Posted by PTravel on 12/23/69 11:27

"Michaelv" <mvoloNOSPAM@acpub.duke.edu> wrote in message
news:11j92lb7a5i1c86@corp.supernews.com...
> 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.

I routinely use external Firewire drives for capturing and editing. Your
mileage may vary, but I've never had any problems.

>
> 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).

Whereas I have run into the occassional problem doing what you're
describing. I use a dedicated 1394 port for capturing from the camera, and
a separate port for external drives. Perhaps you could a 1394
pcmcia/cardbus adapter?

>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?

That's the only way I was able to reliably capture to my system (a 3.2 GHz
P4 desktop).

>
> 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?:

If you're capturing DV-25, external drives shouldn't be a problem. I have 5
internal drives (4 for data), an external USB drive and an external 1394
drive, for a total of 1.25 terabytes. I see no difference between the
internal or external drives PROVIDED that I don't also try to use the same
1394 port for capturing from the camera.

>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Mike
>
>

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