Daisy chaining two or more external drives for HDV

[Sada]

You can daisy chain–

[Charles Avanti]

How about hearing from you editors with HDV experience, Gary-Ed-Peter, and more?

Charlie

[Sada]

I have HDV experience—-no problem—

[Charles Avanti]

Thanks nancy.
Could you please explain your brand of equip. & how it’s set-up?

is it: CPU–>firewire#1—>deck/camera—>external monitor
and CPU—>FIREWIRE#2—>drive#1—>firewire—>drive#2—>firewire–>drive#3

Is anyone using the Convergent Design HD-Connect LE?

Charlie

[Sada]

The enclosures I use have two firewire ports—Lets say I have three externals—One drive goes directly into my computer via the firewire port. The second cable goes from drive one (second port) to drive two. The third cable goes from drive two to drive three.

I capture directly from my deck or camera to my firewire card—-then to whichever directory I chose in any of the drives. By the way, I use HD Connect by Cineform to capture all my files. As far as enclosures go, I like the ones that Granite Digital makes—-The only problems I have ever had is with controller cards built into the units and I think that Granite’s are fairly reliable. I’m sure other people have other ideas.

[Charles Avanti]

Thanks. Which model do you use? And, how do I tell if I should use firewire 400 or 800? My system properties don’t say.

Charlie

[Gary Kleiner]

I use USB2.

Gary Kleiner

Learn Vegas and DVD Architect

http://www.VegasTrainingAndTools.com

[Peter Wright]

Hi Charlie

I have 7 or 8 firewire externals daisy chained, and like Nancy I capture to whichever one I want for each project. My firewire is 400, which is plenty fast enough for HDV, which is roughly the same data rate as standard DV.

If you move into uncompressed HD you will probably need a raid to be able to handle the faster data rates.

Peter Wright
Perth, Western Oz
http://www.allroundvision.com.au

[Jerry Waters]

I have 5 external drives plus a Buffalo terrabyte on my network. I started using firewire drives and still do some but mostly I now run as USB. All work perfectly and together. When all are on I have about 2.4 terrabytes online. I use Connect HD also and do exclusively HDV work (my only interest is feature movie production). Connect is the best $199 I ever spent. I don’t need proxies or swapping, it has scene detection and their files edit like they are DV in Vegas – no noticeable difference. My cameras are a Z1 and an A1U. Sometimes I shoot multicam with my friend’s FX1. Counting backup most of my space is being used at present.

JerryW

[Charles Avanti]

Thank guys and gals for the helpful info. Some other questions come to mind:

How do I tell if my computer supports firewire 400, or 800?

I have an external firewire DVD burner attached to my old cpu, and it has its own power switch which needs to be turned on and off. Do the external firewire hard drives have to be turned on and off individually?

What are the pro/cons of going with HD-Connect by Convergent Design, vs. HD-Connect by Cineform? JerryW, I’m not sure which one you have.

Thanks.

Charlie