Does USB 2 really make a difference?

tvgirl wrote on 9/8/2006, 12:11 AM

I will be editing all of my video from a portable hard drive, and then exporting from that drive using a USB 2 cable. I've run into a problem with my firewire port -- it's apparently defective (and about to be sent back since it's still under warranty).

My question -- Is there any noticeable difference in video quality using USB 2 rather than the firewire? (I'm still learning this stufff, however my t.v. buddies helping me here say the only difference is in the speed of transfer.)

Comments

TorS wrote on 9/8/2006, 12:59 AM

The USB2 is supposedly faster, but uses more cpu power. Exporting edited video via either type of connection should make no vital difference to you. Basically USB is great for moving data in one direction, while Firewire/IEEE 1394 handles two-way data communication best - as in connnecting with a video camera.
Tor
Difference in video quality? None.

tvgirl wrote on 9/8/2006, 2:34 AM

Thanks.

John_Cline wrote on 9/8/2006, 7:40 AM

There will be absolutely no difference in video quality between using a Firewire or USB2 portable hard drive.

John

Coursedesign wrote on 9/8/2006, 7:59 AM

As Tor indicated, with USB and USB2, your laptop's CPU is doing all the data shuffling work.

With Firewire, the interface is doing all the data shuffling while your CPU provides speedy rendering or other things.

Your can buy a Firewire plug-in card for your notebook at a local computer store, or better at eBay etc. for $20 or so (the price depends on which slot you have).

Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/8/2006, 9:28 AM

Lots of discussion in this thread.

RBartlett wrote on 9/8/2006, 10:02 AM

From the other discussions:

1. Firewire is the poorer cousin from the electrical spec - it is more prone to the fault you may have endured where the port fuses. This is an implementation issue.
2. USB2 is the poorer cousin from the host controller perspective. USB2 isn't quite in the processor-I/O-mode (PIO) of yesteryear but you'll find it hard to find an enhanced implementation.
3. FW800 is good but is overshadowed by SATA/ESTATA or even gigabit ethernet.
4. To date, the hard disk peripheral hard disk adapter "bridges" (inside your external cases or drive-boxes) have been hobbled in their USB2 implementations compared to the firewire ones.

One can only hope for the future, but fundamentally they are both bandwidth allocated (isochronous), shared-bus, bi-directional (duplex/dual-simplex) solutions. You wouldn't necessarily promote one above the other without taking in some other factors (like where your camcorder/deck is dumping into or from).

External drives - well, I'm happy with this IcyBox unit I have that you can wire for USB2 or SATA [although not both without a rewire]. I've a laptop cardbus adaptor with dual external SATA ports. So that suits me fine. Now that REALLY makes a difference but then it should, the SATA HD inside is not going through any controller in-between. All this was really cheap to build. IB360AStUS-BL Slightly naff case quality - but in this cheap/naff/disposable world we live in - how can you want more?

Coursedesign wrote on 9/8/2006, 10:05 AM

...and just to comment on one post in that thread re the "disappearing fw support" that even Apple's el cheapo iMac (OK, the 24" version) has both FW800 and FW400 jacks in the back.

I found it easy to add more fw ports for drives and audio gear with inexpensive PC Cards (PCMCIA adapters) bought on eBay or once, even locally.