Real-time editing in 720 with an external hard drive (Firewire 800)?

O

onions

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Haven't tried it yet. I have a Macbook Pro, 2.4 ghz, and I'm planning on getting an external hard drive connected with Firewire 800. Can I edit HD footage stored on the external hard drive in real-time, or at least reasonably fast?
 
You should be able to. DVCProHD tops out at 100Mbps, and the Firewire 800 interface can handle eight times as much (burst). If the drive you have in the enclosure is fast enough, it should be able to handle multiple streams in realtime.
 
My partner has cut 720P footage on a USB powered 5400rpm external drive on a laptop.
I wouldn't recommend that - he said it would choke up every now and again... but my point is he was able to cut without too much trouble.

We use Firewire 400 drives and have no problem getting realtime performance (the USB drive thing was an 'emergency' storage situation).
But, if we're having no problem with FireWire 400, seem like Firewire 800 should be perfectly smooth.
 
For the best performance on the MacBook Pro consider eSATA drives. Just get an adaptor for your expresscard slot and away you go. That leaves your 800 and 400 connections open for other devices and is very fast and real time.
Jim
 
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