Re: portable hard drive for editing hdv by Michael palmer on Jul 26, 2007 at 5:02:23 pm
Any Firewire external drive (with a fan if possible) running 7200rpm, this is all you need. Get at least 250 gigs as the drive needs room to breath and you'll be surprised just how fast you fill it up.
Good Luck
Michael Palmer
Re: portable hard drive for editing hdv by Steven L. Gotz on Jul 27, 2007 at 3:22:11 am
I would say it doesn't matter. Using OnLocation with an external hard drive, we had the USB drive connected, and the firewire was connected to the camera. No problems with USB2.0
Re: portable hard drive for editing hdv by Tim Kolb on Jul 31, 2007 at 5:08:21 am
[Michael palmer]"Wouldn't you agree Firewire is the answer here as firewire plays streams of video and USB sends packets of data.
"
When it's coupled to a computer as a peripheral, it's all packets of data. FW is only "digital video" (or at least recognized as such) between video appliances.
USB2 actually has a higher burst (480 Mb/s) than FireWire A (400 Mb/s), but FW can typically maintain a more constant flow of data...
I would agree that FW is probably better...but the margin may be less than we think...
Re: portable hard drive for editing hdv by ngolon on Jul 28, 2007 at 12:01:23 am
Thank you all for your help. This Aegis drive looks great because of its portability. So I can rest assured that USB will be able to load and edit HDV projects quickly?
Re: portable hard drive for editing hdv by Steven L. Gotz on Jul 28, 2007 at 12:19:11 am
Let me make something clear. It is possible that using the USB drive will not provide the editing experience you desire, depending on the way you normally edit.
The safest way to be sure is to buy the eSATA card for the laptop and use an eSATA external drive which provides a VERY fast interface and will without a doubt be fast enough.
You need to test the setup before relying on it too much.
Re: a reason things to cost more by Kevin Shaw on Jul 30, 2007 at 6:25:17 pm
In my experience HDV editing performance is much more dependent on processing power than hard drive capabilities, and USB2 drives can be used effectively. Firewire is technically better, but eSATA is the way to go if you want maximum performance. Ruggedness is another matter, and you should be very careful when using external drives for video editing - some folks are reportedly using velcro to strap a drive to their laptop so it doesn't fall and get damaged.
I'm currently using the Western Digital 160GB USB2 drives which have been selling at Costco for around $110 or so. These are good for 1-2 layers of HDV in native format or three layers using intermediate editing codecs. They run off USB2 bus power so require no separate power cord, which is a big convenience.
Re: a reason things to cost more by Tim Wilson on Jul 31, 2007 at 9:33:28 am
[Kevin Shaw]" I'm currently using the Western Digital 160GB USB2 drives...These are good for 1-2 layers of HDV in native format or three layers using intermediate editing codecs. They run off USB2 bus power so require no separate power cord, which is a big convenience."
Whether FW or USB2, bus-powered is the way to go if at all possible...and it usually is.
But I too am a big USB2 fan. I have a bunch of them, use 'em for all kinds of HD footage, and no longer have any FW drives at all. That said, you can easily find plenty of drives that have both connections.
