Firewire 800 & Vegas
 

Thinking about purchasing an external Firewire 800 case for a fast (7200 rpm, ATA-100) 120 GB (or higher) hard drive. I know that it will require a Firewire 800 PCI card. I'm hoping that it will provide a faster, sustained flow of information to use with Vegas 4.0 (and other audio editing software that I use). First off, anyone using the Firewire 800 (800mbs/sec)?? If so, any significant performance issues using such a device with the Vegas program?? Finally, any recommendations for manufacturer??

If you use such a device, do you notice an performance improvement with Vegas (and video editing as a whole) over a regular Firewire 400 type of device??

Thank you ahead of time! :)

Ted

Haven't tried one yet but HAVE used a standard firewire drive. Would be interested in hearing the results of your testing if you decide to get one.

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel : Haven't tried one yet but HAVE used a standard firewire drive. Would be interested in hearing the results of your testing if you decide to get one. -->>>

I have a "regular" firewire drive as well. Sadly, it seems to be failing me. It kicks on and off, on and off, on and off. The external firewire case is made by ADS Technologies (and I think the 120 GB drive is a Western Digital). I want to get any new external firewire case (from another company, at this point) and transfer the information from the current external hard drive to the new one before the entire drive system is completely lost. (As it stands, it's stable for about a few hours at a time, then it ADS Technologies IEEE1394 system goes bonkers.)

In the meanwhile, while looking on the internet for new and different IEEE 1394 hard drive cases, I came across the Firewire 800 type external casings. They handle ATA-100, 7200rpm type of drives with what appears to be stable sustainable data transfers. But before I spend the $$$$, I seek second and third opinions. . . . especially with stability with the Vegas 4.0e program.

In the meanwhile, I'm hoping that my ***CURRENT*** ADS Technologies external IEEE 1394a device doesn't fail me completely. . . :(

Sigh. . . .

Ted

I've been seeing the same thing from my Dual Firewire/USB2 box from ADS. It happens in both USB and Firewire modes. You get a click as the heads on the drive are seated and you can no longer get data from it. Then you have to power down the drive, unplug it, power on, and plug it back in. Really annoying.

Well... I definitely wouldn't anticipate and PROBLEMS with Vegas. I'd just like to know if the access is faster. I could tell an immediate difference on a 3 camera edit between the internal 5400rpm and the firewire 7200rpm drives.

I don't anticipate problems either
 

I don't anticipate any problems with the Vegas program either if I get a Firewire 800 type of external drive system. I'm just not sure if my older Dell Precision 420 Workstation can fully utilized this type of drive to its fullest potential.

For now, I think I'll get a regular Firewire 400 external drive. . . from a different company. ;)

Thanks the input, everyone.

Happy Holidays :)

Ted

Internal drives are faster and cheaper, but that may not be practical in this case.

On Macs FW800 drives are virtually the same speed as internal drives and a lot faster than FW400 drives. Some people encounter problems using FW400 drives.

On PCs internal drives are a lot faster than FW400 drives. Not sure how fast FW800 drives are.

where can one get a fw800 pci card for PCs?

<<<-- Originally posted by Joe Carney : where can one get a fw800 pci card for PCs? -->>>

I'm purchasing mine from the following company:

http://www.firewire-1394.com

This is the particular brand & typed of external firewire HD setup I'm purchasing:

http://www.firewire-1394.com/smart-hard-drives.htm

Here's some info in the FW800 pci cards & drives:

http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-800-1394b-products.htm

Hope this is helpful! :)

In the meanwhile, I purchased a Maxtor USB 2.0 based external 120 GB hard disk drive (7200rpm, ata100). (Sadly, the local Staples store didn't have any Firewire-based external HD setups.) I'm backing up my failing IEEE1394 drive as we speak because I just don't trust it to last much longer. So far, so good!

What's sad is that up until these past few days. I have've not any problems with the ADS Technologies IEEE 1394a drive. But it's getting worse and worse. . . YIKES! I'm hoping that I can still salvage the hard drive within the casing. If not, at least it's backed-up. Hopefully I'll be able to switch the drive numbers around without much hassle.

97.5% of the time, things run smoothly. I can record & edit audio and video projects for hours and hours. It's that 2.5% of the time that when things go bad, they go really freakin' bad.

In regards to using the Vegas program with my current set-up: Near flawless! Except for this nerve-wracking 2.5% of the time!

Ted

P. S. One thing I've learned is that one can not have enough HD drives doing video editing! And. . . back-up, back-up, backup!Yikes!

Same thing here---the ADS cases are very unreliable--but dont lose faith--in both cases where my cases failed, the drives were intact and readiable. ADS should get there act together.

Do USB2 drives work for video editing? I haven't heard of anyone using them successfully.

At least Staples has a refund policy...?

USB 2 drives have problems with sustained read (playback) and write (capture). They are fine for average computing, but the strains of editing can cause dropped frames on capture and stutter on playback.

I've switched to FW800 external drives - all LaCie - after trying one. They are noticeably faster than FW400. The first card I bought was from www.firewiredirect.com, and the second was a LaCie. Both went into Dell PCs with no problems. I also use FW800 for networking the PCs together.

I capture into Vegas using a 4-9 pin connector between a DSR-11 and a FW800 card. No problems.

Best,
Helen

I hope the busses in your system can cope with the data flow.
I'm not sure what the gain is here if you are not going to use
a striped RAID set. I mean, to my knowledge no IDE harddisk
can get you 80 MB/s or more then 40 MB/s (max of firewire 400)
as well.

Then again I do have the feeling that most current firewire
controllers aren't running at 400 mbps or that efficient. But
that is just a "feeling" at the moment.

Current IDE hard drives run at max (beginning area of the disk) 65 MB/s (apr.)

IEEE1394a interface limits drive's speed to just under 40mB/s.

If you look a graph of such drive it will be flat 35MB/s in 2/3 of the disk space then fall off with normal curve to about 25 as it would if it was interanl IDE drive.

I guess the 1394b (800MBps) standard will give headroom for this limitation and the drive should be operated at full potential.