Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING!
by Phillip Park
on
Sep 23, 2009 at 6:49:59 pm
Dear Final Cut Pro experts:
Can FCP allow you to capture up to 2 full terabytes of live camera feed without stopping, by somehow breaking the material into smaller individual clips AS IT CAPTURES?
Put another way, what would any of you do if you needed to fully document a 2-3 day long 'marathon' event without tape changes & WITHOUT ANY INTERRUPTION, in a sort of 'continual' capture process, with just ONE Mac computer and 1-2 TB of space on ONE external hard drive?
My first (failed) attempt was by firewire connecting a borrowed Sony camera into a borrowed Mac loaded w/ FCP in 'capture now' mode set for 'uncontrollable device', in an attempt to capture live images continuously as ONE GIANT CLIP for almost 2 days (!), using a new LaCie Rugged XL 1TB external drive which can roughly hold 68 hours of footage (after I first formatted it for Mac of course).
Should I really have been surprised when it didn't work ?!?
During this extremely lengthy capture process, FCP seemed to be working fine the entire time BUT when I ended the capture, an error message told me that the file could not be read. Also the amount of free available space on the drive immediately reverted to the original total, further indicating that nothing had been saved(?).
A noble experiment, or just plain foolish?
Please help if you can- I appreciate it very much!
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by gary adcock on Sep 23, 2009 at 8:22:54 pm
[Phillip Park]"Put another way, what would any of you do if you needed to fully document a 2-3 day long 'marathon' event without tape changes & WITHOUT ANY INTERRUPTION, in a sort of 'continual' capture process, with just ONE Mac computer and 1-2 TB of space on ONE external hard drive? "
Wow what are you smoking???
so the presenters never change, the venue never closes?
OK.
this is done all of the time in Sports, Concerts and Legal / Evidentiary
It is NOT EVER done over Firewire - you will need a real system and a capture card for your setup.
DO NOT USE FCP FOR THIS- it was not designed for sustained capture- and FCP still has a "4 hr" limit for continuous capture or overall timeline length.
I use my Kona or IoHD setup connected to system with a multi-disk redundant array that is at least 3X larger than you think you will need. Use either VTR Exchange (free from aja) or Picture Ready from Gallery Effects for this.
Start and stop every time the presenter changes, it only takes a couple of seconds to stop and then start recording immediately -- mainly because having only one file means that if something fails ALL IS LOST.
The time it takes to capture as multiple file will allow easier editing, easier file handling and easier backups.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows for the Digitally Inclined
Chicago, IL
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by Rafael Amador on Sep 24, 2009 at 1:04:44 am
If you can not afford any of the pro solutions pointed by Gary, you may try the QT "Video Recorder".
If works like the FC's "Capture Now" but you don't have FC engaged.
As Gary points too, trying to capture all at once and in a single file is very, very risky.
Being able to stop, even if is just for a second, can save your day.
Cheers,
rafael
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by Zane Barker on Sep 24, 2009 at 1:38:04 am
I think you might get better suggestions for a solution if you explain what the end purpose of the video will be.
I find it vary hard to imagine that having 3 whole days of non stop video is really what your end video will be. By any chance are you planing on doing a time laps by speeding up the video? If so there are MUCH better ways then shooting video of the whole thing.
There are no "technical solutions" to your "artistic problems".
Don't let technology get in the way of your creativity!
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by Phillip Park on Sep 24, 2009 at 10:16:12 pm
I do thank you all (the nicer ones, especially) for replying, despite the fact that the responses mostly did not deal with the initial question, posed at the top of my original post, which I will restate in a slightly rephrased form here:
Can FCP allow you to capture (ANY amount, or as much as) up to 2 full terabytes of live camera feed without stopping,by somehow breaking the material into smaller individual clips AS IT CAPTURES?
(Probably I was distracting from that question, partly by describing the sheer folly of my first attempt, admittedly a fairly silly effort. But, for those who are still wondering, this is about finding a way to fully document a NON-STOP event (a world record attempt with absolutely no breaks) for about 3 plus days, with as few as ONE camera and ONE computer.
BUT back to the main question, further rephrased: why shouldn't there be a function of FCP that would allow the capture process to continue at great length (even if unmonitored or unattended by the user) by automatically breaking up the capture into shorter clips without requiring any manual stopping or restarting of the capture process?
Thank you again in advance for any helpful ideas or suggestions.
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by walter biscardi on Sep 25, 2009 at 12:24:00 am
[Phillip Park]"Can FCP allow you to capture (ANY amount, or as much as) up to 2 full terabytes of live camera feed without stopping, by somehow breaking the material into smaller individual clips AS IT CAPTURES? "
To my knowledge, No. You can capture one huge file, but not many files without stopping.
[Phillip Park]"BUT back to the main question, further rephrased: why shouldn't there be a function of FCP that would allow the capture process to continue at great length (even if unmonitored or unattended by the user) by automatically breaking up the capture into shorter clips without requiring any manual stopping or restarting of the capture process? "
That's a question for the Apple and all the other NLE engineers.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post Biscardi Creative Media
Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by Mark Raudonis on Sep 25, 2009 at 2:28:01 am
[Phillip Park]"Thank you again in advance for any helpful ideas or suggestions."
I think you've already received several helpful suggestions. They all boil down to: Use the right tool for the job. FCP in the configuration you're hoping for (read: cheap) is NOT gonna get the job done for you.
Period. There are plenty of options available for this kind of thing that use FCP as the core, but not in the config you've mentioned.
Get ready to cough up some cash to make this work.
Re: Capturing 1-2 TB of live camera feed WITH NO STOPPING! by Rafael Amador on Sep 25, 2009 at 3:16:48 pm
[Phillip Park]" why shouldn't there be a function of FCP that would allow the capture process to continue at great length (even if unmonitored or unattended by the user) by automatically breaking up the capture into shorter clips without requiring any manual stopping or restarting of the capture process? " FC is a video editing application.
What you are looking for is something a bit out of the scope of video editing.
rafael
