how to capture video : which hard drive??? « Videomaker Community Forums

Jarrod Campbell
Member

I have a firewire external HD, can I connect the camera to the HD and the HD to use the computer, like a daisy chain, or just use the external HD as a scratchdisk???? would this be better than capturing dirrectly to the computer HD???? with all the equipment I have what should my setup be for capturing video?????

thanks for any advice!!!!!

Jarrod

Posted 9 months ago #
Jack Wolcott
Production Host

I run from the camera, via Firewire, to the computer -- laptop or desktop, then out of the computer to an external hard drive using USB.

You haven't said what capture software you're planning on using. Scenalyzer is an excellent and inexpensive video capture software. More sophisticated (i.e., with more video and audio metering) is Adobe OnLocation, and it may be that your NLE video capture utility will allow you to capture from your camera.

Jack

Posted 8 months ago #
composite1
Moderator

Jarrod,

In an ideal setup, you'll have a large capacity drive or a series of drives linked in a RAID Array dedicated to video only. Also, you would have either another large capacity drive available internally or externally for video storage. In that situation, you can easily capture footage to your main video drive and do the edits, transitions and effects leaving the external drive free to perform as storage and a much needed 'scratch disk'.

If your computer has a firewire input (400/800 or combo), then it's no prob hooking up and capturing directly to your dedicated video drive. It is preferable to capture to the internal drive as it's usually a more robust pipeline than doing a pass-through from camera-to-computer-to-external drive. However, if an external drive is all you've got you can still run with it.

H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

Posted 8 months ago #
Jarrod Campbell
Member

thanks everyone for your wonderful and very helpful comments, to answer a couple questions, I am using the Sony Vegas Pro Software.... version 8 I think.... and I have a camera, External HD with usb/FW and a computer, So is it OK to go like this:

CAMERA>EXTERNAL HD>COMPUTER, or should I have COMPUTER OUT TO>EXT HD AND CAMERA, which would be better, didn't quite understand the earlier posts!!! I am very new to this and just getting used to the terms of everything... PS: I have a external HD that is a LaCIE brand 500gb, a Sony HDR-HC3, and a Sony Vaio Laptop.... (2 @ Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 cores total), 3gb ram (Need to upgrade to 4gb), 1.25mb Video card, (Not shared memory), and FW 800 - 4pin, Is this setup OK or not???? thanks for any help you can offer!!!!

take care everyone

Jarrod

Posted 8 months ago #
composite1
Moderator

Jarrod,

Since you have a Vaio, you should have at minimum a 4-pin firewire input. So, Camera/firewire out-to-Laptop 4-pin/6-pin/9-pin (firewire 800) in. In Vegas change your capture folder from the default C: Drive and create a new folder labled 'Vegas Cap Vid' on your external drive. You'll have to reset the preference for your external drive for each project unless you set your external as the default capture drive. Your video card has nothing to do with capturing video. It only allows you to view the processed video, transitions and effects while you're editing.

Posted 8 months ago #
Jarrod Campbell
Member

thanks composite!!! this makes more sense!!!! thanks for the help!!!!

Posted 8 months ago #