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powerbook set-up for final cut pro 5
I’ve just bought a new powerbook g4-1.5ghz and 1.5gb ram with an external 200gb lacie fw800 drive as well as a mini-dv camera. I was wondering what else I would need, hardware-wise, to run final cut pro 5. I’ve heard that I should get a firewire cardbus card since its not recommended to run the camera and external drive on the same firewire bus when capturing. Is that true and if so could I just get a fw400 card to use with the camera and use the internal fw800 for the drive? If so any recommendations for a fw card?
Thanks!Ed
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9 Replies
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Yes it’s true. Buy the FW800 card, they’re cheap. I use the LaCie, I think it was $50.
Ed -
wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy a fw400 card for the deck/camera and use the internal fw800 for the fw800 drive?
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Almost all of the PCMCIA cards come with 800 & 400 ports. Of course the I/O reverts to the slow firewire device on that bus.
HTH,
BryceDon’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…
PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion -
You limit your options with a slower card (we’re only talking about a few bucks here).
Ed -
Why not capture the footage from the camera into the internal hard disk, and then copy the footage from the internal hard disk onto the firewire drive. Then you wouldn’t need an extra firewire card, and you’ll be sure that the capture and data transfer to firewire drive will be secure and no hang ups from a more complex set up, because let’s face it, the more components u add on and desimplify it the more room there is for technical malfunctions because these systems aren’t that reliable.
hope that helps. -
[raju] “Why not capture the footage from the camera into the internal hard disk, and then copy the footage from the internal hard disk onto the firewire drive.”
Because the internal drive is really not fast enough for this purpose and you’re going to cause a tremendous amount of fragmentation to your internal drive if you make this a regular practice.
never good to capture directly to the main system drive on any machine.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[raju] “Why not capture the footage from the camera into the internal hard disk, and then copy the footage from the internal hard disk onto the firewire drive.”
What happens when the systems needs to do something then? your capture fails or at the very least drops frames. You should never capture to the same drive your systems is on. I repeat never.
Capturing to your system’s start up drive is like juggling plates- sooner or later its going to crash.gary
gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation -
Ok, I see what you guys are saying. But the PowerBook comes with 2 firewire ports, a 400 and an 800. So why not connect the camera to one and the drive to the other? Are u saying that both ports on the PowerBook run off the same internal card and this will be too heavy a load?
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[raju] “k, I see what you guys are saying. But the PowerBook comes with 2 firewire ports, a 400 and an 800. So why not connect the camera to one and the drive to the other? Are u saying that both ports on the PowerBook run off the same internal card and this will be too heavy a load?”
2 FW port yes
but only one FW bus
gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
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