premiere pro and macbook pro HELP

[Vince Becquiot]

At the bare minimum you would want a firewire connection
(USB+Mac=Slow transfers).

The problem is that the firewire is also used for capturing.

Better would be an eSata connection, but that would require installing a card in the xpress slot first.

As far as brands go, I trust no others than Seagate these days, but you really shouldn’t trust any drive. I’ve had some bad experiences, as have others I know with Lacie, but it was a while back…

You should also consider buying a separate external enclosure and swap internal drives, it’s much cheaper in the long run.

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Andrew Matushewsky]

Do you have any suggestions as to model numbers and things like that? Again, don’t know much about the technical aspects(still learning). What did you mean about swapping internal hard drives? Just use internal drives as external ones? Thanks

[Vince Becquiot]

If you buy an external enclosure, you buy an internal drive that you can easily swap inside it. It can be cost effective since internal drives are often cheaper than external, but it really depends on how many drives you go through, and whether you are using them for archiving or reusing the same drive over and over.

Another thought: Prebuilt external drives are often more shock resistant.

I go through 1 TB drive every 2 weeks, so using an external enclosure (6 drives bay in my case), swapping internal drives and then putting them in a plastic case makes sense. The cost savings can add up, but again I don’t take them on the road.

I haven’t had to use a single drive external enclosure for a while so I wouldn’t be able to recommend on something I own. You could look at Newegg, they have lot of reviews:

https://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&name=External-Enclosures

Make sure you pick one with the right connection.

Here’s a link to the drives we usually buy:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148373

Cheers,

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area

[Andrew Matushewsky]

Thanks. I’m trying to make the transfer from pc to mac and I started with a laptop. I’ve never done editing via notebooks so I’m even less experienced with the technical aspect of things in this case. I tested out an older Maxtor external drive(OneTouch) on the macbook using firewire and i didn’t have any lags once captured to the drive. I use that drive for my backup drive now so i’m looking for a new one to start editing on. Also, do you have any experience running pc versions of adobe premiere pro on macs through bootcamp? I REALLY don’t want to install windows on my mac but I only have windows based versions of the software and I don’t have the money for an additional license for the mac versions. Any thoughts on CS4? I’m looking for the best solution for slow-motion.

Thanks again!

[Vince Becquiot]

Honestly, I don’t know how it’s run on Bootcamp, I guess the best way to find out would be to try it. I believe you can run an extra copy of Premiere on a laptop without an additional license.

Vince Becquiot
Director | Editor

Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area