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Home: Video University Forums: Wedding & Event Videography:
USB 2.0

X-Coleman
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Apr 27, 2003, 1:19 PM

Post #1 of 9 (1215 views)
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USB 2.0	Can't Post

Anyone edit with a USB 2.0 hard drive? I want to do that with a notebook computer.
Coleman

X-Joel_Peregrine
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Apr 27, 2003, 9:09 PM

Post #2 of 9 (1214 views)
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USB 2.0 not meant for editing...	Can't Post

Hey Coleman,
USB 2 will not work reliably nor should it be used for dv editing. While Firewire and USB 2 look like they have similar stats firewire uses a lot more of it's theoretical bandwidth and has a much higher sustained transfer speed. Firewire also supports the critical isochronous mode, which guarantees delivery of audio and video streams. This means that time-critical data (like video frames) can be delivered with reliability. Also, you can't chain USB devices, so if your laptop has one firewire port like mine, and you use a USB 2 hard drive, you have no firewire port left to plug a deck or camera into to capture or dump to tape with. Firewire can chain as many peripherals as you have. I've also read first hand anecdotal evidence that USB 2 hard drives cause stuttering (dropped frames) when asked to send dv footage to an editing app. or capture from one. Stick with Firewire. Editing is what it's meant for. USB is for printers, scanners, audio devices etc....
Joel

: Anyone edit with a USB 2.0 hard drive? I want to do that with a notebook computer.
: Coleman

X-Joel_Peregrine
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Apr 27, 2003, 9:11 PM

Post #3 of 9 (1214 views)
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USB 2.0 not meant for editing... [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hey Coleman,
USB 2 will not work reliably nor should it be used for dv editing. While Firewire and USB 2 look like they have similar stats firewire uses a lot more of it's theoretical bandwidth and has a much higher sustained transfer speed. Firewire also supports the critical isochronous mode, which guarantees delivery of audio and video streams. This means that time-critical data (like video frames) can be delivered with reliability and also allows for chaining of firewire peripherals. Firewire can chain as many peripherals as you have without hubs or repeaters, which eat up bandwidth. I've also read first hand anecdotal evidence that USB 2 hard drives cause stuttering (dropped frames) when asked to send dv footage to an editing app. or capture from one. Stick with Firewire. Editing is what it's meant for. USB is for printers, scanners, audio devices etc....
Joel

: Anyone edit with a USB 2.0 hard drive? I want to do that with a notebook computer.
: Coleman

X-Jeff_Kirkland
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Apr 28, 2003, 1:24 AM

Post #4 of 9 (1214 views)
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Re: USB 2.0 [In reply to]	Can't Post

I have two USB 2 external hard drives and so far, haven't had any problems. I can only attach one of the drives at a time or Windows XP gets very confused but that's no big deal as there's really only the bandwidth to support one drive anyways.
I also have an external firewire drive and there's realy not been any difference in performance or reliability. I went with USB 2 because Vegas Video 3 couldn't play back an AVI file from an external firewire device (an issue that's fixed in Vegas 4).
JEff K

X-Dave_L
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Apr 28, 2003, 2:36 PM

Post #5 of 9 (1214 views)
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Re: USB 2.0 [In reply to]	Can't Post

Jeff: are you using the external hard drives with a desktop PC then? I'd like to get an external hard drive for temporary archiving (not capturing) of my video/audio files from my Dell Dimension. I have three internal drives (30G system, 120G video drive and 60G audio drive) but could use the extra archiving space. Do you think an external USB drive would work for that?
thanks,
David
: I have two USB 2 external hard drives and so far, haven't had any problems. I can only attach one of the drives at a time or Windows XP gets very confused but that's no big deal as there's really only the bandwidth to support one drive anyways.
: I also have an external firewire drive and there's realy not been any difference in performance or reliability. I went with USB 2 because Vegas Video 3 couldn't play back an AVI file from an external firewire device (an issue that's fixed in Vegas 4).
: JEff K

X-Jeff_Kirkland
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Apr 28, 2003, 6:22 PM

Post #6 of 9 (1214 views)
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Re: USB 2.0 [In reply to]	Can't Post

I can't see any reason for not using a USB drive for archiving. I capture to and edit on my USB 2 drives every day using mainly my desktop PC and sometimes my laptop. If it can cope with that it should be pretty much up to anything. If it's only archiving you want to do and not connect to a laptop, you could also just add some removable drive drawers to your PC. I have one of those in my desktop PC as well.
All up I have four internal drives plus a DVD-ROM & DVD-R in my desktop PC along with four drives in drawers that I can swap in and out, two USB 2 external drives and one Firewire external drive. All are 80gb drives.
And of course, I was just saying to my wife on the way to the office this morning that I really need to buy some more hard drive space - there's never enough... :)
Cheers
Jeff K

X-Dave_L
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Apr 28, 2003, 7:28 PM

Post #7 of 9 (1214 views)
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Re: USB 2.0 [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks for that info. It's true, you can never have enough storage. A few years ago 120G would have seemed stratospheric, now it's insufficient.
Are there any USB external drives you recommend?

: I can't see any reason for not using a USB drive for archiving. I capture to and edit on my USB 2 drives every day using mainly my desktop PC and sometimes my laptop. If it can cope with that it should be pretty much up to anything. If it's only archiving you want to do and not connect to a laptop, you could also just add some removable drive drawers to your PC. I have one of those in my desktop PC as well.
: All up I have four internal drives plus a DVD-ROM & DVD-R in my desktop PC along with four drives in drawers that I can swap in and out, two USB 2 external drives and one Firewire external drive. All are 80gb drives.
: And of course, I was just saying to my wife on the way to the office this morning that I really need to buy some more hard drive space - there's never enough... :)
: Cheers
: Jeff K

X-Mike_C
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Apr 28, 2003, 8:09 PM

Post #8 of 9 (1214 views)
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go firewire [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi Dave,
I just bought an ADS Pyro Firewire Kit for $99 bucks at circuit city today and put a Western Digital 120gb hard drive in it that I got at OfficeMax for $69 bucks after rebates.
$170 bucks for 120gb of firewire external is pretty sweet. I'd go for the external kit, and just by huge hard drives when you see a super deal. With the firewire kit, you can put anything in it, even a CD-RW or DVD-R/+R drive.

X-Dave_L
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Apr 29, 2003, 9:42 AM

Post #9 of 9 (1214 views)
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Re: go firewire [In reply to]	Can't Post

Thanks Mike: that sounds great but how do you connect it to the computer if your firewire output is already connected to something? Right now, my Storm card is connected by firewire to my Sony miniDV deck for capture/editing. How would an external firewire drive fit in? Does the kit come with a card with a firewire output?

: Hi Dave,
: I just bought an ADS Pyro Firewire Kit for $99 bucks at circuit city today and put a Western Digital 120gb hard drive in it that I got at OfficeMax for $69 bucks after rebates.
: $170 bucks for 120gb of firewire external is pretty sweet. I'd go for the external kit, and just by huge hard drives when you see a super deal. With the firewire kit, you can put anything in it, even a CD-RW or DVD-R/+R drive.