Is it possible use an external usb hard drive to copy video from a
video camera using the firewire on to the external hard drive or would
the usb connection be too slow causing frames to be dropped?

Regards Brian

"Brian" wrote ...
Not clear whether you are asking about copying a video file
from computer to external drive, or whether you are talking
about live capture? If you are only asking about copying a
video file, it is not a real-time function, and "frame dropping"
is not a factor. If you are asking about live capture, perhaps
the word "copy' is confusing me.

USB2 is fast enough. Many people use external hard drives
connected via USB2 for video editing. I'm not sure I would
trust it to do real-time video capture-though.

On Apr 23, 10:19 am, "Richard Crowley" <rcrow...@xp7rt.net> wrote:


Richard, I've successfully captured to external USB drives several
times (I use Sony Vegas) and have never dropped a single frame.
Most of the time this is done, it's for event productions that can run
2 hr. or more.

Mike

"Mike Kujbida" wrote ...
Thanks, Mike. Can you tell us what equipment you were using?
I'd fear that it was dependent on the throughput and multi-
tasking abilities of the laptop computer (etc.).

For long-form stuff, I usually take my big DVCAM camcorder
and use 3-hour tapes. But it would be handy to have an
alternative for using one of the small camcorders.

On Apr 23, 10:36 am, "Richard Crowley" <rcrow...@xp7rt.net> wrote:

Can do Richard. Here's an example.
We used to do like you and record long-form shows to a JVC full-size
miniDV deck (BR-DV3000U).
One year I experimented with going direct to disk to save transfer
time (it's four 2 hr. shows for us!!) and haven't looked back :-)
Audio and video from our control room feed a Canopus ADVC-100. From
there, it's firewire'd into a P4 3.4 GHz machine running VidCap, the
capture program that comes with Sony Vegas.
Other folks have used Scenalyzer with the same success.
I've recently started buying Seagate 320GB EIDE HD 7200/16MB/ATA-100
drives though as I feel they're a better drive.
All external drives are mounted in a Ultra brand external encloure
(model # ULT31310). It has a built-in cooling fan (a must-have, IMHO)
as heat is a big enemy of hard drives.
Then, when I'm done putting an opening and closing on the show, I
render an MPEG-2 file to another drive and take it down to my local
cable company for ingest into their playback server. They love me for
doing that as they don't have to babysit the tape while it uploads :-)

A friend of mine who runs a local post house (all Mac-based) has a Mac
laptop in a portabe case that he takes with him to event shoots
He fires up FCP and captures everything to an external drive (he
prefers Lacie) as well.

Mike

"Brian" <bclark@es.co.nz> wrote in message
newslep23hf6u748m88kfokmuee7l1o1p94ll@4ax.com...
--

Robert Peffers,
Kelty,
Fife,
Scotland, (UK).

"Richard Crowley" <rcrowley@xp7rt.net> wrote in message
news:132ph41ii3mnjd6@corp.supernews.com...
Write=21736Kbytes/sec and is faster than both my internal drives.
More than adequate.
--

Robert Peffers,
Kelty,
Fife,
Scotland, (UK).

"Robert Peffers." wrote ...
[re: USB2]
IIRC, the issue wasn't the peak capable rate, but rather the
long-term, uninterrupted capability at DV rates. Some had
suggested that the basic design of Firewire was more
suited for this kind of high-rate, uninterrupted streaming
while USB was designed more for burst transmissions.

Brian wrote:
Yes, I do it all the time. I have my capture program (Scenalyzer Live)
set to 'Stop capturing if frames are dropped" and I only rarely have
problems (no more that capturing to my internal drive).
-Bill

<xeaglecrest@att.net> wrote ...
USB 2.0 presumably
USB 1.x is inherently too slow for real-time DV video.