Another Stonefield Storage Q

Chienworks wrote on 2/16/2006, 4:11 AM

Can you post some links or model numbers of the LAN drives you're looking at. In my experience they usually have network interfaces rather than USB or Firewire. They should connect to your LAN instead of directly to a PC. Of course, the advantage there is that they are accessible to every PC on the LAN without tying up a PC to host them.

craftech wrote on 2/16/2006, 4:17 AM

"Sharing" only Stan to my knowledge. I still think inexpensive 120-200 GB internal drives make more sense. In some cases as little as $35-$60 especially with rebates.
Just plug them back into the computer before you boot up if you need something that is on them. If that would be a frequent thing just leave the case off. They run cooler like that anyway. As drives become larger and larger, the cheap drives will become larger as well. There will be a time in the not too distant future when 300 GB drives will be under $50 as well.

John

Stonefield wrote on 2/17/2006, 11:45 AM

Hmmm.....something else I just figured into this ... and tell me if I'm wrong.

The fastest data transfer you'd have over the network would be 100mbps right ? And if I'm not mistaken, Firewire 1 is 400 mbps and USB2.0 is ...uhm 480 ? Something like that.

So an external drive hooked up through your router would be a slower data transfer than a drive hooked directly to your computer via USB or Firewire.

Interesting because I can access footage on another computer thru my network and edit that. Let me know if I'm wrong here.

Oh, two more girl videos this weekend too. Stay tuned.

Stan

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Chienworks wrote on 2/17/2006, 12:39 PM

True that most networks are 100Mbps, though you can get gigabit speeds these days. However, most video is 30Mbps, so even your network is plenty fast enough for most video needs.

DavidMcKnight wrote on 2/17/2006, 1:54 PM

We use the network drive concept, though in a fileserver that also does duty as a print server and if need be a render client / extra station. I was very surprised at the overall network performance and no loss of "feel" when editing media stored on the server. 100Mbps here, as well.

vicmilt wrote on 2/17/2006, 2:03 PM

HI David -
am interested in your experience...
do you mean that you've got your media files mounted to "another" computer on your network, and that you can edit using them?

If so, have you tried having two editors accessing the same media - or if not, how about two editors access different media, but on the same drive - at the same time.

Might this work better with the addition of one gig LAN interfaces??

v

DavidMcKnight wrote on 2/17/2006, 2:55 PM

Very timely question Mr. Milt...I believe the answers to that are:

do you mean that you've got your media files mounted to "another" computer on your network, and that you can edit using them? --> Yes

If so, have you tried having two editors accessing the same media --> Not sure yet, see below

- or if not, how about two editors access different media, but on the same drive - at the same time --> definitely have done this

Might this work better with the addition of one gig LAN interfaces --> my overloaded brain says yes, but I can't test that just yet.

I can tell you for sure this evening, as we're putting finishing touches on a project and need to hit the same raw files for two different pieces at the same time. I'll let you know the findings...

johnmeyer wrote on 2/17/2006, 3:06 PM

True that most networks are 100Mbps, though you can get gigabit speeds these days. However, most video is 30Mbps, so even your network is plenty fast enough for most video needs.

I totally agree with this statement, but I've never been able to play a DV AVI file over the network without pauses. My network is 100 mbs, with a switched hub, and zero traffic. I have never "messed around" with any settings (like packet sizes) so AFIK, everything is plain vanilla. This is true regardless of whether I go XP to XP (SP1 or SP2) or whether it is Pro, Home, or Media Center flavors. Also, no joy when connecting to older Win98 or WinME computers. I have several dozen different connections (i.e., drops) and that doesn't seem to make a difference, which more or less rules out wiring.

This has been an annoyance for years.

BTW, the disks in these "tests" are all internal, not external or, as the original poster asked about, network drives with their own IP address.

If someone has names/model numbers of network drives they'd recommend, or external network enclosures they'd recommend, I'd be very interested as well.

Chienworks wrote on 2/17/2006, 3:46 PM

My server is running Linux/Samba instead of Windows. I can play back DV .avi files from it with no skips or pauses at all. All the while the same server and network switch are also busy feeding thousands of files and hundreds of megabytes to the outside world at the same time.

Windows just isn't very efficient at serving files.

TeetimeNC wrote on 2/19/2006, 7:57 AM

Stan, the biggest advantage I see for the LAN/Network external is that you don't have to have a computer turned on to serve up the files. I am planning to get a LAN external to use as a share for my three computer network. This will let me access shared files from any of the three computers even if the other two are powered down. Disadvantage is I am not aware of any affordable LAN externals that support NTFS.

-jerry

Stonefield wrote on 2/19/2006, 9:34 AM

Well thanks for all the advice guys. Can always count on this community.

I went with an external box with both USB and Firewire. Nice lookin little unit. I picked up a 300 Gig drive and plopped it into the external drive, formatted and I'm all set.

I was really impressed with how inexpensive it was. $45 for the enclosure, and $135 for the 300gig drive. Canadian prices.

At that price, I'm tempted to buy another next month. Or rather just buy em as I need em.

Like I said, gonna be nice to have one box that holds all my accesable footage, backdrops, Acid Loops, Sound effects and my music. Heh, if someone ever stole that drive, they'd have a lot of attractive models on it......

Take care guys.....

Stan

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Dan Sherman wrote on 2/19/2006, 5:56 PM

stan, where did you buy from?
what did you buy?

Stonefield wrote on 2/19/2006, 8:07 PM

Bought from www.atic.ca
Vancouver, BC Canada

Bought a Maxtor 300 and a Nextstar 2 USB Firewire enclosure. The enclosure is kinda flimsy plastic unlike the Maxtor One Touch external drives. But I'm ok with the plastic enclosure as I don't really plan to take it rock climbing. It's gonna sit on a desk at home.

Been loading it up with avi footage all day....seems to be running good.

olsonm wrote on 2/20/2006, 8:17 AM

Gig network and I can have all twelve editing stations editing off a Win2003 Server with no lags. This also works great for archiving video for later access (MPEG2 for archives). You still will have problems capturing to a network drive but there is a workaround using NTFS mounted drives in Windows XP rather than mapped drives.

Now if fiber was a little cheaper :)

craftech wrote on 2/21/2006, 8:20 AM

want to get more storage but I am confused which I should get. An enclosure with drives or an external harddrive sold as one unit. The latter seems to cost more. But I am just apprehensive about heat and noise.
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Buy the same brand of internal hard drives all the time. Get the best value per dollar drives (right now 120GB - 160GB drives are really cheap, especially after rebates). In USD they average from $35 - $60 depending upon the rebate deals. I use Western Digital drives (always have) . I use three drives. One is for programs. The other two are for storage. The spare drives are jumpered the same way as the storage drives that are running in the computer. I just simply swap them as needed before I boot up.
Run the PC with the cover off. That makes what I described easy to do and it runs cooler.

John

Stonefield wrote on 2/21/2006, 7:00 PM

"Either an enclosure with built-in fan for HD/CD/DVD (5.25") or a fixed unit such as the Maxtor one-touch external harddrives."

Well, I've got one of each of those. The difference being, is my enclosure doesn't come with a fan...it gets a bit warm, but doesn't go above a certain point and just stays there. The Maxtor one touch is in a much more solid encasing. It's aluminum enclosure stay quite cool. I read about the Nexstar 2 enclosure getting a bit warm but in all the reviews, no one mentioned it to be a problem or that it get's too hot.

It's well ventilated and as I don't leave it on, it seem quite fine.

I'd highly recommend getting an external enclosrue both firewire and USB, and putting whatever size drive you want to in there. The assembly is very easy. Hey, I did it so, anyone can. That way you can swap ouit another drive or , heaven forbid, if the drive goes south, you don't have to throw out the whole thing.