Posted by Michaelv on 12/23/44 11:27

I have a laptop (Sony VGN-FS640 1.6GHz, 80gb hd, 80gb firewire/USB external
hd). The laptop has only one firewire input (ilink by Sony). I have
previously captured video into Pinnacle Studio by connecting the digital
camcorder directly to the laptop 1394 input and capturing to the laptop
internal hd (having temporarily disconnected the external hd).

1. Is the external hd fast enough for video capture? It has more space.

2. If I want to use the external firewire drive for capture, I have to plug
the external drive into the laptop and then piggy back the camcorder onto
the external drive's second 1394 socket. I tried capturing this way, but the
audio seemed more hashy when the firewire bus was extended this way (I think
each firewire cord was about 6 feet). Does extending the firewire bus make
things more noise vulnerable? Should I invest in a PCMCIA firewire card in
order to get more onboard firewire inputs?

3. Would it be better for real-time activities such as capture to be
confined to the internal hd, and then move the capture file to the more
spacious external hd for non-realtime activities such as editing?:

Thanks in advance,

Mike

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