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edit DV on-line from USB drive?
I have a recent Toshiba U300 laptop with USB and Firewire ports. In order to keep my DV footage separate from the built-in drive, can I edit directly to and from a large, fast USB drive? The projects will be DV-only and I’ll have a minimum of FX, just dissolves, maybe a few static titles.
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10 Replies
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[Peter McLennan] “can I edit directly to and from a large, fast USB drive?”
Yes you can.
Edward Troxel
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Fantastic! This will kick spots off my old Matrox Digisuite : )
Thanks, Edward -
Yes this works great. We swap entire projects back, forth this way. My friend does the importing, bulk editing,trimming. then I do the detail work. we just hand over the drives, move on.
I even hook up another firewire drive for the final render, render to that. Saves time. We have separete drives that hold stock media, fx. Just connect, drag over the ones needed, move on.
Good luck
ZipZipedit
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Incredible. I’ll probably get a dual format (Firewire and USB) external drive. A 500GB should do me for a while. Are they all the same? Or should I aim for a particular brand?
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Now this is old information, but it seems to me that USB 2.0 was not recommended for video editing. While it has a fast enough Data rate it works in peaks and ebbs. The recommendations I have seen say to use firewire drives and chain your camera through it to the computer. This is how I edit with my hard drive. Apparently firewire has a consistent data throughput. I can’t remember where I read that, it might have been DV magazine or PC magazine about two years ago. It also may have changed, two years ago the dinosaurs roamed the earth in our field.
(I used an ADS firewire/USB case and western digital 7200 rpm hard drive and built my own hard drive for video editing. Works great.)Tony
Tony Noon
Noon Productions -
Interesting, Tony. Thanks for the input. So Firewire drive into the computer, DV cam into the drive?
It’s good to know that there’s a fallback position. -
Personally I’d go with the Seagate drives. I have an external Seagate 750 USB/Firewire that works great. Prices are way down now too. If I remember right, I think I paid somewhere less that $300 for it.
I’ve had problems in the past with both Maxtor and WD’s although the WD My Boooks don’t seem too bad.
Allen
ASX Media Group, Inc.
https://www.asxvideo.com -
I have heard that using firewire is more consistent for editing.
I have always just purchased an internal hard drive. I got the biggest I could afford, trying to find them on sale. I would then purchase an external firewire case. I have the external cases with a fan built in them. You will pay a little more for them, compared to a case without a fan, but if you are using the drive a lot it will help to move air around the drive and keep it cooler.
This has been the cheapest way to go for me in the past. With prices so much less these days the usb drives may be about the same. I do not know if the “pre-made” external cases have a fan built in them. -
It is true. USB may have a larger burst but fire wire is consistant. DV files datarate is lower than both so I dont really notice a big difference…if at all.
If you arent really taxing things then USB works fine.
I even work on projects inside a 2 gig thumbdrive.
;>)
I have several LaCie drives that have treated me well.
They prompt, recognize quickly and dont fall asleep on you, however my WD mybook will fall asleep on me. If I let it sit for ten minutes…. -
I bought a 750gb external drive at Fry’s 2 weeks ago for $149 – Seagate. It works fine. I have had about 6 different external drives, all USB, stored and edited a ton of HDV footage on these without problem. Most were standard IDE drives I installed in cases I bought on Pricewatch for less than $30.
JerryW
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