[qnc]

with a 20 GB how much DV footage can I store for editing in one sitting?

e.g. 1GB holds how many minutes of tape DV and 8mm answers please

[jac]

20 gigs hold about 90 minutes of DV. I think the DV stream is 3.6 MB/sec, but this also depends if the audio is recorded at 32 or 48 kHz.
Keep in mind that you'll need more hard drive space if your editing contains any rendering (titles, transitions, effects, etc), as the rendered images also take up 3.6 MB/sec.

[qnc]

Sounds like this is more than enough for an hours tape with titles and full on editing.

I was thinking of getting an new internal drive as mine is in a bad way so a 20 Gb drive will do. Also can you edit piece by pice and then link them together i.e. edit the first hour and then edit the second hour or is it better to go for 20 GB internal and then 20 external as well or just a 30/40 GB internal (if they have them).

Sorry this may seem obvious to you but I'm just starting out in video editing and would like to know what to get. I have the camera figured out a canon MV300i, as sold in apple store. I would have like that smaller sony one (one chip technology) but it cost £400 more and I'm not so sure that this is justified when that could buy a lot of memory to edit the stuff on.

Am I thinking in the wright way about getting started? have I missed out anything important?

[This message has been edited by qnc (edited 04-19-2001).]

[jac]

Having more hard drive space is always nice, but if you're just starting out I suspect the 20 gigs will be just fine. If you have a lot of other stuff on your drive like games and other apps you'll have a lot less than the full 20 GB so keep that in mind if your shopping for a new internal drive.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "edit piece by piece" but here goes anyway: if you want to import an hour of footage and edit it down to say 30 min, iMovie (if thats what you're using) lets you erase the unused footage so you free up some hard drive space. So, even if your drive was full after the import, after you empty the trash can you'll have the ability to import 30 minutes more and add more scenes to your movie.

Hope this clears some stuff up. If you have more questions, just post back.

[This message has been edited by jac (edited 04-19-2001).]

[qnc]

cool so I just have to think in terms of getting about an hour total time and that if I import 1 hour and edit away 15 minutes I'll only be able to import another 15 minutes