Please Help Me with Premiere Pro Scratch Disks

I

Ianscreations

Well-known member
I have never really understood th best way to set up scratch disks.
Can someone please help me? I am shooting and editing AVCHD HD Footage.
I will provide the hardware I have if someone could please tell me the optimal way to set it up:
MacBook Pro with 128GB SSD, 6GB RAM
LaCie 2TB External Drive, 7200rpm Thunderbolt
Lacie 1TB Extneral Drive, 5400rpm Thunderbolt
Wester Digital Extenal Drive 1TB, 54000 USB 3.0

With this equipment: How should I set up the following for each project? The "?" represents what I am thinking
MacBook Pro: Program and OS?
Lacie 2 TB: HD Clips?
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: Lacie 2TB?
Captured Audio: Lacie 2TB?
Video Previews: Lacie 1TB 5400RPM?
Audio Preview: Lacie 1 TB 5400RPM?
 
My Macbook Pro is not my main machine, so if I'm editing on there it's usually when I'm on the move.
So I just have a 256gb SSD in there and don't use an external - I move the video off to an external drive when I am done.

Latest OS, with Premiere CS5
 
Ianscreations said:
I have never really understood th best way to set up scratch disks.
Can someone please help me? I am shooting and editing AVCHD HD Footage.
I will provide the hardware I have if someone could please tell me the optimal way to set it up:
MacBook Pro with 128GB SSD, 6GB RAM
LaCie 2TB External Drive, 7200rpm Thunderbolt
Lacie 1TB Extneral Drive, 5400rpm Thunderbolt
Wester Digital Extenal Drive 1TB, 54000 USB 3.0

With this equipment: How should I set up the following for each project? The "?" represents what I am thinking
MacBook Pro: Program and OS?
Lacie 2 TB: HD Clips?
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: Lacie 2TB?
Captured Audio: Lacie 2TB?
Video Previews: Lacie 1TB 5400RPM?
Audio Preview: Lacie 1 TB 5400RPM?
Click to expand...

I don't have this sort of equipment on my MBP, but I would put the previews on the 7200 drive rather than the 5400 drive. The reason there being, that the 'previews' is what is played when you are editing, and sluggishness most noticeable... for final rendering, while the slower drives would impact that... unless you have a soon to expire deadline in minutes... doubling the the render time may not be as big a deal as the real time playback.

The Wife and I attended an ASL class this last spring, and we had permission to video the instructor. I would ingest the video to a USB drive, then the next morning, have it rendered out for use with our iPads. I just set my video processing MBP in a corner and let it render. I do have a now 'aging' 17" for most Internet use so, the MBP rendering didn't impact my ability to procrastinate on the web...
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
I don't have this sort of equipment on my MBP, but I would put the previews on the 7200 drive rather than the 5400 drive. The reason there being, that the 'previews' is what is played when you are editing, and sluggishness most noticeable... for final rendering, while the slower drives would impact that... unless you have a soon to expire deadline in minutes... doubling the the render time may not be as big a deal as the real time playback.

The Wife and I attended an ASL class this last spring, and we had permission to video the instructor. I would ingest the video to a USB drive, then the next morning, have it rendered out for use with our iPads. I just set my video processing MBP in a corner and let it render. I do have a now 'aging' 17" for most Internet use so, the MBP rendering didn't impact my ability to procrastinate on the web...
Click to expand...

So are you suggesting I put everything on the 2TB drive?
Can you please filll this out as you feel I should set it all up. As mentioned, I have three External Drives to Choose From.

MacBook Pro: Program and OS
Raw Footage: ?
Captured Video: ?
Captured Audio: ?
Video Previews: Lacie 2 TB
Audio Previews: Lacie 2 TB
 
Ianscreations said:
MacBook Pro: Program and OS?
Lacie 2 TB: HD Clips?
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: Lacie 2TB?
Captured Audio: Lacie 2TB?
Video Previews: Lacie 1TB 5400RPM?
Audio Preview: Lacie 1 TB 5400RPM?
Click to expand...

MacBook Pro: Program and OS? YES
Lacie 2 TB: HD Clips? YES
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: Lacie 2TB? YES
Captured Audio: Lacie 2TB? YES, you could also stick it on the 1TB drive.
Video Previews: Lacie 1TB 5400RPM? No. Not fast enough.
Audio Preview: Lacie 1 TB 5400RPM? Yes, you could also stick it on the 2TB drive.
 
Liam Hall said:
MacBook Pro: Program and OS? YES
Lacie 2 TB: HD Clips? YES
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: Lacie 2TB? YES
Captured Audio: Lacie 2TB? YES, you could also stick it on the 1TB drive.
Video Previews: Lacie 1TB 5400RPM? No. Not fast enough.
Audio Preview: Lacie 1 TB 5400RPM? Yes, you could also stick it on the 2TB drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks man!
Two other quick questions.
1)
Should I have all my Premiere project files themselves on the Lacie as well? Or keep those on the MBPro?
2)
Where should I export the Encore files to? Okay to send to the 1 TB Lacie that is 5400?


Lastly,
if I had TWO external 7200 drives, would you suggest the following:

HD Files: External A
Scratch Disks:
Captured Video: External A
Captured Audio: External A
Video Previews: External B
Audio Preview: External B


Would having 2 7200 drives substantially improve anything other than render time?
 
Ianscreations said:
Would having 2 7200 drives substantially improve anything other than render time?
Click to expand...

I've not worked with the Thunderbolt interface so I only conjecture that having two drives on the same 'line' may not give you the performance you'd want, if you were reading simultaneously on both.

If they were setup as a raid device, and internals of the 'raid' box took care of switching between the two, perhaps that would be a 'good way' to use two drives. But I'd conjecture that the MBP processor managing two drives
may have an impact.
 
Ianscreations said:
Thanks man!
Two other quick questions.
1)
Should I have all my Premiere project files themselves on the Lacie as well? Or keep those on the MBPro?
2)
Where should I export the Encore files to? Okay to send to the 1 TB Lacie that is 5400?
Click to expand...

Project files are fine on your MBPro.

Yes, OK to export Encore to the slower drives.


Ianscreations said:
Would having 2 7200 drives substantially improve anything other than render time?
Click to expand...
If anything, it will slow you down. Whilst it's recommended by Adobe to spread the media across different drives, the reality is one will go to sleep whilst you are using the other. I try to keep individual projects on their own dedicated drive.
 
Liam Hall said:
Project files are fine on your MBPro.

Yes, OK to export Encore to the slower drives.



If anything, it will slow you down. Whilst it's recommended by Adobe to spread the media across different drives, the reality is one will go to sleep whilst you are using the other. I try to keep individual projects on their own dedicated drive.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
Really weird: I swapped out to my 7200RPM Thunderbolt External drive last night. Odd thing: I didn't notice an improvement in the render times or play back ability compared with the 5400.
 
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