Introduction to Tapeless Media
Introduction to Tapeless Media
This guide is targeted towards the average filmmaker who is curious
about adopting tapeless acquisition formats.
Background
Since post‐production shifted over to non‐linear platforms
in the late 1990s, and with the advent of digital video formats, it
becomes no surprise that tapes are on their way out. With the
advancement of video compression technology, the decreasing
price of storage, and the high cost of HD tape formats, we are
reaching an age where tapes are used mainly as delivery masters
and eventually, even that not be the case. Cineform has released
CineDDR, which is a tapeless format to compete with Sony’s
HDCAM SR format, the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) is the
current standard for distribution of content to digital theaters,
and in some places, commercials are delivered via FTP for
broadcast.
What it is
Tapeless media, or “file based acquisition formats” are
similar to digital tape formats, in that all the data is already
digital, and codecs are used to compress the video to achieve
smaller file sizes.
Video, by today’s production standard, requires more than
just video and audio data. “Metadata” refers to information about
the video, which includes timecode, as well as other information,
such as clip name, reel name, log notes, notes to the editor and
even GPS position of the camera. A container format, also known
as a “wrapper”, is used to store the video and its metadata.
Common “wrappers” include Apple’s proprietary Quicktime
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Introduction to Tapeless Media
format, and the open source MXF format which is used by AVID.
In a way, you could refer to the “wrapper” as a digital equivalent
of a physical tape, although it could also refer to just a solitary
video clip alone.
Current forms of tapeless media
Common tapeless formats include the Panasonic P2 range of
cameras, the Sony XDCAM series, the RED digital film cameras,
and a range of other prosumer and consumer cameras. These
cameras record to everything from optical discs to flash cards, PC
cards, SxS cards and portable hard drives.
Comparisons with tape
Some of the advantages of a tapeless acquisition format
include price and speed. Hard drives are much cheaper than tapes
(including miniDV), and tape decks are not required. Also, hard
drives do not have to achieve the drive speed requirements of
capturing from a tape deck, since transferring tapeless formats is
similar to transferring your email or word documents, just that
video files are generally much larger.
Not using a tape deck allows for production in higher quality
formats than may be allowed under previous budget constraints.
Also, time‐of‐day timecode used for multi‐camera shoots, which is
usually a bane in the editing room as they can be quite tricky to
recapture, is a breeze with tapeless formats.
Another key advantage of working with tapeless formats is
the turnaround speed for editing. Since the information is already
captured to a hard drive equivalent, transferring the files to your
editing drives is usually much faster than capturing in real time.
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Introduction to Tapeless Media
Some of the disadvantages of working with tapeless media
include reliability. Hard drives and optical drives are usually less
reliable than tapes, so precautionary measures need to be taken.
Also, the data is now “invisible”. Where you used to have physical
tapes, they are now stored as virtual files on a hard drive where
they are home to your daily hoodoos such as corruption, drive
failures, accidental deletion, and viruses!!! (Heh. I just wanted to
scare non‐Mac users.)
Planning and Production
As camera manufacturers develop different tapeless
formats, they can come with varied requirements, so it is
important to consult your post production folks early and not
leave it until after the shoot, as the ability to finish shooting a film
does not necessarily mean the ability to finish the film in post. But
usually we just tell you that you will need more hard drive space
or in some cases, you may need to get a new Mac.
On set, it is common to have a “data wrangler” in charge of
making copies of the files during breaks, or it could be just that
talent’s mom that stumbled onto set that day. It is advisable to
have 2 copies, one on your flash/P2 card and another on a hard
drive. Note that if the flash/P2 card is insufficient to contain your
day’s shoot, make sure that you bring along a second drive, so you
always have 2 copies of the file. Having all your data on a set of
mirrored/RAID 1 drives is considered fool’s security, as even
though they help guard against data loss on drive failures, they do
nothing to prevent data corruption that can wipe out that
precious golden take.
When copying the files, some cameras will create a file
structure, which may include empty folders. It is important to
copy the entire file structure, as most NLEs require all the folders
to be intact on ingest.
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Introduction to Tapeless Media
Panasonic’s P2 format natively uses the FAT32 file system
for Mac/PC compatibility, which automatically limits individual
files to 4 Gigabytes, so field drives can be formatted to either
FAT32 or Mac OS Extended.
Post‐Production
Okay, now the simple part‐ post‐production. The camera will
usually create multiple clips‐ every time the camera records and
stops, that is one clip. Even though real time capturing is not
required, certain cameras like Panasonic P2 and Sony’s XDCAM,
which use the MXF file format, requires Final Cut Pro to “re‐wrap”
the files to Quicktime under a process known as “Log and
Transfer”. The transfer is usually lossless, as the files are merely
“re‐wrapped” into Quicktime and the transfer is as fast as making
a copy onto your editing drives. Other platforms such as Adobe
Premiere CS4 and AVID MC 3 are able to access the MXF files
natively without converting to another file format for editing.
However, note that just because you do not have to convert to
another file format, it does not mean that you do not have to make
a copy of the footage. There is an old maxim, which states “you
never have data unless you have data twice.” Drives fail, so do
take precautionary measures to keep your blood‐sugar levels
down.
Logging will still be required, as randomly named clips, such
as “01354HVS” is quite useless when it comes to organizing the
media.
As the aims of on‐location acquisition is different from that
of post‐production, camera manufacturers may develop certain
formats that may require transcoding to a more editing efficient
format, or they may mean longer render/exporting time. These
include AVCHD, AVC‐Intra, R3D, HDV, XDCAM, etc..
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Introduction to Tapeless Media
After the edit
Once the project is delivered, everyone breathes a sigh of
relief, we wipe our drives clean and start with the next shoot.
Then, the client comes back and… Oops.
Even though digital formats may change over time, the
process is relatively similar to physical tapes. Has anyone seen a
U‐matic or Hi‐8 deck lately? Depending on your format, archiving
your footage could simply mean chucking those XDCAM
professional discs onto the shelf, burning them onto Blu‐Ray Discs
or you may choose to get them onto a data tape format such as an
LTO or DLT tape. LTO and DLT are data archival formats, which
are used by banks and government institutions around the world.
LTOs and DLTs boasts lower error rates and higher reliability for
long term, relatively affordable storage. (Hey, it’s still a $90K
savings off that HDCAM SR deck!) Hard drives are not generally
known for their long term reliability, however if you do choose
the hard drive route, there are back up solutions which rely on
RAID technology that can tolerate a certain degree of drive
failures.
Final Word
Even though we have seen the implementation of tapeless
workflows, we will continue seeing more developments as
technologies relating to production, post‐production and IT
continue to evolve. With the development of the open source MXF
file format, footage can be transmitted over the internet from a
source location, ingested and edited in a remotely based edit suite
all at the same time, leading to much faster and more efficient
turnaround. While die‐hards may call for the continuity of tape
and celluloid, the future in tapeless media stand an excellent
chance of replacing existing tape technology due to cost and ease
of adoption.
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