hard drive size

[PoolDemon]

Hi, I need to know how large hard drive I need if I want to start recording off cable TV on my computer.
I would like to record in a good size window, MPEG format I think,
I haven't bought a card or harddrive yet, so I don't know if there is a better card for recordnig than others,
thanks for any help,
Rob

[mickboss]

Capture Card:

-Cheap solution but need more CPU -> Miro PCTV PRO or similar
-A little more expensive -> miro DC10

HDD:

-about 15 Gigs / hour for full resolution (720x576/480) for high quality (M-JPEG codec)
-about 4-5 Gigs / hour for mpeg (352x288/240) 8)

[g0dZpr0fi7]

Get the biggest one you can afford.

[MaDmiZe]

First.. I perty much agree with mickboss.
But get the largest HD for the buck..Right now 40GB are in the 80 to 90 dollar range...
But to capture...what are you going to do with this video?....If you want to burn to CDR (as VCD) remember 1150kps is all ya need..
Better burn real often or ya run out of space fast

[FusionMafia]

I first had about 14GB of hard drvive capacity and I thought that this will never be full... yep and it was full in 4 months even if I burn 10-20 CDs every week. Then I bought 90GB more and thought that at least now I have enough room for video and other stuff... and yes it was not enough in 6 months. Now I have 300GB total hard drive capacity and... yes you guessed right... it's full already.

[MaDmiZe]

OK one last thing...to avoid the fusionmafia problem...Copy, Edit, Encode, Burn then DELETE original. You have a copy on CD if you ever need it again.

[jexster]

Yeah you will want the biggest you can afford i have a 80 gig and before i reformated my computer i had about 25gigs full.

[FusionMafia]

I have burned... about 300 CDrs
Exported finished video projects to about 30 MiniDVs
Burned finished DVD projects to about 50 DVD-Rs.

The problem is that when I work few different projects same time I need to have all the source DV material on my computer, and also my works seem to get longer and longer every time.

[PoolDemon]

thanks for the help,
I'll get the largest hard drive I can afford, and a good card...
; )
Rob

[bbb]

It's good to have 2 HDs. One for your OS and capturing/encoding apps. One strictly for captured video files. Partitioning into 2 partions is still holds risks for video capturing and is illadvised unless you are real cheap.

Sometimes your system will crash seriously, forcing you to reformat and reinstall, thereby losing your (editted?) videos. If your videos are on a separate HD, they will be much safer from a OS crash because they won't need reformating and are less likely to be damaged in a crash.

I would recommend backing up your OS drive with Ghost. It will be a time and sanity saver. In case of crash, Ghost will cleanly reinstall your system in 5-20 minutes, oppossed to hours-days with manual reinstall and retweaking.

OS HD: 20 gig is sufficient. (I don't think stores sell much smaller)
Capture HD: 40 gig at least. 7200 RPM.
*remember to install busmaster HD IDE drivers.

Oh, and like the person above said, don't bite off more than you can chew. Capture 1 project at a time. Finish editting it if necessary. Then encode and burn it.