Buying external hard drive for capturing... good idea?

[va_bank]

Hi,

I need to upgrade my video storage hard drive from 40GB to 120GB. I wanted to get the WD 120GB internal, but someone suggested I get the firewire external drive (this way I can keep the 40GB one too.) So here's my main question:

Can I attach my camcorder and external hard drive to the same firewire card and capture successfully? (CAM->FIREWIRE->EXT. HARDDRIVE)

Thanks,

VaBank.

[tonyp12]

this way I can keep the 40GB one too.

What is stopping you from having two internal ones?

If you have room inside the pc case, hook up both drives
to the same IDE cable.

[va_bank]

I already have two. C: is the system drive (40GB) and D: is the video drive (40GB). I need to replace D:, that's all.

[easydvd]

buy a controller card like the one from Promise and you can have three if space in your case permits

[Jeff Muller]

Unlike everyone else, I'll actually asnwer your question!

I have an 80 GB external FireWire HD that I capture to. It works great! If I needed to, I could also just pull the plug and connect it to another PC.

THing's plenty fast to keep up. If you've already got a firewire port, or if the drive comes with a card, I say just buy the drive. It's great!

[rsuave5]

can i ask what the 80 gig external cost you?

[Jeff Muller]

This was over a year ago, so at the time, it was $300 (and included a controller, with rebate). Now, for the same money, I think you can get a 160GB drive.

[ItsMe]

I also use an external hard drive for capturing my DV footage. I bought the drive separately to the firewire case. This way you can use any IDE drive you want.

[BJ_M]

i use a lot of firewire drives and they are great .. only ones ive ever had problems with are maxtor drives which dont shut down for hot remove .. any others work fine ..

[Nelson37]

Firewire drives are convenient and portable, and have good performance; However -

Max performance is better on internal IDE; AND the price is lower. IF framedrops are not a problem for you, or you cap MPG or lower resolution, it may work fine. IF, however, you cap 720x480 AVI with little or no compression and with AC-3 sound capture, you may find that you need all the HD performance you can get. Also consider how soon you may be capturing HDTV resolutions and filesizes, you may be buying yourself a bottleneck.

IF you need the portability, great, but if you don't plan on shlepping your HD around town then the best performance and price is the internal. Installation is only slightly more complicated, and your data is safer.

[BJ_M]

i dont think to many here will worry about capture HDTV uncompressed -- its 130-180meg per second of data depending on frame rate .. i frame grab instead which still goes pretty quick as its automated ..

so even for that application one could i guess use firewire drives -- maybe a couple of them in a firewire raid ..

i more use them for nice storage -- 1 x 160gig drive holds about 14 minutes of HDTV uncompressed. Compressed at lower bitrate , 14 minutes is 5 gig's and at higher bit rate it is about 9 gig ..