Hey everyone - A couple of months ago I decided to set up my editing environment so that I could work on the same projects on my laptop or my big PC. I bought a Western Digital 500GB external firewire drive to store all of my projects on and wanted to share with you how it's been working...

 In a nutshell, I can work on a project on one PC, disconnect the drive, connect it to my other PC and pick up right where I left off editing the project. This worked out great on a recent camping trip. At the campground I worked on my projects using my Vista laptop. When I got home, I plugged the drive into my Windows XP Pro PC and picked up my projects from there. Here's how I set it up...

•  Formatted WD 500GB into 3 partitions/logical drives: Project, Capture, Output.
• The Capture drive is of course for storing all your captured files. I capture directly to the WD500 and found it is plenty fast for capturing even HD. I create a seprate folder on the capture drive for each project.
  
• A folder is created for each project on the Project drive. A subfolder 'Media' is created within each project folder. 'Media' contains every photo, music file or any other media that the project is dependant upon (except capture files which are already on the drive in the capture partition). So if you use a photo or song from one PC, put a copy here or you'll have problems when you open the project on another computer! I also like to place any labels created for the project here as well.
• The 'Output' is used for storing disc images or other files created as output from the projects. It is very important to keep your output files - even while you're testing - separate from the input media used for the project. Other wise, when you go to clean up the Project drive later it is hard to know which video files the project is dependant upon and those that can be deleted.
  

A key note about file permission!

When you go to open a project on another computer you may get a message saying that the file cannot be opened or something similar. If you do, modify the permissions on the project file to allow the user on the current computer to have access.

 Anyway, this approach has been working great for me and alllows me to keep from filling up the internal drives on my PCs! I use another 500GB external drive to backup my Project drive as well.

I'm sure that this approach is pretty commonly used by many of the experienced folks here but I thought it might help some considering this approach... 

Great one Jim!! Pinned.

I am pleasantly surprised to find it is fast enough to capture HDV footage.

I hope having multiple drives with pre-assigned letters would not disrupt this process.

Do you see any difference in term of speed when you edit (cut scenes, add transitions, play back in the preview window, etc.) your projet.  In other words, is the USB2 external drive as fast as an internal drive?

 BIC

I have a couple external USB 2.0 Western Digital 500GB I use for a similar purpose.  One has a large number of old church video projects on it, the other has a number of Family History projects on it.  Instead of dividing the disk up into partitions, I have one big partition, but...

For each project, create a folder.  Under that project folder I have three subfolders:

1. Studio9, Studio11, Studio 12...whatever program+version you happen to be using.  This is where all the Studio project files are going to go.  And this way I don't forget whose or what version of software the project was created with.
2. Video:  This is where you capture your source footage to.
3. DVD: This is where all the files (DVD ISO, Disk labels, Case labels, etc.) go. This one is important because not only can I make the video DVD, but I can burn a data DVD with everything I need to quickly make the complete package if someone asks me:  Hey Bill, can I have a copy of <whatever>?

And it means for most projects, everything can be quickly found under just one master directory.

As far as speed goes, what I see is transfer rates of ~20 MB/sec.  Low by PATA/SATA standards, but it should be remembered that either DV or HDV generates about 3.25 MB/sec. load, so a USB 2.0 drive is still more than fast enough.  As far as transitions and a number of other effects are concerned, they are more CPU rather than hard drive data rate dependent.  Obvious exceptions to this are effects like PIP or motion menus.  But those effects are probably more impacted by the seek times of the hard drive than its raw data rate.

BIC:

Do you see any difference in term of speed when you edit (cut scenes, add transitions, play back in the preview window, etc.) your projet.  In other words, is the USB2 external drive as fast as an internal drive?

 BIC

Wanted mention that I'm using the Firewire version of the WD 500. Also, I specify a render location that is on an internal drive of the PC currently connected. So I don't see any performance hits from the external drive use. I'm sure creating the output file might be faster writing to an internal drive. From my experience USB is fast enough for DV but not HD capture.

The reason I create separate partitions is mainly to facilitate easier defragmenting. For example, I can run a simple format on the capture parition after a project is completed (after moving the captured files to another drive first of course!)

jshelton:

Also, I specify a render location that is on an internal drive of the PC currently connected. So I don't see any performance hits from the external drive use. I'm sure creating the output file might be faster writing to an internal drive. From my experience USB is fast enough for DV but not HD capture.

I specify my Auxiliary Files to be on an internal drive.  Seems to work great.  I'm surprised you haven't made USB work with HD capture.  Whether it's DV or HDV, it is still 25 Mbps.  I would suspect the real problem is the added CPU overhead of decoding MPEG2 for live preview in addition to the saving to disk.  This is why Live Preview can be deselected.

 As regards defragging, I find if I copy the project to another drive, delete the original, then copy back again, voila! It is defragged.  I strongly suspect Windows behaviour on doing file copies is to pre-allocate ALL the storage for a destination file in one big chunk so there ends up being little to no fragmentation in this scenario.  Unlike when the app is creating the file for the first time and writing data and Windows may be allocating additional file blocks all over the place.

I tested capturing HDV via USB on my laptop. When I started getting errors I just decided to do my HD capturing on the firewire port on my 'big' PC rather than spend any more time trying to get it to work on the laptop. That a good point - maybe the errors were more due to CPU performance than port speed.

jshelton:

I tested capturing HDV via USB on my laptop. When I started getting errors I just decided to do my HD capturing on the firewire port on my 'big' PC rather than spend any more time trying to get it to work on the laptop. That a good point - maybe the errors were more due to CPU performance than port speed.

So have you given it another try?

AFUMCBill:

jshelton:

I tested capturing HDV via USB on my laptop. When I started getting errors I just decided to do my HD capturing on the firewire port on my 'big' PC rather than spend any more time trying to get it to work on the laptop. That a good point - maybe the errors were more due to CPU performance than port speed.

So have you given it another try?

No I haven't. Mainly because I haven't had to since my 'Big' PC has been working fine. Maybe the next time I travel I'll take some time prior to my trip to try the laptop again...

I am using a external Lacie 500gb with eSata hook-up on my notebook and it is working great.  My notebook has a 8800gts video card and I get great capture's.  It is handy to store my old captured video on it while still having pleanty of room for more.  I also store my photos, sound effects, and music.

Sir,

I'm going to print your post above, your logical drive design sounds very like a great idea.  I'm new to the forum, this is my first post.  I've been editing for about two years (mostly vacation stuff) using my C drive for everything.  For my B-Day I just got a Canon HV-30, and Studio 11.  I think I'm ready for HD editing!  I have heard about using an external hard drive. I'm trying to figure out why is an external drive the way to go.  I understand the space benefit for the C drive, but where do I load Studio?  Do I load the software (studio) on to the external drive, or just the files?.  Should I load Studio on both drives?  Do I need to load the OS on to the external drive? 

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

cbvena

 

Welcome to the forum, Carmine. 

Happy birthday and congratulations on your Canon HV-30.   I'm sure you will love it.  As far as Studio is concerned, you should load it on your C-Drive.  Although it will work on other [internal] drives, there are too many potential problems to load it on an external drive.  Similarly, you should steer clear of loading the OS on an external drive (unless you are talking about creating a backup disk image for safety).

Great idea, and I have a USB WD 500 gb hard drive. How exactly do I stop the files from being saved on my PC also?  I save them  to the external drive, but they still show up on my pc too.

Thanks

Welcome to the forum, Tina. 

 What do you mean when you say that the files on your external drive "show up on your PC too"?  Do you perhaps have some program that is backing up files from your PC to your external drive?

BTW, I believe it is possible not to record audio when you are capturing video from your camcorder.  I will tell you how in  your other thread. 

HI,

when I open a project using the pinnacle shortcut on my external drive and complete the movie in pinnacle, I save it to the external drive.  But when I go to "my videos" on my laptop to edit my Windows movie maker files, I see the files I saved from pinnacle work there.  I'll have to search around the laptop and see if something is backing up my work.  I just delete them from the laptop files, but it's a pain to have to remember to do that.  :-)

I'll check the other thread on the sound issue, and thanks!

 

Sorry, Tina, but I am still not fully understanding the problem.  Are you talking about the *.stx files or are you talking about the video files that you capture from your camcorder?  The *.stx files are your project files that Studio works with.  When you open a new project, do you name it with a special name, or do you use the default names given by Studio (eg "My Movie 1").  When you name a project, you are given a dialog box to navigate to where you want the file saved.  Perhaps you are just using the default location (which will probably be on your laptop).  If you are naming your projects with the same name as your video capture files e.g. your video is MYNAME.avi and your project is MYNAME.stx, perhaps you are confusing the two files, particularly if you have your computer set up so that file extension names are not shown.    I am concerned that you are deleting files that maybe you need to keep.

I am pleasantly surprised to find it is fast enough to capture HDV footage.

Hello

 

      I have just installed trial version of Studio 12 plus.to be able to edit HDV footage in the future

     So far so good in as much as I have successfully captured and edited some HDV footage direct from my camcorder.

      However i want to take the normal DV stuff i have on a Iomega 250gb USB external drive, but Studio does not appear to rcognise the drive. It only shows my C drive or E (cd) drive.

    I am using an AMD Turion x2 TL58 processor with XP pro on an Acer lappy Travelmate 5520.

  Any ideas as to what I need to do to get it to recognise the external drive??

 

         thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Welcome to the forum.

What method are you using to try to access your external drive? The 'import media from device' is not the way to get material from an external hard drive. At the top of the 'album window' there is a folder symbol. Click on that and access your external drive from there. The files you select will be brought into the album window. From there you can drag them to the timeline.

Don

Hi

               thanks your reply...........yes now I have it working OK having followed your

              instructions.

Greetings from South Africa. Many thanks for the info on the external drives. I have a question please. Can you copy your Pinnacle Studio onto 3 seperate computers or do you need to register and pay for 3 copies?

I have moved this thread to  a better location. Moved the thread from Studio General to Edit.

Are you planning to copy C:\prograrm files\Pinnacle?

I have not had a successful procedure to make this work. It is better to install the program from the disc or download than copying the disc.

Other files that can be copied over are discussed here:

http://pinnacle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pinnacle.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=15320&p_created=1174075802