HDV Capture to an external USB HD?

dsaelwuero wrote on 5/2/2006, 8:49 PM
I am capturing the native m2t file from my FX1 into Vegas 6 and its being stored directly to an External USB 2.0 HD. The video and audio in the capture box is choppy and when I place the captured video on my timeline its choppy in the preview window although when I render it to avi its perfectly smooth.

My Ext HD has a slow spin speed. Do you think if I buy a faster speed External HD the video in the capture box and when I place on timeline will be smoother or the Ext HD has nothing to do with it?

BTW I upgraded my 3-4 year old PC editing machine with a new MacBook Pro 2.0ghz. So far I am very pleased with it.

Thanks for your responses.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 5/2/2006, 9:15 PM
It's probably all to do with m2t files being compressed and using references frames - you need a really powerful system to get good playback for editing. Intermediate or proxy files are much better for fluent editing.

You could try transferring the same files to a faster internal drive and see, but I would expect playback to be choppy there too.
johnmeyer wrote on 5/2/2006, 10:37 PM
m2t files are exactly the same size as regular DV files, so the disk performance required is identical. However, as Peter says, the CPU horsepower required for m2t is greater, so perhaps that's the issue.
epirb wrote on 5/3/2006, 4:42 AM
esp if you are putting the m2t files on the timeline.
You may want to look into VASST's GearShift or Cineforms Connect HD .
editing the raw m2ts is slooooow and painful.
Serena wrote on 5/3/2006, 6:15 AM
On my system cineform HDV intermediates run in real time when using the internal SATA disks (including CC), but at about half that when data is held on external firewire HDs.
john-beale wrote on 5/3/2006, 8:46 PM
The HDV Intermediate files seem to require about 3x the file space as the original m2t, and hence 3x the bandwidth to play in real time.
Laurence wrote on 5/3/2006, 11:11 PM
What is really frustrating to me is that I can play the Cineform intermediates from a USB or Firewire hard disc using media player (with the cpu friendly registry tweak), but not from Vegas.
Laurence wrote on 5/8/2006, 8:59 PM
A little but important correction: I can play Cineform intermediates just fine from Vegas from a firewire hard drive. It's just the USB hard drives that can't keep up on my system. Strange because I can play the same intermediate files from the same USB drive using media player.
pjrey wrote on 5/9/2006, 12:48 AM
RPM of the drive is very critical! i had a firewire/usb 2.o harddrive that was "supposedly" 7,200... but knew it wasnt... returned it, and got another one (turns out it was only 4,200, and boy could i tell the difference.
mt2 files are very sluggish on my system (inspiron 9200, 1gb ram, 2.5mHz)