Editing 1080p footage - What kind of external?

Stang68

Stang68

Member
Hey everyone,

I'm editing uncompressed 1080p footage (using an HMC150) in Final Cut Pro 7 and I wanted your advice. I have a LaCie USB 2.0 Rugged Hard drive but I think I am going to buy a 1TB LaCie. Is USB 2.0 ok to edit 1080p footage with? Or do I have to use Firewire 800? What do you all suggest?

Thanks!
 
Firewire is a must if your serious

i have a new computer its missing firewire
can not use any of my high end camera stuff

if you have 1394 use it as a bonus you can boot it
very fast can have windows on firewire external drive
its not that much extra for firewire and usb vs usb by itself
 
I wouldn't recommend using a lacie to edit off of. They are great for backups but they don't have the same hardware as pro-hardrives, and may not be able to handle constantly being accessed.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys.

I've been using LaCie for years, never had a problem. Bad experience?
 
I use lacie's as backups. Its known that they aren't made for intense editing. There are a few threads on here about that subject.

As long as you backup your stuff you should be fine. The last gig I worked on we had 4 backups for a total of 5 2TB Lacie hard drives.

The pro hard drives that are recommended:

Wiebetech

GLYPH

G-TECH

Of course you want a back up with any of these, and lacie is perfect for just that.

And yes i've had many lacie's die on us in the middle of editing.

esata is going to be your fastest option.
 
Stang68 said:
Hey everyone,

I'm editing uncompressed 1080p footage
Click to expand...

Uncompressed 1080p has about 100 Mbyte/s, so everything beside eSATA will not be fast enough for playing a single clip, and editing will only be possible with a RAID.

Maybe you should think about switching to ProRes...
ProRes has about 20 MByte/s, USB2 and Firewire400 are still too slow for editing. You'll need a HD with USB3, eSATA or Firewire800 (1394b) anyway.
 
Would the new USB 3.0 be fast enough?

venux said:
Uncompressed 1080p has about 100 Mbyte/s, so everything beside eSATA will not be fast enough for playing a single clip, and editing will only be possible with a RAID.

Maybe you should think about switching to ProRes...
ProRes has about 20 MByte/s, USB2 and Firewire400 are still too slow for editing. You'll need a HD with USB3, eSATA or Firewire800 (1394b) anyway.
Click to expand...
 
I think I may be using ProRes actually. Here is what my bin in FCP looks like:
Screenshot2010-02-28at94859AM.png


What kind of external do you all recommend that won't break the bank of a college student, then? I am looking for a real solid 1tb drive. Apparently LaCie is evil lol, and I've been told OWC is decent. G-Drive looks good also, but the reviews from say, Amazon, are not all that positive.
 
I would recommend that whatever drive you get, make sure it has a built-in fan. If you can't find one then buy an enclosure, a drive, and assemble it yourself. (That would likely be cheaper than buying a drive already in a case anyway.)

I'm going to be doing this soon, perhaps this week, and will post what I end up going with (as long as I remember).

edit: The reason you want a fan is to keep the drive cooler. It may make more noise, but in the end it's better for the drive.
 
why not do this?

why not do this?

Pick up a Thermaltake BlacX docking station - eSata, as well as USB. Then pick up a Western Digital BLACK hard drive...Black drives carry 5year warranty, Blue 3 yr and Green 3yr. (Amazon has good prices)

As long as you go with eSata, I think you would be pleased with the performance.

One of the drawbacks of this type of system is drive heat, but you can easily point a small fan at the drive if it becomes an issue.

I have a slew of HDD's that I use for backups and working drives using this device. Hot swappable. Cheap. Easy.

 
USB 3.0 will be fast enough (i've been looking at USB 3.0 setups all morning). I would find an external USB 3.0 or eSATA docking station or external enclosure, and just buy internal drives for it.
 
Stang68 said:
I think I may be using ProRes actually. Here is what my bin in FCP looks like:
Screenshot2010-02-28at94859AM.png


What kind of external do you all recommend that won't break the bank of a college student, then? I am looking for a real solid 1tb drive. Apparently LaCie is evil lol, and I've been told OWC is decent. G-Drive looks good also, but the reviews from say, Amazon, are not all that positive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're editing pro-res...

Be careful when you say "uncompressed". Uncompressed HD footage is VERY different than most flavors of HD that people edit with (from DVCPRO-HD, to Pro-Res, to XDCAM, Cineform, etc)
 
Be careful when you say "uncompressed". Uncompressed HD footage is VERY different than most flavors of HD that people edit with (from DVCPRO-HD, to Pro-Res, to XDCAM, Cineform, etc)
Click to expand...

yeah you're not editing uncompressed 1080p you're editing pro-res footage.

Pick up a Thermaltake BlacX docking station - eSata, as well as USB. Then pick up a Western Digital BLACK hard drive...Black drives carry 5year warranty, Blue 3 yr and Green 3yr. (Amazon has good prices)
Click to expand...

I agree. I use the docks. They're great. Use E-SATA. You can get an internal pci express card for like $50 and it's lightning fast.
 
I've had just about every brand of drive fail. We use LaCies all the time, and haven't had any major problems with them. On our current project, we bought 30 x 2 TB drives (the 2big ones with two drives).

What I've seen so many people do, and what I personally believe is the main reason for external hard drives "going bad" is that people will pick them up and move them when they're still on and spinning. I instruct all of my post crew that if I see them do that, they're getting the boot.

These desktop drives use 3.5" drives that are very different by design than 2.5" drives you have in laptops that can handle being handled.

The G-tech drives have a reputation for being fast because they are usually RAID 0 drives. Other RAID 0 drives are just as fast. I've had more G-tech drives go bad than LaCies, and we've owned way more LaCies than G-techs.

To the original poster:

1. Do you have eSata on your Mac? You'd have to add it to your Mac Pro or Mac Book Pro via a third party adapter, as they don't come native. It will be an extra cost.

2. Do you have Firewire 800? If so, that should be able to handle Pro Res. Your main bottleneck is going to be from your drives themselves, not the interface. BTW, USB 2.0 is fast on paper, but has a lot of latency issues, making it a poor choice for editing.

3. Ideal solution would be to back up your footage on another drive that you can put on a shelf, and use a fast RAID drive to edit with. The backup drive can be a slow USB drive. Just put it someplace safe.

With RAID 0, you're spanning your data across multiple disks, and thus, gaining speed. However, if one of those disks goes bad, you lose everything. If you have a backup of your media, though, you can always restore it.

We've also used OWC drives, some of which have had problems. There's always a chance that your drive can go bad, no matter which brand you buy, which is why backing up is so important.
 
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