HELP- VIDEO CAPTURE HARD DRIVE CONNECTION

[beviet]

I had 2 drive WD 180G 8MB cache and 1 120G Maxtor ATA133 2MB cache.
I use this for video capturing and editing only. How should I divide it up?? What should be OS drive and so on....
Any advices are all good.
thanks in advance.
Note - I heard for capturing parition the drive is not good?? Is it true?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Use yer biggest drives for a/v only. Put everything else on yer 120gig drive.


Lethal

 

[beviet]

what is that mean??
if it were you, how do you set it up
I need your input
thanks

 

[dakels]

how complex is the video you are working on? Are you capturing uncompressed video? What formats? Do you work in video editing alot? What software you using? What is your capture method. What are the specs for your computer? What software?

If you work alot in high quality uncompressed video, you should RAID your drives so they run faster. You can run RAID 0 but RAID 5 is the safest, but you will lose 50% of your HD space as it makes redundant (backup) copies.

Uncompressed high quality video like AVI can run 15-25MB/sec. Not only is that a massive amount of space, but its also a very fast transfer rate that many normal drive setups cannot handle. When the drive setup cannot write that fast, you lose frames.

well without going into a video capture primer, you could setup a RAID setup, which may not cost anything if your MB has a RAID controller, or just setup the drives in a normal fashion. The drives you have are fine but I would work off the WD SE's as they will be faster, due to the cache, then the Maxtor.

I'd rather have more info on what you want to do (specifically) before giving you advice. Personally I would RAID (0 or 5) the 180gb WD's.

 

[thorin]

Drive 1 120G Maxtor ATA133 2MB cache
? 20GB For OS & Primary (daily use) apps
? 100GB For Swap File and other apps
Drive 2 & 3 WD 180G 8MB cache
? 180G for raw video
? 180G for current projects

(NTFS of course)

Thorin

 

[beviet]

thanks
but I am not a computer people and I want as simple as possible.
I will capture in DV and AVI mainly not uncompressed though.
Please giv eme inputs on how should I set it for the best
here is the other spec
ATI AIW 8500 DV
512MB DDR333 Ram
DVD burner
AMD XP2100+ MSI Kt400 board.
hope that clear it better

 

[dakels]

to keep it simple then, thorin's setup advice should be fine.

If you run into problems later with dropped frames then please repost. Otherwise his setup is pretty straightforward and should be fine for your setup and needs. You may want to consider more RAM too if you work in super large files and are doing effects. For capture using your 8500 AIW, you should be ok for most scenarios. You will probably be limited by the card before reaching transfer limits on your drives.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Put your OS, programs, etc. on the 120gig drive.
Store all of your video on the two 180gig drives.

Don't worry about a RAID 'cause it won't make a difference since you are using DV.

Originally posted by: thorin
Drive 1 120G Maxtor ATA133 2MB cache
? 20GB For OS & Primary (daily use) apps
? 100GB For Swap File and other apps
Drive 2 & 3 WD 180G 8MB cache
? 180G for raw video
? 180G for current projects

(NTFS of course)

Thorin

The only thing I disagree w/is there is no difference between "raw video" and "current projects" (if I understand you correctly). When editing video the software you use only refrences the video you capture, it doesn't apply any changes to it. If you apply an effect, let say you make the whole movie B&W, the software will create an exact copy of yer movie but in black and white (the source footage however remains the same). Unlike in, lets say, photo editing where you work w/the actual image file and the changes you make change the original image.


Lethal

 

[dakels]

I think he meant like what you are capturing to, and what you are working on. While really it shouldn't be different, some people do make it different. The device you are capturing on needs to be the fastest so it doesn't lose frames. What you work in should of course be fast, but you're not going to lose frames there, just work slower.

in this case... it makes no difference at all.

 

[beviet]

so no partition in either drive right??
thanks guy
here is the right step if not correct me
IDE 1 - Maxtor 120G 2mb cache - no partion ... OS and stuff
IDE 2 - WD 180G 8mb cache - no partition also ... and by the way the last question
is it matter if the 180G drive connect to a PCI IDE controller rather than IDE on board, because my board may support up to 160G only.
so IDE 1 onboard Maxtor
IDE 1 on PCI controller - WD
is this the way to go
thanks

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: beviet
so no partition in either drive right??
thanks guy
here is the right step if not correct me
IDE 1 - Maxtor 120G 2mb cache - no partion ... OS and stuff
IDE 2 - WD 180G 8mb cache - no partition also ... and by the way the last question
is it matter if the 180G drive connect to a PCI IDE controller rather than IDE on board, because my board may support up to 160G only.
so IDE 1 onboard Maxtor
IDE 1 on PCI controller - WD
is this the way to go
thanks

Using a PCI controller is fine. All of my editing drives have been run off PCI controllers w/o a problem.

I think he meant like what you are capturing to, and what you are working on. While really it shouldn't be different, some people do make it different. The device you are capturing on needs to be the fastest so it doesn't lose frames. What you work in should of course be fast, but you're not going to lose frames there, just work slower.

in this case... it makes no difference at all.

I understand the thought process here, but both drives need to be fast enough not to drop frames (getting usable playback is just as important as getting a usable capture). Personally I try to split my work 50/50 between the drives (as opposed to filling one drive up then start working on the other). When the HDDs hit around 75% capacity they could start slowing down and dropping frames. So I'd rather have both drives at 40% full then one drive at 80% full.


Lethal

 

[oldfart]

People get too hung up on HD speed for capture. For full quality DV capture, your HD needs to be able to do about 4 MB/sec which is about 1/10 the capability of modern IDE drives. Analog capture is higher depending on the resolution, compression, and codec used.

 

[thorin]

The only thing I disagree w/is there is no difference between "raw video" and "current projects" (if I understand you correctly). When editing video the software you use only refrences the video you capture, it doesn't apply any changes to it. If you apply an effect, let say you make the whole movie B&W, the software will create an exact copy of yer movie but in black and white (the source footage however remains the same). Unlike in, lets say, photo editing where you work w/the actual image file and the changes you make change the original image.

Hmmmm what I meant by raw video was:

1) Video that you add which is standard ie: credits etc....
2) Video you add that is maybe stock (animations, back drops etc....)
3) Stock audio
4) Stock stills
5) Video you dump to the comp before you're actually ready to start editing.

Perhaps that is all irrelevant for what you're doing but that's kinda what I was thinking.....

Thorin