using a usb external harddisc as scratch disk

[Renjith]

If you are capturing DV materials, it wont be a problem. But when you go to 8 bit uncompressed or 10 bit un compressed, this external drive will make mad. But surely u can use a external drive as a scratch disk.

[Jeff Carpenter]

External drives are fine. A firewire 400 drive will work fine for DV or HDV. A firewire 800 drive will work fine for both of those plus some of the higher formats like DVCPROHD and the lower versions of uncompressed video. For less-compressed SD or HD work you would want external SATA RAIDs.

A USB drive is not suitable for ANY video format, however. USB is not made for sustained data speeds, it works in small bursts which will lead to dropped frames.

[Tielman Dewaele]

Thanks,

Im working in DV right now, so thats ok.
Does tHe SATA RAIDs work only when you have a Card like DeckLink? Im planning to buy BM decklink, this summer. So maby iff it could be possible without it, i could buy one now??

grtz

Peace

[Jeff Carpenter]

Generally you just need some kind of SATA card in the PCI slots. The drives work seperately from any video cards like Decklink.

Check with the maker of whatever drive you’re looking at…they tend to sell the cards too, or at least advise you on what to buy for it.

[Rennie Klymyk]

Sata arrays require an internal host adapter in your pci_ slot. You don’t need a BM or AJA video card to use them. They are independant and become part of your computer. You would be better off just adding a 2nd. drive into your G5. That would be the cheapest, simplest, and best solution if you have not already filled the spare sata bay. USB was not intended for video, not even dv. Chances are the drive found in a USB only external drive is only a 5400 rpm hard drive intended for office work.
On the other hand if you are slowly building onto your system than a Sata External Array and host adapter would be money well spent.