Studio - Capture

Re: experiences with external hard drives

Marc P. — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:47:20 GMT

pinshel:
Marc P.:
JKoch:
Tiny, cheap, USB-powered 500 GB hard drives, even ones that spin at only 5,400 rpm, work OK. The competing DC-adaptor-powered 1.0 TB and 1.5 TB ones work even faster, although a Western Digital one I have has a bothersome tendency to go dormant if a background rendering job gets slow. Between the slower USB-powered versions and the faster 7200 rpm non-portable ESATA ones, I don't notice a material difference. Working in AVCHD or any HD files, the slow juncture tends to be the CPU and the graphics card, not the HDD.

I'm glad you mentioned this, I was about to pick one of the 1TB up. I'm going for convenience over the cumbersome ones. Thanks for posting this.
Hi Marc,
Western Digital are generally the real dogs amongst the external HDD's. Maxtor have proved to be much more reliable. I have several external HDD's on my network and the ones which have usually failed or underperformed are all Western Digital.
If you're going to use a cheap USB powered HDD, make sure your power supply will handle it.

Thanks for the tip Kero. I've always liked how WD ran cooler than my Seagate. But I suppose there's no harm in reading reviews for other brands like Maxtor. I'll keep that in mind.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

RDavisman — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:17:40 GMT

GHuck: Thanks for the critical information regarding the slow-speed of USB. I installed Dazzle and Studio a few weeks ago and soon realized I needed a great deal more memory and storage for my 20 hours of VHS to DVD conversion. So I added 1 Ter to my C drive and a 1 Ter My Book as my external drive. No problems capturing with the C, but BIIIIG problems with the external drive. It froze every time. The Tech guys with Pinnacle come up with this solution they had heard on one of these Forum threads; to partition the E drive into 3 sections. That didn't work. Now, after reading your comments, I realized the slow speed of the USB was my problem. I'm going to return My Book and exhange it for another 1 ter Sata internal drive. I have three ports open inside for that. I know this will solve my problem and give me the space I need.

Thanks Again!

RDavis

Also in Portland Or

Re: experiences with external hard drives

Marc P. — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:28:30 GMT

Now that made me think my future plans. Perhaps I grew fond of Western Digital drives because of the fact that my internal HDDs are both Seagate and WD. WD is heavens cooler compared to my newer Seagate, perhaps that was stuck on my mind. I guess they play a different game in the external drives. Thanks Kero.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

pinshel — Tue, 05 May 2009 10:28:03 GMT

Marc P.:
JKoch:
Tiny, cheap, USB-powered 500 GB hard drives, even ones that spin at only 5,400 rpm, work OK. The competing DC-adaptor-powered 1.0 TB and 1.5 TB ones work even faster, although a Western Digital one I have has a bothersome tendency to go dormant if a background rendering job gets slow. Between the slower USB-powered versions and the faster 7200 rpm non-portable ESATA ones, I don't notice a material difference. Working in AVCHD or any HD files, the slow juncture tends to be the CPU and the graphics card, not the HDD.

I'm glad you mentioned this, I was about to pick one of the 1TB up. I'm going for convenience over the cumbersome ones. Thanks for posting this.

Hi Marc,

Western Digital are generally the real dogs amongst the external HDD's. Maxtor have proved to be much more reliable. I have several external HDD's on my network and the ones which have usually failed or underperformed are all Western Digital.

If you're going to use a cheap USB powered HDD, make sure your power supply will handle it.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

Marc P. — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:30:14 GMT

JKoch:
Tiny, cheap, USB-powered 500 GB hard drives, even ones that spin at only 5,400 rpm, work OK. The competing DC-adaptor-powered 1.0 TB and 1.5 TB ones work even faster, although a Western Digital one I have has a bothersome tendency to go dormant if a background rendering job gets slow. Between the slower USB-powered versions and the faster 7200 rpm non-portable ESATA ones, I don't notice a material difference. Working in AVCHD or any HD files, the slow juncture tends to be the CPU and the graphics card, not the HDD.

I'm glad you mentioned this, I was about to pick one of the 1TB up. I'm going for convenience over the cumbersome ones. Thanks for posting this.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

JKoch — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:50:40 GMT

Tiny, cheap, USB-powered 500 GB hard drives, even ones that spin at only 5,400 rpm, work OK. The competing DC-adaptor-powered 1.0 TB and 1.5 TB ones work even faster, although a Western Digital one I have has a bothersome tendency to go dormant if a background rendering job gets slow. Between the slower USB-powered versions and the faster 7200 rpm non-portable ESATA ones, I don't notice a material difference. Working in AVCHD or any HD files, the slow juncture tends to be the CPU and the graphics card, not the HDD.

Those 500 GB holographic optical discs of the future will sure be keen. At $1,000 apiece, think of the joy each time there is a burn error or when the $50,000 player can't recognize the files or menus. Think of the bliss when a disc with ones entire collection fails because of breakdown in the dyes. They'll enjoy premium status in my collection of "coasters."

The trouble with any advancements in optical display is the inherent slow speed and vulnerability of the burn process, the high cost and fragility of the media, and the low costs and parsimony of more simple video sharing modes. Plenty of people seem not to know or care about the difference in real definition.

Think of all the HD-DVD players that, whatever their original buyers claim, will soon have a status as quaint as an 8-track disc player or the vinyl turntable whose broken stylus costs too much to replace to bother and whose crackly pre-70s music ceases to charm the ears after it hits that broken groove.

Hard drives probably do not last very long, but they sure are getting cheap, and the speed of backup or replication is unmatcheable by tape or optical disc. If it costs me only $120 and 1 hour every 5 years to back-up 1.5 TB of data or files that otherwise, using 50 GB BD-DLs cost me well over $1,000 and days to burn, the choice is easy.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

culpanr — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:33:57 GMT

My 2 pence worth...

I frequently capture DV via Firewire onto a variety of USB2 external drives with no problems.

However (as Jeff as hinted at when he mentioned 'USB conflicts') I cannot capture from a Pinnacle 700-USB onto any USB2 external drive without tons of dropped frames; I have to go first to an internal drive and copy to the external one afterwards. The issue here is not the speed of transfer or the volume of data being shifted from the 700-USB to the hard drive, but simply that the 700-USB driver hogs the USB controller and nothing else (including Studio trying to write the captured data!) can get a look-in...

I also edit using the external drive - especially on a laptop PC where the internal dsk is never big enough

Regards,
Richard

Re: experiences with external hard drives

skeeter — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:35:27 GMT

Hi All

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents an external HDD

I capture DV via firewire to an external disc (it has its own power) and then edit and burn -- all still on the external. No problems here.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

whitecloud — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:36:29 GMT

Try this site and register to the site, they have some mind blowing sales for just about anything have seen 1TB external for around $90. now and then.

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_info.php?cPath=333&products_id=10245

Re: experiences with external hard drives

Dogman — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:11:14 GMT

Thanks Ya'll

Looks like a workable solution. I just need to experiment a bit. Capturing to the internal 160gig drive is working well. Just trying to avoid cluttering it up. Also looking at good long term storage. For at least as long as these old bones keep moving anyway.

Saw a good price on a Western Digital 1 TB drive at Sams club today. Might just buy it.

Dave

Re: experiences with external hard drives

cuartetto — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:34:29 GMT

I have an external drive with both USB an 1394 capabilities. The USB connection was just a tiny bit faster than the 1394 on my system. I opted to use the USB because I use the 1394 for the capture from the camera.

I will second what bit put so well.

Don

Re: experiences with external hard drives

whitecloud — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:15:26 GMT

Well in my case will be capturing with a 1394 into a Seagate HD, that should be fine,

Re: experiences with external hard drives

jjn — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:07:34 GMT

I'm going to have to pitch in here with a different opinion. (hopefully without involking Bittmann's ire again)

I don't have a USB capture device, but I've captured perfectly well with a PCI capture device to a USB external drive, and unless there is a USB conflict issue I can't see why the same would not apply to USB capture devices.

Look at the data rates - USB 2.0 more than covers the data rates required to capture analogue SD. In fact, UDMA 66 even does it - as long as you aren't running background task.

When I was trying to capture analogue via a DC10+ and UDMA 33, on a 266MMX processor, even moving the mouse could cause a frame drop. That really isn't the case now, and advising people that they won't be able to capture SD or run Studio if

Their HDD is 10% framented
They are are connected to the internet
Any background tasks are running
and worst of all, they shouldn't be running the latest patches of XP, Vista or Studio

is just nonsense, and a waste of their time. Let's look for the real causes, rather than imposing the same "menu" approach to troubleshooting as first line support.

I'd have put that in upper case but I'd be playing into TVJohn's hands...

Perhaps we need to revise our advice in the light of new technology. OK, putting your render files onto an external is going to slow down some Make File/Disc operations, but only by relatively small margins.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

whitecloud — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:53:55 GMT

Thanks had some concern's, will give it a shot when I get my Cam back from the shop.

Re: experiences with external hard drives

cuartetto — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:41:35 GMT

Not necessarily;

I have successfully captured to my external drive without problems. I usually capture to an internal drive and then copy to the external drive, but either way has worked for me. I suppose you can just give it a try and find out. Watch for dropped frames and audio out of sync type problems. If you have none, then you should be ok.

Don