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High Def for Low Cost

HD For Indies is a great website exploring the possibilities for working in the High Definition format on the cheap. It gets a little technical, as in the latest post on Mac G5 hard-drive configurations for speed and size.

As much as I can follow it, though, I think Mike is on to something -- and I'm convinced he'd be worth every penny to hire as a consultant if we end up shooting Ten Manipulations in High Def. He does have the ability to translate...

In brief: a hard drive is like a record player...not that I've owned one since I was 12. The platters are like the record, the read/write heads are like the needle. And like a record (you've seen them on late night TV, right?) the record starts at the edge when the needle is placed way out at the outermost part. This part is moving very fast under the needle. The maximum amount of hard drive platter is moving under the read write heads every second at the edge. As data is written from the outermost tracks towards the middle, the more full the drive gets, the more it has to work with the inner tracks of the platters, or record in our analogy. And that is the part of the record/platters that moves the slowest under the read/write heads.

If that doesn't make sense, think how fast it was to hang on to the outer edge of the merry go round instead of the middle. Faster=more data throughput.

About J. Ott

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and futurist. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.