#Flyer Tape
16 messages in this thread
I am a new e-mail user, so hope this goes through. I assume you are with
NewTek, and thought perhaps you could get me some answers. I am in the process
of having a flyer installed in my toaster system. I was just informed that
Newtek is recommending NOT putting in 9 gig drives as I was planning, but
rather substituting 4 gig drives. Any comments? Also, I would like to put in
a tape backup system. Is it premature? Is Newtek working on one that is
designed for the flyer? Any comments would be helpful, as my system is in
process of being installed NOW. Thanks. A frustrated toaster user. I
Right now the best available drive is the Quantum Atlas 2GB, with the correct
Flyer firmware, rev 576D or F76D. this drive is the only drive that supports
the HQ5 mode by providing 5MB per second transfer rate across all cylinders of
the drive. The rest of the 4 and 9 G drives that Newtek has previously tested
remain workable for Standard and Extended play, and we are working at
improvements to these modes to get the best quality possible from the drives
most user currently have. There is no reason to avoid these drives, unless
your level of work actually demands the HQ5 mode.
We have not yet tested the Atlas 4GB model for HQ5 capability.
We are working on the software support for Tape drives on the Flyer, but it is
not yet successful. We hope to post an update here soon to correct that.
Chuck:
Is the HQ5 mode on the Atlas drive the D2 Quality that we were expecting or
is that still a few revisions away? Personaly I thought that the satndared mode
looked great untill I saw HQ5, so I'm wondering how much better can it get?
Brad Hayes
Hayes Visual Communication
HQ5 has both mods to the VTASC and a floor to the amount of compression, which
is why it requires 5MB/sec sustained across entire platter. In HQ5 there are
more situations where D2 video could be preserved, but still many situations
where compression, and therefore some image softening, has to occur. More
frequently than in the lower modes the softening can stay at or below what the
perceptual psych guys call the JND — Just Noticeable Difference.
None of us here think there is anything we've done so far that we can't better
if we keep pushing, and we will keep pushing. And as even faster drives come
along even more is possible.
We're happy with HQ5, and so far all the reports I'm hearing from end users are
that HQ5 is making them happy, but that's no reason to rest.
Chuck,
I have been following the HQ5 discussion thread with interest. I have a Flyer
(softare version 4.03) in an Amiga 4000 with a 40 Mhz WarpEngine accelerator
and two 9 GB NewTek certified drives. I have recently been working on a
project that is now about 40 minutes of edited video. It includes several
DVE's, a few Flyer stills, and at least one CG framestore page. All of the
Flyer video clips in this project have been digitized and stored in the HQ5
mode. I have roughly 20 minutes of space left on each of the two video drives,
since I have other clips stored on the drives besides this particular project.
As long as I enter the New Clip requestor with LAlt-RAlt-Tilde key sequence,
select HQ5 mode, and then continue, this project plays perfectly either from
the beginning or from anywhere within the project. Ocassionally, I do get a
Flyer Drive Dropped Frames notice when attempting to save a new clip, but
invariably when this happens, I simply repeat the recording process, and
everything is fine. In light of all the complaints of others who own and use
the same 9 GB Seagate Elite drives that I have, I have been very pleasantly
surprised to see my two Seagate 9 GB drives giving performance this good with
the HQ5 mode. I continue to knock on wood and hope this level of performance
will last. I just thought you might like to know.
Tom
Tom,
PMFJI, but except for the WarpEngine accelerator, I have the same setup you
have.
I have also been getting good results in the HQ5 mode. Just wanted to ask you,
what the maximum time you get in the HQ5 mode. My system reads about 32 minutes
when I enter the HQ5 mode on an empty hard drive. This compares to 48 minutes
in the STANDARD mode.
I asked this, because in you last message, you said you are working on a 40
minute project and have 20 minutes left on each of the two video drives. On my
system this would mean that I would have recorded about 12 minutes of video
clips on each drive. Is that the same as yours?
Fred
Fred,
Yes, I found that when I reformatted my Seagate 9 GB HD and check the available
time in HQ5 mode, it was about 32 minutes and in SP mode was about 48 minutes
just as you have stated.
I am now down to about 19 minutes of available time on each of my two Seagate 9
Gb drives, and yet the current project I am working on played absolutely fine
when I checked it this afternoon –and that was after 7 continuous hours of
running the Flyer. I do have several clips from other projects still on each
of my drives so the time cited for the current project do not reflect all of
the video clips found on each drive.
Tom
P.S. I tried an interesting experiment today, but the results were
disappointing. I had a major dropout on a Hi-8 digitzed clip that spanned one
frame. I used the ARexx script Clip2IFF.rexx to convert the flawed section of
the clip to a series of IFF images, imported the flawed IFF image into
ToasterPaint, imported the next frame into the second screen of ToasterPaint,
used rubthru mode to remove the dropout on the flawed frame, and then used
IFF2Clip.rexx to convert the "corrected" series of IFF images to a new clip.
The new clip looked terrible when played back. I suppose that what is
happening is that VTASC is operating twice on the Hi-8 footage, and it just
doesn't stand up to double compression-decompression. In any case, I solved
the problem by dividing the flawed clip into two clips using the cutting room
and placed the two clips side by side. although one frame is lost by this
method (the frame with the dropout), it is not noticeable at all since very
little movement was occuring in this frame.
Tom,
What happens if you mix HQ5 and standard clips in the same project? Any
problems in playback?
Regards
Mark
Chuck:
Like I said I was happy with Standared Mode If it continues to get better,
Wooo Hooo! 8)
Brad Hayes
Hayes Visual Communication
Chuck, as we told you about two weeks ago we were putting a raid on our 9gig
elites. Well, ….. it worked … we now have a double speed 18 gigabyte flyer
audio-video drive. The array card is from JAS engineering cost about $600 and
I believe it has save our investment in HD. We feel this is great news. Now we
can use the cheaper seagates and get 18 gig and just ONE scssi location. We are
now filling our drives to check the effect. Keeping our fingers cross ..
More latter
"Is it wrong to be this excited about technology"
Joe Jensen / Sharon Marzano
Nightscape Production
Please keep everyone informed of how this works out. What's the phone and
name of the company that makes the RAID adapter?
Jerry
Will get that monday from our source out of california.
Maybe we could buy en masse and get a discount.
Regards,
Gary
That certainly sounds exciting…
Keep us posted.
Regards,
Gary
Sharon,Joe,
Please forward me info on how to contact JAS engineering. Also can you tell me
if this is an Amiga specific c\RAID card? WHat computer does it reside in?
Frank
I will have contact info monday. It occupies a scssi address so I don't believe
it to be computer specific.
Nightscape