New external HD, what is best video editing setup.

[flyfisherman]

New to forum, like it so far, seems like alot of good advice/ suggestions come from members.

New Seagate 400GB external HD, 16mb buffer, 6 pin firewire and USB 2 hookups.
Laptop computer with 5- USB 2.0 and 1- 1394 4 pin firewire hookup.
Sony DCR-TRV38 camcorder, with USB 1.0 and firewire hookups.

I recently downloaded trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio and began messing around with software, I captured video thru the firewire connection, worked good, HD on laptop is getting used up quickly, any suggestions on how to set this up for best configuration.

1. Should I move VMS to external HD and do all editing work on that drive,HD is connected to laptop via USB 2.0.
2. Capture video via firewire to laptop, unplug camcorder and hookup external HD via firewire, (If I need to go buy 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable I will) keep software on laptop, but save files to hardrive.

I hope I explained myself well enough.

.Thanks for help.

[GMaq]

Hi,
I have a similar set up to which you are referring ie Laptop + USB 2 Ext HDD. It is best to run your software app on the C Drive, and keep your data on the USB Drive. I have a 7200 rpm drive in the laptop and I don't notice any difference in the quality of capture etc, I just think it's better and cooler to have the HDD that's doing the most work be outside the laptop. When I encode stuff I usually have the destination as the External drive as well. One of those goofy little chill mats with fans in them are a really wise investment for a laptop Video Workstation as well. Good luck!
PS: BTW Welcome to the Forum, Be Careful it's very addictive!

[Nelson37]

The ideal would be to have two firewire ports, but such is life.

The camera MUST be used on Firewire. Usb is usually lower res and lower quality, just does not have the performance for DV transfer.

So, the only options are to use the HD on USB2 if this works without dropping frames. Read the sticky on tuning techniques for this. If that issue cannot be resolved, then capture to the internal drive, assuming this performs better. Then copy to external to work on. At various stages it may be better to open the file on one drive and save the output to another, you will have to test this depending on size available. Whether the external is on USB or 1394 will have to be performance tested to determine which is best. Check again whenever drivers are updated. 1394 should be faster but this is not necessarily true.

[flyfisherman]

Thank you GMaq and Nelson37, and yes I have found I can spend hours looking at all the different forums. I am off work due too ankle surgery so I am trying to learn as much about
video editing as I can while I have the chance. Thanks again

[flyfisherman]

Thank you GMaq and Nelson37, and yes I have found I can spend hours looking at all the different forums. I am off work due too ankle surgery so I am trying to learn as much about
video editing as I can while I have the chance. Thanks again

[edDV]

The only fast tasks are DV transfer to the computer drive over IEEE-1394 and copying files to and from the external drive. I'm assuming your DVD writer is internal to the laptop. Everything else you do is limited mostly by CPU speed.

If you loose frames during DV transfer, blame CPU activity. Limit processes during transfer. Also defrag the hard drive.

Copy speed to and from the external drive will be limited by the USB 2.0 connection and by CPU activity. An IEEE-1394 connection will allow files to copy a bit faster, especially when the CPU is busy with other tasks.

Otherwise let the CPU do it's thing. Effects, filtering and encoding will take time.

[flyfisherman]

Thanks edDV, If I get this right from the posts:

1. Capture video from camcorder via 1394 cable to computer hard drive.

2. Leave VMS on laptop, (DVD writer is on laptop) do my editing on laptop.

3. Hook up laptop to external hard drive via 1394 for best transfer results for saving files.

I only capture video from camcorder every now and then, most of time is spent doing the
editing which at this stage fun to learn, slow but steady progress.

[edDV]

The other advantage to using IEEE-1394 for the external drive is it uses less CPU overhead than USB2. The differences aren't large enough the avoid USB2 drives but it does have some affect on CPU loading.

Also there is no problem using DV or MPeg2 source material from the external drive in your edit. The USB2 and/or IEEE-1394 paths are much faster than the CPU in edit or encode mode.

[flyfisherman]

Thanks edDV

[ahhaa]

ff- you may want to ponder future gear- a Firewire hub might come in handy, also consider an extra external enclosure & yet another HD. 400 gigs goes awful fast!:] Also, if you can keep your raw DV clips under 4.5 gigs each, you can 'archive' them as data on ordinary cheap DVDs.