USB Splitters and FCP

Hi There,

I'm working on a project where I've been provided a MacBook (Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / Memory 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM) with FCP 6.0.6 to edit on.

I've also been given FOUR external hard drives of media, each has only one USB port and no firewire. They are unable to daisy chain. The MacBook only has two USB ports. (I do not know if the laptop or externals are USB 2 or not).

Each drive seems to play media fine when plugged into the laptop. But I'd like all drives on deck and I'm considering getting a USB splitter. Will the MacBook and the externals be able to handle this when all are in use in FCP at the same time?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Whoa, back up all the way to the beginning.

USB drives should not be used for editing, period. Not fast enough. Let alone daisy-chained ones. And even less so with hubs/splitters, which are a real hit-or-miss affair.

Normally I'd say, buy one of two FireWire drives big enough to hold everything, and use those USB drives for backup only. But we can't even go there yet, because you haven't told us a few crucial pieces of information:

What is the media? Frame size, frame rate? What codec and format are you going to be editing in? What is the final mastering format?


www.derekmok.com

I'll offer a slightly different opinion. USB should not be relied on when doing anything that critically relies on sustained bandwidth (eg. going to or coming from tape). If you are editing low bandwidth compressed formats, eg. DV, DV50, ProRes SD, HDV or DvcproHD, you should be fine for single stream editing. There is little or no way you will be able to float multiple streams across a USB splitter. But you that is also provided you are able to tolerate a few drop frames (eg. offline editing) when playing over certain sections that require a render (full RT playback).



www.strypesinpost.com

Let's be fair here. It can be possible to edit off a USB drive. Heck, Final Cut Pro is so adaptable, it can be possible to edit off practically anything. But there are configurations that are known to be dependable and those that aren't. USB drives connected through a hub definitely falls into that not-dependable category.

For that matter, a MacBook is (if I remember correctly) technically not a supported system. I used to use a MacBook, before buying this MacBook Pro, and in a pinch, it was possible to fire up Final Cut Pro and do simple things. But I never depended on it, because I knew it wasn't a supported configuration. Had it ever let me down, I would not have been shocked. To the contrary, every time it did what I wanted, it was a pleasant surprise.

While I too want an answer to Derek's questions, your edit system is not going to be supported regardless of what the answers are. If this is a real job, and not like cutting some guy's home movies as a favor or something, then you need to get a supported system in there ASAP, and some real storage.

> It can be possible to edit off a USB drive.

I've heard of people doing that, but I've never seen it work to an acceptable standard in person. So until I do, I'll have to remain in the "no go" category.


www.derekmok.com

Right, that was my point. It's tricky to say you can't do X when X in fact will work some of the time. But your point, which is the same as mine, is that X is not good enough. It's not dependable, so we both strongly recommend against it.

How about this: You can't edit on an unsupported system using USB media drives and expect to be successful.