[NicoliToodle]

I'm trying to connect a Medea videoRaid 4/160 RT to my 2 Ghz G5 and ATTO says I need to choose a video capture card before they can recommend one of their SCSI host bus adapters in the UL3D family.
I am having a difficult time tring to find info from the list ATTO provides.
The Blackmagic Design at $2000 and the AJA Kona at $1000 are beyond my budget.
Aurora Igniter media 100i, Pinnacle Cine Wave, and Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks are the other choices, but I can't find much on these.
Does anyone have suggestions or experience in this area that they would kindly share.
Advance appreciation & thanks for your help.

[Axo1ot1]

What exactly do you want to do with your RAID? Are you doing uncompressed video, or HD or what? Why do you want to hook it up before you have a capture board?

[direktor]

Originally posted by NicoliToodle:

Aurora Igniter media 100i, Pinnacle Cine Wave, and Fibre Channel Storage Area Networks are the other choices, but I can't find much on these.

You know that Fibre Channel is another method of connecting drives, don't you? It's not a video capture method.

If Fibre Channel is truly an option, that means you haven't bought the Medea yet....and in THAT case...

I'm currently doing uncompressed SD with a FW800 RAID from WiebeTech. It was stupid-simple to set up and it's compatible with pretty much everything. It was a around $850 for 320 gigs.

On the video cards: CineWave is a decent option but requires certain versions of QT and FCP, etc. I.E., they don't update their SW often. Media 100 is it's own hardware and software, not unlike Avid rigs...and losing favor these days to FCP and Avid. Aurora's past card offerings might be your best bet if working on a budget.

(p.s. people are getting insane speeds from Serial ATA software RAIDS...speeds easily suitable for uncompresed SD with 2 drive stripes, and uncompressed HD with 4 drive stripes. A very cheap way to go on a G5, if you can find somewhere to put the drives)

[Axo1ot1]

Originally posted by direktor:
On the video cards: CineWave is a decent option but requires certain versions of QT and FCP, etc. I.E., they don't update their SW often.

This is true, but the software is really solid when they do release it, and the board is the most capable one out there right now.

[NicoliToodle]

Originally posted by Axo1ot1:
What exactly do you want to do with your RAID? Are you doing uncompressed video, or HD or what? Why do you want to hook it up before you have a capture board?

I bought the Medea videoRaid 2 years ago to initially use with Applied Magic at a community access station to copy onto SVHS. Now I want to use all the SVHS and Hi8 I've edited and put onto CD's or DVD's. (Soon to buy a digital camera for inputting to FCP also.)
I don't know whether compressed or uncompressed?
I don't want to hook it up before I get a video capture card. ATTO says choose a card so they can tell me what kind of SCSI host bus adapter to use.
I hope this helps.
Thanks

[direktor]

Uh, if your source is SVHS and Hi-8, I wouldn't bother spending any money on anything besides DV capture. Unless you're hell-bent on capturing every nuance of noise and dropouts on your tapes, DV will be more than enough.

Just get a DV camera, capture through that, and just get any old SCSI card that will get the RAID going.

[NicoliToodle]

Originally posted by direktor:
Uh, if your source is SVHS and Hi-8, I wouldn't bother spending any money on anything besides DV capture. Unless you're hell-bent on capturing every nuance of noise and dropouts on your tapes, DV will be more than enough.

Just get a DV camera, capture through that, and just get any old SCSI card that will get the RAID going.

Thanks. Sounds like a good plan to me. Then later upgrade the quality as prices go down.