Backing up 50GB worth of DVCPRO HD footage from USB2 storage to BD
 

Backing up 50GB worth of DVCPRO HD footage from USB2 storage to Blu-ray takes about 90 minutes.

I will report how this concept works for editing environment, too.

I'm saving my P2 data on Epson media viewer P5000 on the road, accumulate about 50GB then save them directly on the blu-ray.
Prior to saving on to blu-ray, I can try loading footage directly from P5000 to FCP, do some fiddling around, trash them if I wanted, but I can still go back to P5000 and initiate the backing up process when I have the time.

I will se how easy to read/load footage from blu-ray disc on to FCP and continue to report later.

I assume you are using an external BD burner... what make/model is it?

Well, dissapointing thing is that, it is taking more than 90 minutes.
I started burning and it said 90 minutes, but I started at 0:50 am and at 6:00 am, still have 40 minutes to go, I bet it's going to take another few hours.

Anyhow, I'm usuing a Panasonic internal BD drive and put it into the extra optical drive bay of Mac Pro 8 core.

I actually took over 9 hours. Be warned with what Toast 8 expected time display.

Now about 50GB of P2 footage got saved on blu-ray disc, mount it on to the desktop, selecting the import P2 in the FCP, select all of the volumes saved then all of the clips shows nicely in the list. The overcranked files playback fine directly from the blu-ray disc, but anything that has more frame rate won't play smoothly, I can still browse though.

Despite the long period that takes to backup the whole 50GB, I think I'm going to do this for awhile and let folks know how it is.

Next time I will try to copy it to faster drive instead of doing this directly from the Epson P5000 to see the blu-ray writing time improves.

Ito,

How did you managed to offload the P2 data from the P2Card into the EPSON P5000 in the first place?

The P2card requires special software to understand the RAID engine. If I just plug the P2card into a PC notebook without installing the Panasonic P2Card reader software, it won't work.

That being the case, I am wondering how the EPSON P5000 manages to read the P2Card data then?

P5000 works as on-the-go USB storage.

But how did you manage to transfer the data from the P2 card into the P5000 in the first place?

P5000 connected via USB2 to HPX then HPX as USB device, operate P5000 to achieve the data from HPX, that is how.

Ito,

I didn't realise you were referring to HPX500. I thought you was talking about HDX202. That is why I was puzzled how you managed to connect a USB2 device to the camera. Thanks for the info, anyway.

Any particular reason you're trying to back up to Blu-ray discs when blank hard drives are significantly cheaper per GB?

I'm keeping good footage on hard disk drives, but I did loose some of them because of the hard disk crashing.
Also, maintaining discs per project type of management works well, too.

HI,

how long does it take to backup the 50gb (or whatever size) to the 5000?

I am wondering if this would be fast enough for event video...

(to save P2 cards)

ULI