John Bowling, from the City of Houston, Dept. of Aviation, sent me the following.

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Just ran into a situation that I believe others should be aware of. I use a Mac Pro for editing and wanting the best performance I could get out of it, I swapped out the original boot drive with a Western Digital Raptor 10k rpm, 150G drive about a year ago. The performance increase has been noticeable. Perhaps not earthshaking but every little bit helps.

The problem recently surfaced as I filled that drive with more applications; not data, just applications. When WD announced they now had available a 300G 10k rpm Velociraptor the solution seemed simple and I acquired one.

Here’s the problem, the 300G Velociraptor is a 2.5″ 10k rpm drive that is mounted to an aluminum heat sink frame to adapt to the standard 3.5″ drive bays. But for some reason WD machined this heat sink where the SATA connections on the back end up shifted about an inch over from where they are on every other Sata drive

After 30 minutes on the phone with WD Customer service we both agreed that this drive is not compatible at all with a Mac Pro due to this problem. The WD customer tech did not find any info in their system about this problem either so it sounds as if WD is unaware as well. I have since found references to this problem on the net so its not just me.

But if you look on the cardboard box, there is the happy Mac logo proudly proclaiming compatibility.

[Western Digital] could fix this easily enough by changing their aluminum heat sink, but till they do… Hope this helps somebody else.

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Larry replies: Thanks, John, for sending this in.

While HD Expo is in LA, I’m heading to Washington, DC, with the Digital Production BuZZ to cover the Government Video Technology Expo.

We’ll have highlights of the Expo on this week’s show, as well as additional hours of coverage starting Thursday this week.

If you are in the Washington area, take a few minutes and stop by the show. I’d enjoy the chance to say hi! We’re in the Walter Washington Expo Center.

I’ll be the guy wearing the headset talking with folks in Booth 356.

Click here to learn more about GV Expo.

Click here to learn more about The BuZZ.

I’ve attended, and spoken at, HDFest the last two times it visited LA. Its a great place to see what’s happening in the Indy world of HD. Marisa, the Festival Coordinator, reminds me that HDFest is returning to LA this week, so I asked her to send me some information that I could pass on to you. Here is what she wrote.

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HDFEST will be held December 5th-7th at Dolby Laboratories’ Larry Umlang Presentation Theatre II located at 3601 W Alameda Avenue. The HDFEST Los Angeles event will screen a truly diverse selection of short films and features over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Most projects will be making both their Los Angeles premieres and their first presentations in high-definition resolution. Films included were shot with a variety of HD cameras including the Red One camera, Panasonic Varicam and Sony HDW-F900.

Among HDFEST festival highlights are the following presentations: The Los Angeles premiere and High-Definition premiere of the feature length comedy Remarkable Power, directed by Brandon Beckner and starring Kevin Nealon and Tom Arnold. Remarkable Power is about a late night talk show host who masterminds an elaborate scheme to save his canceled show and avenge his wife’s affair, The High-Definition Premiere of Kill Kill Faster Faster written, directed and produced by Gareth Maxwell Roberts and starring Gil Bellows and Esai Morales. (www.killkillfasterfaster.com) a High-Definition Screening of the Feature Comedy Route 30 directed by John Putch and starring Dana Delany, David DeLuise, and Curtis Armstrong (www.route30.com) and a groundbreaking showcase focusing exclusively on High-Definition Animation.

This glorious showcase of animation features a wide variety of styles and techniques from innovative animators originating from around the world. Many directors will be in attendance to discuss their work.

The weekend event will also include the annual HDFEST Deffie Award Ceremony. The Deffies recognize achievements in independent high-definition filmmaking. Tickets are available for $10; festival full-access passes are $50 and admit user to all screenings and social gatherings Friday through Sunday. The complete festival schedule and ticketing information can be found at http://www.hdfest.com/hdfestla.html

Tickets are available for advance purchase online and are also available the day of the event at the HDFEST box office at Dolby Laboratories. Contact admin@hdfest.com with any questions