Anyone used an external FireWire 800 HD with a Mac? at DVinfo.net

Nick Weeks · August 20th, 2006, 10:13 PM

Has anyone used this hard drive?

non-sponsor link edited out

It's a Lacie external 600GB drive with a FireWire 800 interface... a freat buy for $320! My internal drives are just too small for the amount of video work I've been doing lately, so I'm considering this as a good disk to capture my footage on.

What I'm concerned with is the speed. How does it compare to an internal drive? I know FireWire 800 is supposed to be exremely fast, but I'm a little worried for video performace.

I edit SD with Final Cut Pro 5 on the 2GHz dual-core G5

Nate Weaver · August 20th, 2006, 11:20 PM

A drive like this is good up to about 60mb/sec read and a little slower write. Enough speed even for uncompressed work, although it will bog down in places.

Way way way more than fast enough for DV work.

Philip Skaist · August 22nd, 2006, 02:49 PM

like nate said it's more than enough for DV. I edit 720P DVCpro HD from an HVX on a firewire 800. Also I would check out the reliability of Lacie. I've had many problems with their "big disk" a firewire 800 disk. If i have my info correct, they have two 250 gig hard drives and its in a raid configuration. Good luck!

Matt Crane · August 23rd, 2006, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philip Skaist

like nate said it's more than enough for DV. I edit 720P DVCpro HD from an HVX on a firewire 800. Also I would check out the reliability of Lacie. I've had many problems with their "big disk" a firewire 800 disk. If i have my info correct, they have two 250 gig hard drives and its in a raid configuration. Good luck!

Some of their drives do have 2 internal drives, however I know the model I have is actually 1 5.25" 500GB drive. I haven't had any problems with mine.

But worth checking out.....

Loren Miller · August 23rd, 2006, 12:12 PM

I'm a longtime LaCie user but you have to be careful with them. I lost an entire drive due to a lightning strike and not even Diskwarrior could recover it.

They are perfect for multistream DV-- IF

1) you plug them in carefully at each end before powering up.
2) you don't daisychain them. Bring each drive in to a plug separately.
3) you plug them into a host adapter card-- get them off the main FW bus and any bus shared with your capture deck, camera, or an iSight camera.
4) you don't get any FW drive beyond 160 GB. More than this is a lot of data to lose and restore.

These days, I'm looking at SATA solutions.

HTH

- Loren

Julian Banos · August 30th, 2006, 05:55 AM

I'm editing with an 800 fw external hard drive. I'm using HDV and DVCpro hd and so far I have not had a problem.
It's not a LaCie, it's a G-TECH hard drive. I tried to capture 720p uncompressed, but I was not able to. So if you stay with DV, HDV and DVCpro HD you should not have a problem.

Daniel Stevenson · August 30th, 2006, 06:20 AM

Sometimes with my Lacie drives they just don't appear on my desktop. It took a bit of digging around and then I found something on this board (maybe another, not sure) that mentioned the problem isn't the drive but the power supply.

What I've found is that when you turn off your drive ALSO switch off the power to the power box. Leaving it on standby when your drive is off seems to be the cause of this non-appearance.

Chris Hocking · August 30th, 2006, 06:39 AM

Loren, what's the problem with daisy chaining them? I've got three Lacie's daisy chained at the moment, and haven't noticed any issues. Should I be scared?

Cal Thorpe · August 30th, 2006, 10:25 AM

I always go with Other World Computing. I buy the Mercury Elite Pro FW 800. Extremely reliable. Mac magazines always rate them super high. They're made just for Macs. You can daisy chain. I've got four DC'd right now editing 720p HD with AIC.

Scott Loiselle · August 31st, 2006, 07:12 PM

Hi folks. I have a dual FW800 dockable thing from Wiebetech, as well as some of their other stuff. They're mac freaks and make very good products. It's a bit more dough but I try to 'buy it once, buy it right' when I can afford to.

Best, Scott Loiselle

August 20th, 2006, 10:13 PM	#1
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Anyone used an external FireWire 800 HD with a Mac? Has anyone used this hard drive? non-sponsor link edited out It's a Lacie external 600GB drive with a FireWire 800 interface... a freat buy for $320! My internal drives are just too small for the amount of video work I've been doing lately, so I'm considering this as a good disk to capture my footage on. What I'm concerned with is the speed. How does it compare to an internal drive? I know FireWire 800 is supposed to be exremely fast, but I'm a little worried for video performace. I edit SD with Final Cut Pro 5 on the 2GHz dual-core G5

August 20th, 2006, 11:20 PM	#2
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	A drive like this is good up to about 60mb/sec read and a little slower write. Enough speed even for uncompressed work, although it will bog down in places. Way way way more than fast enough for DV work. __________________ My Work: nateweaver.net

August 22nd, 2006, 02:49 PM	#3
Philip Skaist Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Lakewood, NJ Posts: 41	like nate said it's more than enough for DV. I edit 720P DVCpro HD from an HVX on a firewire 800. Also I would check out the reliability of Lacie. I've had many problems with their "big disk" a firewire 800 disk. If i have my info correct, they have two 250 gig hard drives and its in a raid configuration. Good luck!

August 23rd, 2006, 12:12 PM	#5
Loren Miller Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 34	I'm a longtime LaCie user but you have to be careful with them. I lost an entire drive due to a lightning strike and not even Diskwarrior could recover it. They are perfect for multistream DV-- IF 1) you plug them in carefully at each end before powering up. 2) you don't daisychain them. Bring each drive in to a plug separately. 3) you plug them into a host adapter card-- get them off the main FW bus and any bus shared with your capture deck, camera, or an iSight camera. 4) you don't get any FW drive beyond 160 GB. More than this is a lot of data to lose and restore. These days, I'm looking at SATA solutions. HTH - Loren

August 30th, 2006, 05:55 AM	#6
Julian Banos New Boot Join Date: May 2006 Location: SF, Ca Posts: 6	I'm editing with an 800 fw external hard drive. I'm using HDV and DVCpro hd and so far I have not had a problem. It's not a LaCie, it's a G-TECH hard drive. I tried to capture 720p uncompressed, but I was not able to. So if you stay with DV, HDV and DVCpro HD you should not have a problem.

August 30th, 2006, 06:20 AM	#7
Daniel Stevenson Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 60	Sometimes with my Lacie drives they just don't appear on my desktop. It took a bit of digging around and then I found something on this board (maybe another, not sure) that mentioned the problem isn't the drive but the power supply. What I've found is that when you turn off your drive ALSO switch off the power to the power box. Leaving it on standby when your drive is off seems to be the cause of this non-appearance.

August 30th, 2006, 06:39 AM	#8
Chris Hocking Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 595	Loren, what's the problem with daisy chaining them? I've got three Lacie's daisy chained at the moment, and haven't noticed any issues. Should I be scared?

August 30th, 2006, 10:25 AM	#9
Cal Thorpe Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: United States Posts: 31	I always go with Other World Computing. I buy the Mercury Elite Pro FW 800. Extremely reliable. Mac magazines always rate them super high. They're made just for Macs. You can daisy chain. I've got four DC'd right now editing 720p HD with AIC.

August 31st, 2006, 07:12 PM	#10
Scott Loiselle New Boot Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 10	Hi folks. I have a dual FW800 dockable thing from Wiebetech, as well as some of their other stuff. They're mac freaks and make very good products. It's a bit more dough but I try to 'buy it once, buy it right' when I can afford to. Best, Scott Loiselle