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USB 2 Final Cut Pro
Hey folks
I’m on a Macbook Pro 15in, and as such, it has only one Firewire port,
Now, I’m in a bit of a pickle, as I’m trying to figure out the best way to do video editing before I can get a Firewire Expresscard (they aren’t avail yet)
Since Cameras dont allow daisy chaining through the HDD, so far I’ve been using a workaround:
I hook up the camera to the macbook, capture ALL the footage i’ll be working with to the internal hard drive,
unplug the camera, plug in the firewire drive, move it to that, set scratch, and work.you dont have to tell me this is horribly inefficient,
So, I was wondering, how good is the performance of USB 2.0 with a work drive in final cut pro? (this drive has both firewire and USB 2)
Should I hook the cam to the macbook through firewire, then the hard drive with USB 2, or is the performance not worth the benefits of the streamlined process?
thanks for your help
Derek
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9 Replies
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You can daisy-chain the camera. Plug it into the drive and then plug the drive into the computer. It will work.
It’s not the best system, you’re right to be waiting for an expresscard, but at the moment it will work better than a USB drive which is not at all suited for editing video.
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USB is not capable of handling video on capture or editing. It is OK for using as a storage drive but not as a work drive. You would have better luck right now plugging your drive to the FW port on the computer and daising chaining the camera to the drive, although that is usually not recommended either but it would probably work better than USB.
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hmm
Well, I’ve tried daisy chaining it, (into HDD, from HDD into comp)
but when I tried to use it in FCP, it said it can’t access the video devicehmm
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But the camera works without the drive?
Strange, the drive should be acting as a hub. Since it’s not, you can just go out and spend $34 and get one of these:
The speed-performance of using that would be the same daisy chaining the drive, so it’s still a temporary solution, but for $34 it might be worth the cash.
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Sorry!
it’s working nowit didnt the previous time..
perhaps the order in which i powered on the devices was wrong.
works nowthanks everyone
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Yes but USB2 does work as a scratch disk, I have done that on laptops before with only 1 FW port…
Simon Carlson-Thies,
Digital Light Graphics And Animation -
[Simon Carlson-Thies] “Yes but USB2 does work as a scratch disk, I have done that on laptops before with only 1 FW port…”
It can work for a limited time, but USB should never be used for media capture / editing.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Another option, if you don’t want to daisy chain, is to get the firewire card that fits into the 34 slot on the mac book pro. You can take a look at it here:
https://www.firewiredirect.com/product/423/
I just ordered one and will report back on how it works.
Matt Hall
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Editing, Animation, and Design. -
USB 2 works fine. It’s actually slightly faster than FW400. Just avoid using a hub (like your keyboard).
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