Ok new user here, did several hours homework on getting down the functions. Have captured rather successfully and encoded but need to learn more on it all (have run down the "how to" list on the left side.)
As you can see by my system specs, I have only one 60GB Maxtor ATA/133 7200RPM 2mb hard drive inside my computer, and no other ones. (Problem is, I am on a severe budget (undergraduate student) and really wouldn't be doing svcd/dvd stuff if I didn't already have what I do). My hard drive is full with about 20GB already (system files, a few favorite games, personal files) and about 39 to 40 GB free space for use.
Given my super budget does anyone think using my single 60gb to do the whole process of making svcd/dvds is ok? Is there a "severe" risk of hd failure when using only one? Also, I know that 40gb is rather low on the space, but then max file size is only 4gb anyways so I have to sit in front of the comp the whole time anyways (can't walk away). But not so much space (perhaps some inconvenience?) but more hard drive overwork I am asking about.
Thanks alot.
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Hi coffeecup-sf
In response to your question about running only one harddrive-
I've been capturing video for a bit now, and have been a daily visitor to this site for many many moons. Most will strongly recommend that you have a secondary harddrive just for capture, as capturing video can be a very intensive task for a computer - and if a person can afford it, a second harddrive is proabably the way to go.
However
That being said, I personally have just my main harddrive, a Maxtor 120gb 7200rpm 8mb model. I have had zero problems capturing directly to it in DV codec. Never dropped even one frame. In DV one hour of video runs something like 10GBs. Also figure in space for saved footage after editing, outputting the mpeg2 file, and if applicable the temporary files made from the DVD authoring software (such as DVDlab). So plan on 25-30gbs for a 90 minute project at full DVD resolution (a bit overestimated I'm sure but a safe margin of error). This is assuming of course that you aren't deleting the older footage as the project progresses - if you are (such as deleting the original capture files after encoding to mpeg2) then you'll obviously need less space.
When you are capturing to your system drive it's very important to turn off as many resident programs as possible, ESPECIALLY ones that access the harddrive repeatedly - e.g. virus scanners, firewalls, messengers, anything that keeps logs, that kind of thing. This will allow the harddrive to concentrate on just capturing video. When I capture the only thing running is the capture software. When I'm done capturing I turn everything else back on.
Also, defragmenting the harddrive regularly can keep access and write times up where they should be.
If you have capture software that can report dropped frames you can tell how well the harddrive is keeping up with the video stream.
Hope this helps. =D -
Just to toss out another data point....
My only drive is a 5400RPM 80GB Western Digital with 2MB cache, running on ATA100. I haven't had any problems that I would attribute to using it for video capture, and I didn't see an unacceptable number of dropped frames when I did a VHS capture to 352x480 HuffyUV with VirtualDub. The main reason I was dropping frames was the poor quality of the source tape, not the hard drive.A man without a woman is like a statue without pigeons. -
You really can't get along without 3 drives, all on
separate controllers for
those frequent 3 way operations like multiplexing
audio file + video file into output file.
You will all have to rush out and buy a new motherboard with
3 IDE controllers and 2 more hard drives -
40GB is enought to do one project at a time. Consider this thou, you can backup computer data to DVDR discs too (avis, jpgs, mpgs, etc). No real reason to have that stuff on your HD.
Plan ahead. Remember that winXP wants ~500MB (min) free for the page/swap file. -
Hey Wayne421, thanks alot for the thorough answer. Got plenty of info there. Actually I've done several captures (ranging from a few minutes to 9 mins each, or 1 to 4 GB files (fat32 drive has 4gb file size limit)). I also did several encoding/conversions with TMPGEnc so far. Haven't actually gotten to the point of burning them yet. So at this point my next major learning hurdle is burning, both for svcd and dvd, and whether I need to do some authoring first or if they will just burn straight on. Guess I'll learn pretty soon when it's ready to go. Oh yah, also I've been doing analog/vhs video for the captures, no dv camcorder for me yet.... Also, yah I will probably encode and then dump the original AVI files in progress rather than let it all build up. And thanks, I think I will try to defrag my drive regularly. Actually I just did it 4 days ago for the first time in a year, wow it took 3 hours 20 minutes... I'll do some more late tonight and if anything comes up, will let you know.
Sterno, good to hear there are others out there doing only one drive (on budget). Just wish I had 80, that extra 20 would be nice.
FOO, hehe, that's not going to be possible for now. But it does sound nice.
You know vejita, that sounds like a great idea. Actually recently I did a whole bunch of backup (about 10+ gb worth) onto my old cd-r discs I don't use much at all. But yah I should try to backup even more, almost everything possible for removal and just have the system left over (well also a favorite game or two that can't be removed unless uninstalled). -
Try to capture to DIVX @ 10mbps, this will give you much better time/space ratio
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or capture direct to your chosen resolution in mpeg2, sure cuts out a lot of work, and drive space.
Corned beef is now made to a higher standard than at any time in history.
The electronic components of the power part adopted a lot of Rubycons. -
Coffeecup,
Are you trfying to capture or just convert your own disks.
It's a whole different ball game.
If you are converting, there is only the size of the convert to worry about. If you are trying to cap and convert, tons of space required, depending on your cap res. You can go from MPEG4, 264 kbps, to Full D1, 8000 kbps, approximately a 30 to 1 difference in file size.
If you wish to convert an owned DVD, try DVDx 2.2. It will rip from the disk, convert, make burnable files. If you use DVD2SVCD, it will make about 15 gig of files, admittedly, most of which you can delete after you choose the ones to burn.. BTW, with 512 meg of RAM, as you indicate, you would use a RAM buffer, read the disk into RAM, operate on it, read more into RAM, not to wear too much on your DVD-ROM drive.
I have always found the output to be satisfactory, nay, indeed, pretty damn good.
But, then, I am not a purist.
Cheers,
George
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