[robdobby]

Hi! I have my camera plugged into an external firewire hard drive. I can
import video onto my internal drive with this setup no problem, but it skips
badly (both video and audio, missing about 80% of frames) when importing
directly to the external drive. I get about 13MB/sec copying files to the
external drive, so it should have plenty of speed. I am using the OSX FW
drivers, and I have 60GB free in the partition where the iMovie files are
going. If I capture to the internal drive, then copy the iMovie project to the
FW drive, it works fine, even better than the internal drive (I never get the
"drive responding slowly error"). Also, I can export from the firewire drive back to the camera fine. This is very frustrating, does anyone have
any suggestions?

Thanks!

dual USB 600Mhz iBook 384MB
OSX 10.1.5
OWC Oxford 911 firewire enclosure w/WD 7200rpm 8MB cache 120GB HD
Canon Elura (original one, about 3 years old)

[Eug]

Hmmmm... That's worrisome.

It's good to know that a slow 4200 rpm drive handles DV capture fine.

However, it is worrisome that a fast 7200 external Firewire can be problematic. How fragmented is the drive? Can you create an empty partition to be used ONLY for capture?

I've also just bought a Firewire laptop hard drive enclosure, to be used for this purpose sometimes, with a fast 4200 rpm drive. Bridge chip is Oxford 911 as well.

Now you've got me worried.

TiBook 15" 1 GHz. OS X.2.3

[snotnose]

personally i would never capture video to an external firewire drive. you are basically asking for dropped frames. not that it will happen that way for all set-ups, but its like hooking your 20 gig iPod up and capturing to it just because you can. its bound to drop frames.

i would use the external as your storage drive and definately capture to your internal. the speed difference is a lot better. do your editing there too, then if you need to back it up or move it somewhere else, use the external.

firewire 2 may change things though

[Eug]

Originally posted by snotnose:
personally i would never capture video to an external firewire drive. you are basically asking for dropped frames. not that it will happen that way for all set-ups, but its like hooking your 20 gig iPod up and capturing to it just because you can. its bound to drop frames.

i would use the external as your storage drive and definately capture to your internal. the speed difference is a lot better. do your editing there too, then if you need to back it up or move it somewhere else, use the external.

firewire 2 may change things though

The iPod is very slow. It is not a valid comparison.

If working correctly, his Firewire drive should be significantly FASTER than his internal drive. ie. 15-20 MB/s with the internal drive and 35 MB/s with the Firewire drive. In addition the Firewire drive would have much faster seek times and much lower latency. Remember he's got an Oxford 911 chipset and a fast 8 MB cache 120 GB 7200 rpm drive.

Something weird is going on, and I'd like to know what. Could it be that daisy chaining the camera through the drive drops the transfer rate?

[snotnose]

oh **** i didn't realize that he was pushing that drive, damn i want one! yeah the daisy chaining could be an issue that way. or maybe a old crappy firewire cord somewhere in the mix?

[k2director]

For the record, I capture DV to external Firewire drives all the time, with my camera at the end of the chain.

I have 7 Firewire drives (mostly 7200rpmers), and the only times I've ever had problems with dropped frames have been 1) with a crap 2-year old 80 gig Maxtor 5400 rpm without the Oxford 911 chipset, 2) a 2 year old, 30 gig 4200 rpm drive portable bus powered VST drive, without the Oxford 911 chipset, and 3) when any other drive is very full or fragmented.

Otherwise, no problems. I don't know what your particular problem could be, other than some weird issues with Firewire compatibility between that particular drive and your iBook, or perhaps you're running other apps in the background with the iBook while you capture?

You might go to www.2-pop.com, and check out their forums there. I know there are always some threads about dropped frames with Firewire drives...

[Eriamjh]

Sorry, but your problem is not your drive, your firewire, etc.

It is your Canon DV camera. For some reason, certain Canons cannot import DV to FW hard drives. They do something to the signal preventing a good stream from the camera, through the computer to the FW drive.

I have a Canon Optura and it does the same thing. My In-law's Sony does not have this problem.

Read this Apple Article. It may not list your camera, but it doesn't list mine either.

So either don't do it, or lose the Canon.

[Eug]

k2director,

Are you using current 4200 rpm drives at all?

[k2director]

THe 4200 drive I referred to is a VST portable, bus powered 30 gig model. I used to use it for capturing and editing video, but not in the last year since i have other, bigger drives for that. Now I use the VST for storage, and for fed exing files to people working with me remotely...

[Eug]

Originally posted by k2director:
THe 4200 drive I referred to is a VST portable, bus powered 30 gig model. I used to use it for capturing and editing video, but not in the last year since i have other, bigger drives for that. Now I use the VST for storage, and for fed exing files to people working with me remotely...

Thanks. Actually I was wondering if you were using any more recent 4200 rpm drives, with faster mechanisms (ie. current Toshiba or Fujitsu 60 GB drives). These drives have a much higher sequential transfer rate, but still are slow to seek, etc.

But I guess your answer would be no.

I was hoping to once in a while use it for capture (off my friends' MiniDV cams), nothing major.

[k2director]

Sorry I can't help you. But I would think if the 4200rpm I used 2 years ago could handle capturing, then a newer, faster 4200 drive could too. Bear in the mind, I had to keep my 4200 reasonably defraged, and couldn't capture confidently to it if it was filled to the brim. But both of these factors are something you can control pretty easily! Good luck!

[Eug]

Originally posted by k2director:
Sorry I can't help you. But I would think if the 4200rpm I used 2 years ago could handle capturing, then a newer, faster 4200 drive could too. Bear in the mind, I had to keep my 4200 reasonably defraged, and couldn't capture confidently to it if it was filled to the brim. But both of these factors are something you can control pretty easily! Good luck!

OK. Good to know. (It was just that you said your 4200 rpm had issues with DV capture.)

Thx.

[robdobby]

Thanks for all the feedback!

To answer the earlier question, no, the FW drive is not fragmented, I was having the dropped frames with a fresh 60GB partition. One of the cables in the chain is a Belkin in good shape, the other is a no-name one that came with the OWC enclosure, they are both 6ft. I wonder if a FW hub would help?

In the meantime, I have been capturing to the internal drive and copying the files to the external drive. I'm working with home movies, generally just an hour at a time, although now I can have a bunch of projects at once. Look for my magnum opus, "Attack of the Egg Ships", in theaters everywhere this summer...

Once again, thank you for the responses.

[awcopus]

Believe it or not, 3 ft. firewire is better than 6 ft. firewire for video work. According to Granite Digital (www.scsipro.com).