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Mac and DVDs


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Hi Larry,

Thus far it has not been possible to incrementally write DVDs with OSX.  However, with Software Architects very recent release of UDF support for OSX, it 'may' now be possible to mirror to DVD-RAM.  I have not heard any reports back from anyone that has tried it yet.  Personally, now that I have become accustomed to burning DVD's at the end of a roll, I probably will not be changing my procedure.

Film breaks etc are not really an issue as you are able to burn the previous roll's DVD while simultaneously recording to a new roll.  Although it often seems like film breaks are suddenly sprung upon us with no advance warning, either the camera dept or the production office most always know exactly when the film breaks will be as they are generally based on either your lab/telecine time, or what time the film and sound rolls need to be shipped out.  Once armed with the advance knowledge of when the film breaks are going to be, I usually burn the DVD during the lighting setup just prior.

Best,

Darren

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Darren,

Cool, thanks for the info. I guess in the future I could upgrade to a firewire burner for the mirroring.

It shouldn't take that long to burn my back ups.

Don't ya love the green loader at the beginning of a show that breaks and forgets to call it out or informs you  just before you roll on another setup? Rarely happens but I'm like WTF are you high?

Thanks again,

Larry Long

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Dear Larry,

Interfaces that worked for me using my Apple for writing directly to a DVD RAM drive:  (1). Mapping a network drive to a PC that has a DVD RAM drive.  (2) An external Fire wire DVD RAM drive connected to the Apple...  (Trew or Coffey has them) works fine

We can look forward to Soft arch “Write UDF” -- MAC software for formatting UDF and writing directly to a variety of DVD RAM Drives...  It should be ready soon...

Enjoy it all

Sincerely

Ron

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Hello Ron,

With the Boom Recorder "stop" problem you are having, are you writing directly to the DVD RAM drive from within Boom Recorder?

In case you are not receiving my reply from your email, could you tell me exactly is happening when you can not stop Boom Recorder is using a personal message via this forum?

Take

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Hello Ron,

With the Boom Recorder "stop" problem you are having, are you writing directly to the DVD RAM drive from within Boom Recorder?Take

This is new to me. I had no idea anybody was writing directly to optical disk from BoomRecorder. I didn't know that Take had provided for that or even considered it a viable use of BoomRecorder. The inherent slower write speeds of all optical disks as compared to hard drives has caused some difficulties with other systems that use optical disks as the primary recording medium.

Question to Take:  is BoomRecorder really set up to record directly to optical disks/drives?

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Dear Larry,

Interfaces that worked for me using my Apple for writing directly to a DVD RAM drive:  (1). Mapping a network drive to a PC that has a DVD RAM drive.   (2) An external Fire wire DVD RAM drive connected to the Apple...  (Trew or Coffey has them) works fine

We can look forward to Soft arch “Write UDF” -- MAC software for formatting UDF and writing directly to a variety of DVD RAM Drives...  It should be ready soon...

Ron,

I suppose I should elaborate on my previous comment...

I have always been able to mount and write to DVD-RAM on OSX when using an external f/w burner (LG super multi-drive), even incrementally.  However, this is only if I format the DVD-RAM using OSX's disk utilities (as an OSX extended drive, as if it were another hard drive).  However, it is my understanding that when formatting the DVD-RAM in this manner, the DVD-RAM cannot be read by the DV-40 or DV-834.

When formatting the disk as UDF, etc, I have only been able to do an all at once DVD-R type burn.

Has your OSX DVD-RAM experience been different from this?

Best,

Darren

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Hello Jeff,

This is new to me. I had no idea anybody was writing directly to optical disk from BoomRecorder. I didn't know that Take had provided for that or even considered it a viable use of BoomRecorder. The inherent slower write speeds of all optical disks as compared to hard drives has caused some difficulties with other systems that use optical disks as the primary recording medium.

Question to Take:  is BoomRecorder really set up to record directly to optical disks/drives?

I do not know what people do with Boom Recorder, but because Ron is having difficulties, I made sure I asked.

It seems that he is writing to an external firewire hard disk, not to an external firewire DVD, so he has some other issue.

If OS X is able to write directly to a DVD disk without the use of burning software, then Boom Recorder should be able to write directly to such a DVD disk. Of course you are right that writing to a DVD might be slow, however with today speeds of DVD recorders this may not be a problem for everyone (depending on the number of channels). You can see how well the recording is doing by looking at the ring buffer circle of Boom Recorder.

Cheers,

    Take

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Dear Takie et-al,

Loving boom recorder---

I am able to write to an external FWHD without any issue. and simultanous to an External FW DVD RAM burner.

The  issue iI asked Take about "stop would not stop" .  while waiting for the external FW hard drive to stop writing.

If I dont get back on Jeffs forum for awhile .. I have to load the van again and drive for another great fun todo...

Check with Softarch for UDF write..

Enjoy it all

Sincerely Ron

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Dear Take et-el,

Just noticed my mistype ,Typo ,Error  ****while waiting for the external FW hard drive to stop writing****.

Should read ---        ****While waiting for the Firewire DVD RAM BURNER to stop writing****

Hope this error didn't cause any unnecessary confusion.

Enjoy it all

Sincerely

Ron

http://ronscelzasoundrecording.com

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Dear Darren,

The external Firewire DVD RAM Burner is one that I bought a couple of years ago. I think its a Sony drive packaged by Remote Audio.. If I Format UDF 1.5 it works well with Boom Recorder writing in real time.

All is great except for the slow write issue which gave rise to the "Stop Question".

I am looking forward to Softarch 'UDF Write" to use my IBook's  internal Superdrive  Matshitdvd- uj845e for writing to DVD RAM...

Enjoy it all

Sincerely

Ron

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Hello Ron,

The  issue iI asked Take about "stop would not stop" .  while waiting for the external FW DVD to stop writing.

Am I correct, that after you press stop, it takes a while for Boom Recorder to show you it stopped until the external DVD writer stops writing? But eventually it will stop?

After you press stop, Boom Recorder should show the wait-flower to the right of the tape-transport-buttons.

Boom Recorder first makes sure the audio file(s) are completed before putting the transport buttons back to "stop".

I hope this is what happens in your case.

Have a nice trip, and lots of fun.

Cheers,

    Take

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Dear Take et-al

Yes! Thats it -----

Take wrote <Am I correct, that after you press stop, it takes a while for Boom Recorder to show you it stopped until the external DVD writer stops writing? But eventually it will stop?

thank you

Looking forward to "UDF Write" SoftArch

Enjoy it all

sincerely

Ron

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's out now.

http://www.softarch.com/press/WriteUDF.htm

Scott Harber

Dear Take et-al

Yes! Thats it -----

Take wrote <Am I correct, that after you press stop, it takes a while for Boom Recorder to show you it stopped until the external DVD writer stops writing? But eventually it will stop?

thank you

Looking forward to "UDF Write" SoftArch

Enjoy it all

sincerely

Ron

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Hi All,

For the record --- “Write UDF”, Softarch, is posted for DL on the Softarch website...

  It does a great job of formatting my fire wire hard drives and external Fire wire DVD RAM drive.  Much to my disappointment it doesn’t seem to like my IBook Super drive, (MATISHITADVD-R UJ-845E).

  I have yet to call Softarch tech support and see what internal drive I might use. If I find a list of tested internal - DVD RAM drives for the IBook ...  I will post …

See you at the seminars!

Enjoy it all

Sincerely

Ron Scelza

http://ronscelzasoundrecording.com

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  • 5 months later...

Hi Doug,

Hope all is well.  Good here.

Just wanted to let you know the new external firewire drive works well.

I just had a 2 day studio film job.  Took the laptop & Moto ultralite.

Just a test setup as I have not modified the cart yet.

The first day I just wrote to the internal hard drive as the "UDF" disc would not work.

The big news is the DVD-RAM burner works in real time!

I just had to reformat the Maxell X5 disc on the Mac.

Did not have to use "Patch Burn" or other software.

Just "erase" and go through those steps to name the unformatted disc.

The drive spins like crazy & is a little loud but it is transparent to use.

I'm not going to junk my Dat yet, but I'm excited.

Boom recorder seems to record (mirror) to many destinations.

Maybe running two ram drives at the same time might be a good idea?

I wish Boom recorder could change the metadata entree's after "stop".

But it seems pretty good also a better playback system would be nice.

The Moto Ultralite sounds good. The time code reader & Cue mix for

monitoring  all fit nicely on the 12" screen & work well.

Talk to ya soon.

Thanks,

Tom

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Hello Take,

As you know I have been "playing with your program" for a little while.  As I am "an old timer", I probably should not be allowed to go out with it yet.  Today was just a test for me.  I did not turn in the disc (just the Dat) on the TV commerical.  I did have a lot to do; as I had to "Mix" a speaker to the real people talent, etc.  To my surprise I was able to hand write my sound reports (with TC on every take as I always do), type in the scenes, camera rolls, etc. in BR, roll both recorders and get a good sounding track.

The program worked extreamly well.  It was easy.

I don't know if I could do it on a tough location with lot's of radio mics, etc. but..

I did experience the stop issue mentioned above.  The first day (just writing to the internal hard drive) and 3/4 of today (writing to the int. HD & ext. firewire DVD-RAM in real time) was no problem.  Toward the end of the day, when I hit stop, BR would not stop, the stop button would flash and the buffer ring was only a thin line - I was only recording 2 tracks (just LR, not the Iso's) on the 1.5GHZ Mac G4. The 4.3 GB DVD-RAM disc was about 1.4 GB full.  Just wondering what you thought.  Also I would love to see the Buffer ring bigger & brighter just so you know you are really rolling!

Please keep in mind my comments are because I am new to this approach to recording.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks,

Tom

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Hello Tom,

Does the "wait flower" on the left of the transport buttons appear and will it after some while do stop automatically?

I think the reason for the slowdown on stop would be that Boom Recorder rewrites the header of the audio files at the end of a recording with the newly collected metadata (even if you haven't changed anything as Boom Recorder changes internal metadata during the recording such as the length of the recording). This header is now I believe 1 MByte in size, in the future Boom Recorder will be able to create headers of variable size making writing on DVD-RAM (and reading during startup) much faster.

I should find out more about DVD-RAM together with Boom Recorder so I could recommend it to my customers.

The tape counter (just below the transport buttons) shows you how many samples have been send to the disk, so this would give you conformation that you are really rolling. Also the color of the dot in the middle of the ring buffer view should tell you what state Boom Recorder is in. The ring buffer view actually collects this information from different parts of Boom Recorder and shows what is really going on. The same with the transport buttons this is why it stays on "rec" after you press "stop", it only actually shows "stop" when the internal state of Boom Recorder is in idle.

I do really want to know if the "wait flower" appears though. Otherwise I am working on a new version of Boom Recorder where we can debug this problem (if it is a problem) quite easily.

Cheers,

    Take

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Hello Take,

Thanks for the reply.  I did not see the flower. But, I realy had to pay attention to the action on the shoot.

The Gaffer was looking over my shoulder during this time as he is a musician and has a Motu ultralight which he loves & a G4 laptop (he was impressed with BR) I think he would have noticed the Wait Flower. I kept hitting stop, but no flower.  The problem was that they rolled camera again quickly, I thought I hit rec again (while rec was still on) but when I looked again I was in stop.

I will set up at home, keep playing and give you an update.

Next week I hope to go "PostWorks" A popular Lab/Transfer house here in NY with the the Maxell DVD-RAM, a DVD-R copy of the HD BR files and my production Dats and see how it works with their system (Fostex DV40 & DV824).

I have a couple other basic BR questions but I'll spare the forum & email you directly.

Thanks.

Tom

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Hello Phil,

In the patch-bay, set Folders to "2".

Now you can select an other destination drive for this second folder.

set Files to twice as many as before, and set the second set of files to be recorded in this second folder. Assign the channels to the second set of files like the first set of files.

Cheers,

    Take

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