For Edward or DSE

[Lance Spratt]

Good Day!

I have read in previous posts that both of you edit on laptops. I perform the majority of my editing on my Dell laptop as well, however my current hard drive space is limiting my efficiency. Have either of you used the Maxtor one touch external USB/Firewire drives? I am wanting to capture video via firewire and write the footage directly ro the external hard drive using USB 2.0. What are your experiences with this, or do you have other suggestions in how to manage large amounts of data on a external device?

[Edward Troxel]

I am using a firewire hard drive for external storage for the laptop. I am also connecting the deck through the firewire drive for capture, external preview, and PTT.

Given the option, I would connect the hard drive via firewire instead of USB. The firewire connection requires less CPU than the USB connection.

[Lance Spratt]

Edward,

If you don't mind me asking, what external drive are you using?



Lance

[Rob Lohman]

I'm not Spot or Edward, but think I can add to the mix here due
to the following:

- I owned a DELL Latitude C800 and own a Insipron 9100 now
- I own a Maxtor one touch personal storage 5000DV (160 GB)

I also done most of my editing on the old laptop (not yet on the
new one) with the harddisk without problems. I did, however,
had problems recognizing my camera when hooked up to the
drive (both new and old laptops only have 1 firewire port) so
I would capture to my local harddisk first and then move that to
the drive.

This new laptop has 4 USB2 ports and that has worked great for
capturing to the drive realtime.

Althought USB2 uses more CPU cycles and is slower I did a test
(with my old laptop, new laptop test is coming soon) to see how
much and the difference was almost none.

The laptop only had USB1 port so I only tested firewire on that,
but did a full test on my homebuilt system. I will be adding the
new laptop's test in the coming weeks.

Click here to go to the test

[Edward Troxel]

I'm using a 120Gig drive purchased from FirewireDirect.

[Glen Elliott]

I primarily edit on my desktop computer but when on the run I edit on a Toshiba P25-S520. It's got 4 USB2 ports and as Rob said...1 firewire port. I use an external 200gig Maxtor One-touch drive. I daisy chain my camera off the drive and do my capturing that way. Never had a problem, though I have heard of problems concerning this set-up. Sometimes people drop frames, apparently overloading the single firewire bus on the laptop. Knock on wood I haven't seen this yet but I'll keep a close eye in the future.

[Dennis Vogel]

Just to add to the list: I use a WD 120 GB drive in an ADS Firewire enclosure. I capture VHS converted via a Canopus ADVC-100, DV from my camcorder, edit from it, and render and burn DVDs from it to a Firewire DVD burner connected via Firewire also.

Build your own from the ever-cheaper drives being sold and an enclosure and it'll cost you less (or you can get more GB for the same money) than if you buy a complete external drive. Some enclosures even let you slide drives in and out as needed letting you possibly get away with just one for multiple drives or burners.

Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Dennis Vogel

[Glen Elliott]

Yeah that's a good idea- I'm going to have to do that with an extra ata133 80gig maxtor drive I have sitting around.

I do, however, don't think it's worth dismissing the purchase of an external drive. The maxtor has a solid aluminum case which is very rugged and good for dissapating heat.

[Lance Spratt]

Good idea Dennis. I'm always concerned about over working the Firewire bus on the laptop though and dropping frames. That was why I orginally considered capturing via Firewire and writing to the external drive via USB. Looks like I will be trying out some options to see what works best.

[Dennis Vogel]

I never get dropped frames when I daisy chain the Canopus and HD, camcorder and HD or HD and DVD burner on my lowly, 3 year old, 1 GHz Dell laptop. Firewire is plenty fast.

Dennis Vogel

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I edit on a VAIO GR series, with a 2.6 gig, 1 gig RAM laptop. I also have several dual 3.06 systems.
On the VASST tours, I show the VAIO.
I'm now on my 22nd laptop in 9 years. Due to TSA, writing, etc, I wear them out fast. (TSA has dropped 3)
Anyway, while the Dell's and HP's seem to be pretty good, I LOVE my VIAO's. I've had 13 of them, we have 8 in the office now. They are durable, great customer service, great bundles, and well designed. (not as well designed as a Powerbook, but close)
I also carry a couple firewire drives, one ADS tank, and one ADS 2.5 kit. I regularly edit, using hotel room televisions for a monitor, no problems.
Deep composites can be slow, but that's expected on desk or lap.
On the VASST tour, I'm using a BOXX and a VAIO. The BOXX is only slightly faster, but it's indeed faster.
It's all about tweaking the setup, that makes all the difference.
My personal experiences with Toshiba and IBM make me shy from those machines, and I watched Gary Kleiner have issues on his new HP while on the VASST tour the other day. I've nearly worn this VAIO out, so I'm on the lookout for a new laptop now. This one has written 4 books, each of approx 70k words, plus been on 3 world tours for VASST, figure roughly 100 airports. Not to mention the 3 Broadway show promos we've done on it, plus the dozens, if not around 100 projects we've done overall on it. Worn out the 0 key....I'm pretty hard on keyboards. I go through 2 desktop keys a year.

[Glen Elliott]

Spot, what exactly are you "wearing out" on the laptops. Dropping I can understand but is it all the typing...do you simply wear the keyboards out? I just sold my 3 year old Sony VAIO GRX (1.6ghz, 512mg ram, 16" UXGA) laptop to help fund my new Toshiba P25 (17" widescreen WXGA, 3.0ghz)...I love it! The only thing I miss from the sony is the build quality- the entire casing was magnessium alloy...felt very rugged. Not that it really mattered I babied my laptop more than anyone I presume.
The Toshiba is bulkier than the GRX and seems to be made more of plastic. It's practically impossible to pick up off the table or out of the bag with one hand. I did that once and the pressure I needed to grib the sucker made the plastic on the bottom surface start to flex inward. Didn't like that at all. Other than that it's a great little piece and a very good bang for the buck!

What bad experiences have you had/heard with Toshibas and HPs? I heard hp's touchpads go all the time....

[Lance Spratt]

An Update

I have purchased the Maxtor One Touch external hard drive with the firewire and USB options. So far I have successfully captured two hours of DV footage wirting the footage to the external hard drive via firewire without any problems or dropped frames. Looks like it will work out ok!

Thanks to all for your input and advice!

[Glen Elliott]

No prob- enjoy the Maxtor- it's a great piece. I'm thinking about picking up another one soon.