Workstation for 2k uncomp color grading

[Martin Fissher]

Hi there,
My company wants to build a workstation for 2k capturing and color grading. We are a small company so we don't have a big budget.

I've been reading a lot and i cant seem to find out "definitive answers" to what should i buy in terms of a Shared Storage. Probably cause many of the posts & articles related to this subject are old and i really think that there has to be newer, better and more affordable options.

This is what i came up so far:

LCD Monitor: HP Dream Color (i know there are some options on this, and some prefer CRT, but i think i'll stick with this one).
Monitor Calibration toolset: HP LCD calibration kit
Capture card: Kona 3
Video card: Quadro FX 4800 or 5800. The 5800 costs almost twice as the 4800. Do you know if it worth it ?

Shared RAID: I need something that can get around a stable 750 MB/Sec if i want to share this raid in 2 workstations reading or writing 10bit uncomp 2k 4:4:4 at the same time.
So i should know what kind of raid can get to that stable speed and which is a good way to share this raid on 2 or more PCs. I've read that there are some good options that could be shared on your existing Gig-E Ethernet Network, but i don't really see how can that be even possible if a Gig-E network only gets 120 MB/Sec.

Thanks
Martin

[RRafael]

Aja kona3 nooo! Im have xena 2ke ver bad tech support.im suitch to blue444 i/o boards look new models

[Tim Hole]

It might be helpful to know what you are/plan to be cutting/grading on!

[Pavel Dolgov]

1 frame 2Kx10bit uncompressed is about 12MB. 12MBx24fps=288MB/s = forget about realtime with GbE.

[Lucas Wilson]

Hi Martin,

Below...

LCD Monitor: HP Dream Color (i know there are some options on this, and some prefer CRT, but i think i'll stick with this one).
Monitor Calibration toolset: HP LCD calibration kit

Good choice. A lot of people are doing great work with this monitor.

Capture card: Kona 3
Video card: Quadro FX 4800 or 5800. The 5800 costs almost twice as the 4800. Do you know if it worth it ?

Capture card is completely dependent on what you will be capturing and what software you will be using for grading. Since you posted this in the SCRATCH section, I'll speak to that. Use the Bluefish LUST card. It has its own software called Symmetry that will accurately and reliably capture to sequential DPX files with appropriate header metadata for use in SCRATCH.

5800 - yes, it is worth it, and get the SDI option. Do *not* go cheap on this. It is the key to speed and flexbility in doing the actual grading.

Shared RAID: I need something that can get around a stable 750 MB/Sec if i want to share this raid in 2 workstations reading or writing 10bit uncomp 2k 4:4:4 at the same time.
So i should know what kind of raid can get to that stable speed and which is a good way to share this raid on 2 or more PCs. I've read that there are some good options that could be shared on your existing Gig-E Ethernet Network, but i don't really see how can that be even possible if a Gig-E network only gets 120 MB/Sec.

Martin, I say this with the experience of having helped several hundred customers and prospects work through storage options...

Do not set this up yourself. The questions you are asking are fairly basic. Learn this stuff for sure... and I applaud you for diving in! But setting up a *reliable* shared high-bandwidth infrastructure is non-trivial and not something you will learn easily or quickly.

It is very easy to set up shared high-bandwidth storage. It is very difficult to set up *reliable* shared high-bandwidth storage.

I would highly recommend working with a good storage reseller and letting them help you and guide you through it. I promise you - 100% - that by the time you finish learning it yourself and getting your system up and reliably working in a production environment, you will have spent more money then if you would have worked with an integrator/reseller from the start.

I am not trying to put down your enthusiasm or ability to learn! But... let someone help you through this. There is nothing that sucks more than having your storage fail miserably at the height of the production crunch and having nobody to call to help you out and being deep in a RAID BIOS flipping switches randomly in the hopes that something will work.

If you'd like some good names/numbers to call, please contact me offlist at lucas (at) assimilateinc (dot) com.

Best,

Lucas


Lucas Wilson
------------
Director, Business Development
ASSIMILATE, inc.
LA, CA, USA

[Martin Fissher]

Thanks for the detailed reply Lucas.

Do you really think that a shared storage is something so hard to set up ?
As i wrote before, i just want to share this RAID in 2 PCs than can handle 350 MB/Sec each (so i can read or write 2k 10bit ucompressed).

I think this can be easily done with a RAID that can get to 700 MB/Sec (maybe the CallDigit HDPro2?) shared over a 10 Gig Network. Do you think that this will be hard to set up ? Or maybe that this won't work ?

I'd also like to know if someone is using a similar setup and how is it working for you.

Thanks again.

[MichaelHalsell]

Martin,

Just curious, why was this thread opened under Assimilate Scratch? What was the specific thread about as it relates to Assimilate Scratch?

[Martin Fissher]

Martin,

Just curious, why was this thread opened under Assimilate Scratch? What was the specific thread about as it relates to Assimilate Scratch?

Cause both systems should work well with Assimilate Scratch.

Use the Bluefish LUST card. It has its own software called Symmetry that will accurately and reliably capture to sequential DPX files with appropriate header metadata for use in SCRATCH.

I got this advice on the Bluefish LUST card just cause i post this here.

Same thing with the Quadro 580 over the 4800: i was asking if the 5800 price worth it. Posting this here relates this question to Scratch.