external hard drive

HI
MY NAME IS BARRY DYCUS. I AM A VIDEO/FILM SHOOTER IN ATLANTA AND I ALSO OWN A PANASONIC VARICAM. I READ ANDREW BALIS 'S ARTICLE, "WORKFLOW WITH PANASONIC HD AND FINAL CUT PRO HD" SUBMITTED 1/17/05.

I HAVE A FEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HARD DRIVES FOR SETTING UP A SIMPLE EDIT SYSTEM. WHEN USING A 1200A WITH FIREWIRE TO INPUT TO FCP HD WHICH EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES SHOULD I CONSIDER?

I DO NOT EDIT FOR OUTSIDE CLIENTS, I'M REALLY INTERESTED IN BEING ABLE TO CUT DEMO REELS TO SEND TO NEW CLIENTS AND DO FRAME RATE CONVERSIONS.


THANKS

Barry,

Since you didn't specify which MAC systems you are using - it is hard to answer your question, specifically.

I would suggest that you look at adding an internal Serial ATA RAID 0 into your MAC. DVCPROHD is 100 Mbps or about 12.5 Mbytes per second and is capable of being captured or edited on a single Firewire or internal disk, but if you are going to be using 2 or more streams, you will need at least a 2 stripe RAID.

A setup like this is actually capable of at least 2 streams of uncompressed SD.

Better to have more bandwidth that you need.

I advise only external SATA Array for DVCPro HD. You might do better with an internal Array. Look at the adapters like the G5 jam from Wiebetech.

Don't use external FireWire drives with DVCPro HD. In my experience, you'll be disappointed with too many dropped frames.