Buyer’s Guide: Editing VCRs and Hard Drives

VCRs and hard drives are two of the video editor’s most basic tools. Why? Because they both are necessary to perform the functions of storing, copying and playing back video and audio during the editing process.
In this article, we’ll help you solve your video storage needs. Whether you’re a cuts-only linear editor who wants a VCR for editing scenes directly from the camcorder, or a die-hard nonlinear editor who wants a bigger, better hard drive to hold more video, the accompanying buyer’s guides will show you what’s available in today’s video storage market.

Hard Drives for Nonlinear Video

If you’re looking to produce high-quality desktop video on your computer, then you need to consider one of the most important aspects of digital video post-production, hard drives. The hard drives found in home computers are typically not fast enough or large enough for the rigors of video production. Then again, disk performance has recently improved in this respect. We’ll focus our discussion on those hard drives that are at least 8GB in size and are capable of at least a 4MB per second data transfer rate. For video editing, we recommend drives with at least a 7200 RPM rotational speed.
There are three basic hard drive features that will affect your pocketbook as much as your performance: capacity, throughput and access time. One of the biggest constraints of digital video editing is disk storage space. Digital video consumes an enormous amount of data, so get the biggest drive you can. Ten minutes of S-VHS-quality video requires about a gigabyte of hard drive space.
Throughput is the speed that the hard drive can read and write information. It is measured by the data transfer rate. When you’re capturing video, for example, you want to cut down on dropped frames and other problems; you’re looking to get the fastest uninterrupted flow of data you can. For professional quality, you need a sustained throughput of at least 3MB per second. Manufacturers typically gauge their minimum and maximum data transfer rates by testing them under ideal conditions on high-powered systems. It’s a safe bet that the data transfer rate you experience will be considerably less than what the manufacturer lists. To be on the safe side, reduce the listed data transfer rate by 75%, and then choose accordingly. (Note: specifications for SCSI drives tend to be much more reliable than those given for ATA drives. Also, some manufacturers are more accurate in their reports of hard drive speed than others.)
Access time is the speed at which a hard drive can locate the specific cylinder it needs to read or write data. This affects the amount of time it takes to render transitions and other effects, as well as the amount of time it takes to start digitizing a clip.
Although price does affect which hard drive is right for you, it’s important to keep price in perspective. Just a few years ago and for considerably more money, you got considerably less speed, size and reliability. Also, street prices vary widely, so be sure to shop around before you make your final purchase decision.

ATA Drives (Up to $500)

ATA drives are by far the most common type of hard drive. Only in the past few years have ATA drives gained the speed and reliability necessary for desktop video. Before that, desktop video editors had to rely solely on SCSI drives for video editing.
Maxtor’s DiamondMax Plus series of UltraDMA/66 hard drives offer 7,200 RPM speeds and storage capacities up to 40GB. Their 6800-series DiamondMax plus 13.6GB drive has an estimated retail price of around $250.
IBM’s Deskstar 34GXP is a sizable 34.2GB, 7200 RPM drive that sells directly from the IBM Web site (www.ibm.com) for $365. It boasts a 9.0 microsecond seek time and a minimum sustained data transfer rate of 13MB/second.

$500-$1,000:
The Realm of SCSI Drives…