quick question re: firewire 400 port and macbook pro

hello all.
macbook pro
just wondering if i can capture to an external drive connected to my laptop's firewire 400 port while the deck is connected to the external drive. ie, because there is only one firewire port on the laptop, can i chain things in this order -- deck - external drive - computer - using firewire 400 and still capture without significant problems?

this is a just a quick and dirty solution to do a client a favor while my main system is otherwise occupied.

i am on the road right now but need to give her an answer, so i can't try it out and see if it will work.

thanks all!
greg

It might work, but there are no guarantees.

Consider getting a FW Express/34 card for your expansion slot. This gives you a second FW bus and may help you avoid the throughput bottleneck issues some (yes, but not all) folks seem to have daisy-chaining or using the capture device and the media storage device on the same built-in bus.

deb

deb
thanks for the reply. i know about the express card - i have been meaning to do it, but my client just got in touch with me today and i can't seem to find an expresscard to buy in my neighborhood - as far as i can tell, apple itself doesn't even make one!
so for this favor i don;t have time to buy a card over the internet, and was hoping that i could get away with daisy chaining.

again, thanks for the advice

greg

If you're capturing miniDV or HDV another option that I have had success with on a macbook is to get an external usb2 hard drive and capture to that.

The set-up ends up being:

Camera/deck --> Firewire --> macbook --> usb2 --> External Capture Hard Drive

One thing to make sure of is that your external drive is mac-formatted. I'm not sure why this makes a difference, but it does.

Good Luck,
-Alex

You can certainly give it a try.

There are plenty of folks out there who claim to be able to do daisy-chain a deck and a drive. There are folks out there who have big problems with it, too. It's a hard call, which is why it's not recommended. It's not out of the realm of possibilites, but it's not 100% reliable, either.

You might get lucky and fall into the "hey, it's working!" category.

I'm pretty sure Apple doesn't make any expansion cards, PCMCIA or Express/34. It's a third party vendor thing.

I have a local chain store called MicroCenter that carries many third-party Mac pieces of hardware & software. You might get lucky at a CompUSA, if you have one near you.

deb

Sorry, Alexander, but trying to capture to a USB drive is going to be even less reliable than daisy-chaining firewire devices.

USB doesn't have sustained throughput. It sends data in bursts, not at a constant rate. Video must be at a constant rate. It's the nature of video. You can't capture to or edit off of a USB drive reliably. The chance of dropping frames goes through the roof compared to daisy-chaining FW devices.

Daisy-chaining is the lesser of two evils in this case, I'm afraid.

deb

Hi, guys...

Just to explain.

I had Mike Horton nuke my account for the some of the reasons Marla and others discussed in another thread. For me, it's mostly because "I'm a chick, not a dude" and the safety issues.

The Anonymous User above is me, Deb E. I guess when an account gets nuked, EVERYTHING gets nuked....

From now on, I'll be Debe...Deb's my first name, E is my last initial!

For those wondering, the orignal thread is here:

[www.lafcpug.org]

debe

Didn't know your name would turn into Anonymous user. Hmm. That sucks...sort of. Learning more and more about this software. Guess that would solve Marla's problem with her real name though.

Michael Horton
-------------------

hey thanks everyone for the input. i'd follow up with my experience, but it sounds as though it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.
thanks again!
greg

you know, i told a buddy ADAMANTLY that he could NOT capture to a usb2.0 drive. but his company bought him one anyway. hes been capturing to it flawlessly for nearly a year now. made me look like a right tool!

- though he IS on windows running premiere. may have something to do with the mystery success???

Final Cut does not offically support capture via USB2. In fact I don't know of anyone who can get that to work.

Michael Horton
-------------------

> Final Cut does not offically support capture via USB2. In fact I don't know of anyone who can
> get that to work.

Nor do I. Wayne, are you sure your friend doesn't like turning all of his video into stop-motion animation? Heh heh heh.


www.derekmok.com

I just tried USB 2 out of interest, did 3 10 minute captures, no hiccups! So put me in that box I guess (as I plug my firewire drive back in).

Its funny, but I have resorted to daisychaining on my MBP a few times, and have had no issues. When I do this on my G5 I have nothing but headaches, so at least it works on the machine I'd prefer it to work on!

But I have to agree, no guarantees when it comes to this stuff - if you cross the line, don't depend on it!

J.

I have seen a USB 2 capture without problems on a Liquid Pinnacle system. But I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm not saying usb2 is ideal, just that it has worked for me, and given the Gregory's need for a "quick and dirty" solution, I thought it might be another possibility for him.

Didn't mean to step on anyone's toes.

-Alex

Agreed Alex, no toes stepped on here.

hey all
thanks againf or the advice, quick and dirty daisy chaining fw drives worked, for now.
so now i want to buy a pci express card wiuth two firewire 800 ports for my macbook pro. anyone have any recomends?
thanks again all!
greg

No - I know there are some out there! Can you post back when you've found one?