Is Firewire enough for capturing HD media? at DVinfo.net

Erhan Gucel · March 27th, 2007, 04:35 PM

A friend of mine said "Firewire doesn't have enough bandwidth to capture from a camera". Is it true? Because I shot my short film in 720p25 format with HD111 and I'm planning to capture 2 hour of footage via Firewire using Adobe Premiere 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD.

Is it enough?

Chris Barcellos · March 27th, 2007, 04:47 PM

Yes. HDV is about the same bandwidth as DV. It will capture fine from your HDV tape source. The real issue is whether your system can handle HDV editing after capture.

David Parks · March 27th, 2007, 04:49 PM

Erhan,

You should not have any problems. HDV 1 (720p) is a compressed HD 1280/720p data stream running at 19 megabits per second. Firewire can handle up to 400 megabits per second. Plenty fast. So, your friend is misinformed.

Good Luck.

Dana Salsbury · March 27th, 2007, 04:59 PM

The only problem I've ever had is in rendering a 15 minute ceremony. It would freeze up at 5%. I then found an article that suggested rendering to an internal drive instead of through a firewire to an external. I tried it an it worked. The thing is, though, I had never had that problem before. Perhaps it was a fluke.

Erhan Gucel · March 27th, 2007, 05:07 PM

Thanks for the reply all of you.

I'm planning to do this: will buy a 320 GB Sata Hard disc, and will buy a HDD case to connect HDD to my comp. via USB or firewire and capture the media to it in a 1:1 ratio. (I mean no compression). I have 2 full tapes (120 min of footage)
So how many Gigs needed? And this way of capturing is ok?

My System's spec:
AMD64 3200+ (overclocked to 4000)
1 GB DDR ram
nvidia 7950GT 512 MB
120 MB IDE HDD (and 320 GB SATA)
Win XP Pro.

Is it enough?

Jack Walker · March 28th, 2007, 12:07 AM

Here's an old thread with a posts by Tim Dashwood, Werner Wesp and others that answer your questions about size:

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=77329

Chris Barcellos · March 28th, 2007, 12:57 AM

Once the video is on the tape, the compression is there. No changing that.

So you need somewhere in the area of 13 gigs per hour of tape to capture to .m2t files. If you use an intermediate like cineforms, figure about 30 gigs.

Dana Salsbury · March 28th, 2007, 05:21 AM

If you're going external, I use a 320G Western Digital external via firewire. (Don't mess with USB.) I swear by WD, as I have dropped it onto a hardwood floor and it has never failed. If you're going to go bigger in the future, Best Buy has a new-fangled external RAID hard drive system that looks promising, and is expandible up to 2TB. I don't recall the manufacturer.

You might check into an internal raid system if you have space in your comp.

Drew Curran · March 28th, 2007, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erhan Gucel

A friend of mine said "Firewire doesn't have enough bandwidth to capture from a camera". Is it true? Because I shot my short film in 720p25 format with HD111 and I'm planning to capture 2 hour of footage via Firewire using Adobe Premiere 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD.

Is it enough?

Uncompressed HD would be impossible to capture via firewire - perhaps this is what your friend meant?

Drew

Keith Winstein · March 29th, 2007, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drew Curran

Uncompressed HD would be impossible to capture via firewire

Certainly, the HD100 doesn't support sending uncompressed HD over Firewire, but it would be possible. 1280x720/30P 4:2:0 video is only 332 megabits/sec, and 1280x720/30P 4:2:2 video is only 442 megabits/sec. A device could send those signals over Firewire 400 and Firewire 800, respectively. Obviously, though, the best thing you get from the HD100's Firewire 400 is a 19 megabit/sec MPEG-2 compressed 1280x720/30P 4:2:0 signal.

Drew Curran · March 30th, 2007, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Winstein

Certainly, the HD100 doesn't support sending uncompressed HD over Firewire, but it would be possible. 1280x720/30P 4:2:0 video is only 332 megabits/sec, and 1280x720/30P 4:2:2 video is only 442 megabits/sec. A device could send those signals over Firewire 400 and Firewire 800, respectively. Obviously, though, the best thing you get from the HD100's Firewire 400 is a 19 megabit/sec MPEG-2 compressed 1280x720/30P 4:2:0 signal.

The figures might look good, but in reality I'd doubt it would work. All the big studios would be trippin gover themselves to use basic firewire drives...

March 27th, 2007, 04:35 PM	#1
Erhan Gucel Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Istanbul Posts: 31	Is Firewire enough for capturing HD media? A friend of mine said "Firewire doesn't have enough bandwidth to capture from a camera". Is it true? Because I shot my short film in 720p25 format with HD111 and I'm planning to capture 2 hour of footage via Firewire using Adobe Premiere 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD. Is it enough?

March 27th, 2007, 04:47 PM	#2
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Yes. HDV is about the same bandwidth as DV. It will capture fine from your HDV tape source. The real issue is whether your system can handle HDV editing after capture. __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

March 27th, 2007, 04:49 PM	#3
David Parks Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Houston Posts: 789	Erhan, You should not have any problems. HDV 1 (720p) is a compressed HD 1280/720p data stream running at 19 megabits per second. Firewire can handle up to 400 megabits per second. Plenty fast. So, your friend is misinformed. Good Luck. __________________ David Parks: DP/Editor: Jacobs Aerospace at NASA Johnson Space Center https://www.youtube.com/user/JacobsESCG

March 28th, 2007, 12:57 AM	#7
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Once the video is on the tape, the compression is there. No changing that. So you need somewhere in the area of 13 gigs per hour of tape to capture to .m2t files. If you use an intermediate like cineforms, figure about 30 gigs. __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

March 27th, 2007, 04:59 PM	#4
Dana Salsbury Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 859	The only problem I've ever had is in rendering a 15 minute ceremony. It would freeze up at 5%. I then found an article that suggested rendering to an internal drive instead of through a firewire to an external. I tried it an it worked. The thing is, though, I had never had that problem before. Perhaps it was a fluke.

March 27th, 2007, 05:07 PM	#5
Erhan Gucel Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Istanbul Posts: 31	Thanks for the reply all of you. I'm planning to do this: will buy a 320 GB Sata Hard disc, and will buy a HDD case to connect HDD to my comp. via USB or firewire and capture the media to it in a 1:1 ratio. (I mean no compression). I have 2 full tapes (120 min of footage) So how many Gigs needed? And this way of capturing is ok? My System's spec: AMD64 3200+ (overclocked to 4000) 1 GB DDR ram nvidia 7950GT 512 MB 120 MB IDE HDD (and 320 GB SATA) Win XP Pro. Is it enough?

March 28th, 2007, 12:07 AM	#6
Jack Walker Trustee Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Burbank Posts: 1,811	Here's an old thread with a posts by Tim Dashwood, Werner Wesp and others that answer your questions about size: http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=77329

March 28th, 2007, 05:21 AM	#8
Dana Salsbury Major Player Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 859	If you're going external, I use a 320G Western Digital external via firewire. (Don't mess with USB.) I swear by WD, as I have dropped it onto a hardwood floor and it has never failed. If you're going to go bigger in the future, Best Buy has a new-fangled external RAID hard drive system that looks promising, and is expandible up to 2TB. I don't recall the manufacturer. You might check into an internal raid system if you have space in your comp.