Suggestions on an external HD for a macbookpro...
 

I have one of the older macbookpros, the kind where apple decided to be morons with this release. it only has one firewire 400 port; just one. currently i have my sony tape deck connected to my one FW port and i am fast running out of hard drive space.

is there any way to get an external drive connected to my MBP and still have my deck connected at the same time, AND have the footage that it ingests go to the external drive???

are the USB hard drives fast enough for video?

thanks.

-edward

If you connect your camera via the firewire400 port, and let the video stream go to the external disc at the USB2 port, that should work fine.
I thought it didn't, but it did, on a 3 years old PC.

Usb2
 

is USB2 connection fast enough to edit video off of?

-edward

It should be OKish. (meaning slow, but doable). I'm getting consistently 17 MB/sec via USB2 on my macbook pro, and 25 MB/sec via firewire400. (and lot more via FW800).
If your external harddrive has both firewire and usb, you might try either way. You could also try to dasy-chain firewire if the drive has 2 fw ports (plug the camcorder into the 2nd fw port on the harddrive).
Best,
Dino

Just use a firewire 400 hub. They work fine.

the hub sounds like a good idea. i may end up just doing that, but might as well ask one more question and exhaust all avenues. =)

i have a maxtor one touch at work that i can use. it has all the connection options, including USB2.0. it's huge too, 1.5TB, but i don't think it's the best hard drive for editing. anyways, my real question is would i be able to connect my deck directly to the maxtor HD via firewire, then the HD to the MBP via USB2.0 and have it work normally, meaning using log and capture normally, and not having to wait for the HD to catch up to my edits?

OR, is getting a firewire hub less of a headache?

the first option would save me all my money, but if my editing workflow slows down because of it, i'd rather not.

any input would be nice. thanks.

-edward

isn't this the same as above? not sure what you are asking here, but it sounds like daisy chaining...but I don't think you want to work from a source file that is on an external drive. Firewire may be different, but especially with larger drives you usually want to use them for storage only.
well it sure sounds better! and will be faster (sorry I couldn't use better terminology :)

Hope this was helpful


JS

thanks John, very helpful.

the thing i was unsure about when daisy-chaining was if i definitely needed 2 FW ports on the HD, as Dino stated. my HD only has the one FW port, so i was wondering if i can use the USB2.0 connection instead of that elusive "2nd FW port".

but getting a hub does sound like an easier path. i'll just have my work pay for it. ;)

thanks.

-edward

No, that will not work (99%) - as these are not bridge boards that translate from firewire to usb or vice versa.

(That's why I asked if you have 2 fw ports on the hard drive).

But anyway, just hook up the hard drive to the computer via usb2, and the camcorder to the computer's fw port. Really, that's just the easiest way to go. If this doesn't work reliably or isn't fast enough you can still buy a fw hub.

Dino

that sounds good. wouldn't hurt to try it, right???

thanks guys for your help.

-edward