1. What is the standard for my cross-platform setup?
2. FAT32 for simplicity? But is FAT32 unstable or have limits to 32GB partitions? How do I set up the 2TB external drives? Will this cause inefficiency and slow read/write performance?
3. Are MacDrive, Macfuse, or other software in combination with NTFS or HFS+ preferable to FAT32? Do these programs slow down read/write performance? If so, how badly?

Any other solutions or advice would be great!

 

[Jordan Livingston]

Your on-set data management workflow sounds pretty good in my opinion, but I start to lose you at the switch from Mac to PC...

The double backups you're making on-set via R3D Data Manager onto eSATA drives would most logically be HFS+ (Mac format). However, if you're ultimately going to be editing and archiving on a Windows system, why not just use a Windows systems on set as well?

I don't see any benefit to switching platforms, and potentially there could be some conflicts with mixing and matching different file systems (I know it "should" work fine, but I never see reliable / robust performance using FAT32 drives on a Mac; inevitably when it comes time to transcode, REDCine-X doesn't like writing to the drives).

Again, if you're going to be editing and archiving on a Windows system, I would suggest a data management workflow that also uses the Windows platform. That way, there will be no issues whatsoever about migrating files across different file systems, and you could utilize the NTFS file system, which I understand is far more robust than Fat32.

Since I'm not a Windows user myself, I don't have a specific alternative to suggest in place of R3D Data Manager, which I personally use and LOVE on my Mac. However, I think the benefits to using R3D might be mitigated somewhat by the hurdles of mixing and matching platforms.

On another note, it sounds like you're saying that on some days you will be recording to RED drives all and not performing any media management in the field. I highly advise avoiding this shortcut at all costs! Even just one offload of your data - at lunch, or whenever you can - is better than none.

I realize my opinions here are probably 'conservative,' but I hope you find them helpful. When it comes to media management I take a highly risk-averse approach.

Best,

- Jordan

 

[Rainer Fritz]

So I could be wrong, but with R3D Manager Software you are not able to do a copy process from a drive (or media) which is not an original RED media. Just test this before you want to do this.
If you want to do a cross platform you should visit the paragon site http://www.paragon-software.com
They have a lot of useful SW... for example the NTFS plugin for mac or the partition manager, etc.
As jordan said, don't play with the RED-Drives... make your copies....
Give your Macbook as much RAM as you can and use REDCINE-X for playback... with a 1/4 debayer you will get nearly realtime playback depending on the hardware....
export full res TIFFs with the snapshot function on some clips and watch them with 100% in photoshop to see if your footage is ok....
TEST your workflow before starting shooting !!!

 

[Conrad Hunziker]

So I could be wrong, but with R3D Manager Software you are not able to do a copy process from a drive (or media) which is not an original RED media.

Yes, you are wrong. You can copy any R3D files, be it from the original media or from copies of copies.

The point of R3D Data Manager is that you can use it throughout your workflow process. Every copy should be done with R3D Data Manager to ensure that all your footage match up bit for bit.

For the original poster, it would be better to stay on whatever platform you will end up on. You can mix between formats, but in my experience it always leads to some incompatibility somewhere that you didnt expect.

Also - always backup footage as soon as possible. You never know when some media is going to fail - and planning to not backup is planning to fail. I have not come across a situation in the field where you could not backup. Ive heard lots of excuses from others though contact with my software, and each time I offered suggestions on how they could get around that. It really is a must - not a luxury - to backup often and quickly.

 

[Rainer Fritz]

THX Conrad for clearing up....