info from Serious Magic on ext. HD for DVR

P

powerdog

Veteran
THEM:

Thank you very much for the email. You can use USB2.0 with no trade off
with DV Rack to an external drive. Some laptops have two firewire
ports, and some people use a PCM fire wire input. It's completely up to
you. As always, I stand ready to answer any other questions or concerns
you might have.

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ME:

So I guess, whatever technical limitations USB might have in other situations, it's not a problem for laptops running DVR. That means one can spend less for a USB 2 - only ext. drive and not have to buy a PCMCIA card to get a second FW bus.
 
Just a second to Barry's post. I use DVRack all the time with USB2 external HD. Before I bought it, I even tested with the trial version, running it for a solid hour into the external hd via USB2. Twice. Never a single problem.

M
 
powerdog said:
ME:

So I guess, whatever technical limitations USB might have in other situations, it's not a problem for laptops running DVR. That means one can spend less for a USB 2 - only ext. drive and not have to buy a PCMCIA card to get a second FW bus.
Click to expand...

Well sure you "can" but you'd be doing yourself a favor by avoiding potential congestion to spend the $79 (or probably a lot less if you look around) to buy the PCMCIA card.
 
Barry and M, assuming the drive was self-powered, how much of a hit did your laptop's battery life take? Mine only lasts about 2 hrs. now, so I'm thinking I'll probably a high-capacity batt.
 
I've used a small 60gb external Hitachi 2.5" 7200rpm drive (USB 2.0) for alot of my recordings with no problems at all. Unfortunatly the drive died on me some time ago, but that can happen to any drive and is not related to the DVRack usage. The good thing with those small ones is that they are powered through the USB connection, meaning you can run your setup completely on the laptop's battery.

Regarding battery life,
I can't say I noticed any big difference using the external drive compared to only internal.
 
powerdog said:
Johan, your comment about battery life comes as very good news!
Click to expand...
I haven't used it all that much without AC, meaning I have never used up the full battery while recording. I really suggest you do some testing on this yourself to find out how long your specific combination last. But like I said before, The few times I've tried it I didn't notice any big difference on my setup.
 
I wouldn't think there would be any problem using A/C. I just don't want to set up an outdoor shoot and find my laptop's dead in a half hour.
 
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