Comments

DGates wrote on 6/7/2007, 8:30 PM
I edit on externals all the time without any problems. Are you using Firewire or USB? I've heard pros and cons with each, with the general consensus that USB taxes the CPU too much. I use Firewire exclusively, so I wouldn't know about that.
johnmeyer wrote on 6/7/2007, 8:57 PM
I edit on both USB 2.0 and Firewire drives all the time. Firewire can be flaky (in my experience) if you also have your camera connected at the same time.
DJPadre wrote on 6/7/2007, 9:20 PM
i ONLY use USB2 when going external.. ive had firewire drives lose their MBR's when runnign vegas (constant reading of the MBR when u jump in and out of the app does things to windows firewire drivera and vegas seems to cause it when media "goes offline" when switching or moving away from the app itself..

I wont ever risk firewire anymore.. lost too many hours..
And the cpu hit is virtually non existant.. i ahevtn noticed much of a drop in performance.. if any.. the only prb is consistancy on the throughput. Yes you get good speeds, but usualy after afew cycles
dhill wrote on 6/7/2007, 10:36 PM
I actually only edit off of externals when I'm traveling/using laptop. I use G-RAID or G-Drive FW800. I have never had a problem fortunately. I also use the external G-SATA with laptop, which has some very nice transfer rates. I haven't ever tried USB 1 or 2 for anything but storage, but it sounds like it (USB 2) works well.
Dach wrote on 6/8/2007, 3:35 AM
Thanks for the responses. I am betting that my current setup is more about the specific drive performing poorly. I will look at picking up a drive and then follow-up with my own experience. Looks like I should expect things to work nicely once setup.

Thanks again,
Chad
johnmeyer wrote on 6/8/2007, 9:13 AM
Pretty much any drive in any enclosure should work. If you have performance problems, then something else is amis. For USB, you absolutely MUST have USB 2.0 in your computer (and external drive). Also, it is a good idea to select "Optimize for Performance" in the Windows setting for the external drive.
RalphM wrote on 6/8/2007, 9:26 AM
I use externals all the time, both USB2 and firewire. No problems with any of the half dozen vendors represented.

PCs used are old 1.4 GHz P4s up to 3.2 GHz units.

Be sure to turn off any virus software when recording or streaming print to tape.