Using a Secondary Drive for Video Rendering

[Jeff_NJ]

I see it mentioned alot that you should use one drive for all program installations, and a separate for rendering video. Does it matter if I get an internal or an external drive for storing the video I'm working with? Thanks.

Jeff

[edDV]

That depends how you capture. Capture is the most demanding process. If you use an encoding capture device (internal encoder) the load is far less. Better it use an internal 2nd drive if possible.

[Jeff_NJ]

I use firewire. Does that make a difference? I use vegas to capture so that would be on my regular c drive... but then I would transfer to the external... all rendering in vegas would go to the external. Is this the way I should do it? Right now I do everything on my c drive.

Thanks.

JEff

[edDV]

I use firewire. Does that make a difference? I use vegas to capture so that would be on my regular c drive... but then I would transfer to the external... all rendering in vegas would go to the external. Is this the way I should do it? Right now I do everything on my c drive.

Thanks.

JEff

Capturing from firewire as in a camcorder or canopus ADVC type box? Or is the external drive on firewire? Or both?

[Jeff_NJ]

I would capture right from my camcorder.
Jeff

[edDV]

Going firewire to internal 2nd hard drive is a no brainer. Going out to a USB drive will load the CPU to some degree. The CPU acts as disk controller for USB. Avoid running other processes. Slower laptops may have problems but a P2.4GHz desktop should handle it OK.

[Jeff_NJ]

Yeah thats what I have. A p4 sony vaio. Just so I understand... so I would have all my apps (i.e. vegas etc) on my c drive as they are now. Any video clips, audio, etc, I would keep on a separate drive. When I capture, I use my camcorder and go into my pc via firewire. So I guess your saying I'd be better off getting another internal drive. I have no problem with that, just have no idea what I need to get. I know my primary drive is IDE. Could I get any size drive? Thanks for your help!

Jeff

[ScorpioDragon]

Capturing directly to a 2nd drive would be better than capturing to your "main" [operating system] drive, and (as indicated by edDV) capturing directly to an internal drive would be better than capturing to an external USB drive.

However, with an external drive you can still get the speed of an internal drive by choosing the right interface. IF your motherboard has SATA connectors, I would recommend choosing an external drive that has the eSATA (external SATA) interface. It has a higher bandwidth/transfer rate than Firewire 400, USB 2.0, or even Firewire 800. If you don't have SATA, then internal IDE is your best bet.

[vhelp]

Evening Jeff,

From my experience, capturing via DV source is perfectly fine for USB-2
external HDD's. I have been doing this for a number of years, now.
And I have been doing this on an AMD XP 1800+ setup. So I think that
you will be more than fine for your computer setup to include an external
USB-2 HDD setup, if you choose this route.

fwiw, capturing (transfering) DV (through firewire) uses a low through-put
of 3.6MB/sec (megabytes per second). And DV transfer is aprox 400Mbits/s
(or, rounded 400,000,000 megabits per second) thus, if my math is correct..

Equations:
[400,000,000 / 8] = 50,000,000 (or, 50MB/s) or, megabytes per second.

From memory, DV CAM transfer is aprox 3.6MB/s. Since I'm not sure of the
exact *actual* megabits/s are, I just Multipy [[3.6mb/s * 8] to get 28.8Mbits/s
transfer, or megabits per second from DV CAM (or, ADVC) firwire.

The last time I tested my internal HDD transfer rate, they had clocked in
at aprox 28MB/s to 32MB/s -- more than enought for my system and DV CAM
or ADVC DV capture device firewire transfer projects, though generically
termed for capturing

IF 3.6MB/s < 28MB/s THEN DO_CAPTURING ELSE INSUFICIANT_RESOURCES_EXIT

I wish someone would make a tiny utility to test just the transfer rate of
a given HDD. Doesn't have to be exact or perfect. Just close enough to get
a rough estimate of one's current sys capability.

-vhelp 4257

[edDV]

Yeah thats what I have. A p4 sony vaio. Just so I understand... so I would have all my apps (i.e. vegas etc) on my c drive as they are now. Any video clips, audio, etc, I would keep on a separate drive. When I capture, I use my camcorder and go into my pc via firewire. So I guess your saying I'd be better off getting another internal drive. I have no problem with that, just have no idea what I need to get. I know my primary drive is IDE. Could I get any size drive? Thanks for your help!

Jeff

If you have a tower machine, there's probably room for a second internal drive. The big stores will usually install it for you for a low cost. You will save about $30-40 getting an internal EIDE. Install price should be less than that. Your manual might tell you the steps.

A USB2 drive will probably work but it will run ~ twice as fast off the EIDE controller. You'll notice the difference when copying large files.

[DarrellS]

I don't do firewire but my setup is...

OS and programs = C:\ (Pata) 80GB
Capture and working drive = D:\ (Pata) 250GB
Storage = E:\ (Sata) 300GB

F:\ is saved for another Sata drive
G:\ is my printer which is listed as a USB storage device
L:\ = DVD combo drive
M:\ = DVD combo drive

I have a friend who has extra Eide cards and runs 6 Hard drives and three burners. He has firewire and card readers also. He likes to store his data on drives instead of discs so he'll take a drive out when it gets full and install another one in it's place.

[olyteddy]

Just a quick question for those who use FireWire. If you transfer DV via FireWire to an external FireWire drive, is the CPU involved at all?

[jagabo]

DV capture is so low bandwith you can capture on a single drive system if necessary (as long as you're not, say, defragmenting the drive at the same time). It's only when you start using "raw video" capture devices that I/O bandwidth and latency becomes an issue.

[theewizard]

the OP asked about rendering NOT capturing

I know that using a USB-2.0 external drive to hold the source OR to write the conversion/transcoded file slows down the process on my laptop (2.4 gighz)

the whole process runs faster by keeping both source and finished product on the internal drive

a firewire external will be faster than USB external, how much difference that is? I don't know, but my next external drive is going to be firewire

[edDV]

Just a quick question for those who use FireWire. If you transfer DV via FireWire to an external FireWire drive, is the CPU involved at all?

The CPU is still in the loop but just to redirect data through memory from one IEEE-1394 port to another. USB-2 requires the CPU to act as disk controller.

[Jeff_NJ]

Thanks for all the great info guys.

I ended up going with a WD 320 GB EIDE internal drive. Installed it the other night and everything is working just fine. I can't wait to try my 1st project with the new setup and see the difference.

It will be nice to also not have to only work on one small project at a time due to storage limitations

Thanks again.

Jeff