Simple Question or: How I made myself look stupid and lose face in front of strangers

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shawnna_cee

New member
hi guys,

I was hoping some of you tech heads could help me out for a sec.

I know next nothing about computers beyond the very basics ( ie click, peck, click, peck).

I'm in the midst f preproduction for a short film I will be directing, and I'm trying to figure out what I will need to edit this beast on my computer.

First off, I have a Dell, P4, 512mb, 2ghz PC.

Is this enough to edit a 20 minute short using Vegas and eventually burn dvd's? I won't be doing anything huge in the near future (like effects, etc.), so I'm just trying to get by by the skin of my teeth.

The problem is, I am going to need an external hard drive, seeing as I only have about 9 GB free space on my internal hard drive. Now, I have a firewire port on my computer.

The question is: Do I get an exernal hard drive with a firwire port? If so, how does this thing hook up? Does the e.h.d connect to the tower and the camera to the e.h.d ? So does it rquire multiple ports of the e.h.d ?

And lastly, how does the computer know to save the external hard drive as opposed to the internal one? Do I have to tell it? Or since the camera is connected to the e.h.d I don't have to.

I'm sorry if this is confusing anyone. It is very frustrating to try to get tings started and not really know where to start.

Yor assistance in this matter would be GREATLY apprecciated.

Thank you for your time. :kiss:
 
That computer should work nicely for you (I assume you're editing standard definition video).

You'll plug the external hard drive to your computer via firewire. You'll plug your camera into the tower through another firewire port. In the Vegas capture utility, you can tell it which drive to capture to.
 
If you only have 1 firewire port you should get a usb hard disk, otherwise you'll have to capture to your internal hard disk, then move it to your external hard disk as you won't be able to plug in both at the same time. As for your computer, while you should be able to get along with those specs, I would highly recommend that you change your ram to 1gb, as it should really help with your performance when you edit, and thus save you alot of frustration due to lag, etc.
 
MalcolmOng said:
If you only have 1 firewire port you should get a usb hard disk, otherwise you'll have to capture to your internal hard disk, then move it to your external hard disk as you won't be able to plug in both at the same time.
Click to expand...

Do you mean on the tower or on the external hard drive.

It looks like I got 2 4-pin ports and 1 6-pin port on my computer. Would that be fine?


I'll probably upgrade to 1gb ram in a few moths, or whenever I have the loose change.


Thanks for help guys!
 
As far as hard drives go, you've got several choices. You could put a second HD into your tower. This is actually very easy in a PC. You could add a PCI adapter (one of the internal slots on the back) with a SATA port (look at FirmTek, they make all kinds of adapters and external HD enclosures). As far as USB vs. Firewire? Go with Firewire, you can daisy chain these devices. Plug the FW HD into the PC and then plug your camera FW into the second FW port on the HD (make sure it's got two) For speed - go with internal, and as an added benefit it's also the cheapest.
Also get a fast HD, at least 7200RPM (or is it 7400)
 
Star2Fin said:
As far as hard drives go, you've got several choices. You could put a second HD into your tower. This is actually very easy in a PC. You could add a PCI adapter (one of the internal slots on the back) with a SATA port (look at FirmTek, they make all kinds of adapters and external HD enclosures). As far as USB vs. Firewire? Go with Firewire, you can daisy chain these devices. Plug the FW HD into the PC and then plug your camera FW into the second FW port on the HD (make sure it's got two) For speed - go with internal, and as an added benefit it's also the cheapest.
Also get a fast HD, at least 7200RPM (or is it 7400)
Click to expand...
7200*

I would just Grab a Cheapo Internal HD and pop it in your machine, and a Gig of ram wouldnt hurt while you have the side off :)
 
agreed. at least a gig of ram. put an internal hdd in. 320 gig right now of sataII is going for 99 bucks or something on newegg. regular sata or ata might even be cheaper.
What are you going to be editing is the question though? That could change everything. If you are just editing mini dv standard def. all of the advice that has been given would be fine. If you are editing something other than that, you might not have what you need to edit.

Jason
 
Yeah, I'm just editing mini dv footage.

Opting for an internal hard drive sounds like a good idea.

How easy is it to install?

I mean, would someone with very little experience be able to do it, or would I have to take it to best buy or something.

Again, thanks for the advice. :kiss:
 
put it in an empty 3 and 1/2 bay, screw it in, plug up the power and the sata/ata eide cable (whatever). that's pretty much it. Then when you load up windows you may need to go into my computer, right click on the drive there and format, etc.
Just get it in and then post questions here. I'm sure some folks will be able to walk you through. It's not too bad at all. Next to Ram probably the easiest thing to upgrade (most of the time)
 
Go with internal. Hooking up external HD and a video cam to the computer simultaneously can give you a lot of headache - dropped frames, losing connection to the HD. It depends on what kind of FW controller you have, and generally it's not worth the hassle.
 
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