GS 100K newbie questions

Alex Zabrovsky · October 22nd, 2003, 02:37 PM

Yeah, forgot about audio indeed, but that needs a measurable amount of bandwidth comparative to video.

Bogdan Vaglarov · October 22nd, 2003, 06:30 PM

<<Yes I'm capturing video first to external drive from camera then sending back creating master.>>

Using USB? Aren't you using the 1394 to PC for capture and back to tape. See the main question which started this thread. The man's wondering if he needs 1394 to capture video.

It's good to know you can stream to and from external HDD via USB2. But the cam is using IEEE1394 to transfer to the PC/Mac which handles the external drive.

Bogdan Vaglarov · October 22nd, 2003, 06:44 PM

<Can the USB cable that the camera comes with be used to capture video to a computer beyond simple images or mpeg movies?> - NO

<I've been trying to get Premiere and MS Movie Maker to capture video ...
Am I doing something wrong, or trying the impossible?> - IMPOSSIBLE

<Will I have to buy a firewire cord> - YES
<Can the DV Studio 3.3 program ... be used to capture video> - NOT SURE

But if you have Premiere it's much better anyway!

Jamie Patterson · October 22nd, 2003, 07:26 PM

Thanks for all the advice guys! Very helpful.
You really know your stuff too.
I used to work at Trailervision.com doing lots of shooting and video editting using PD 150s and Canon XL1s, but we always used firewire for everything. Just curious if USB could do the same thing. Guess not huh?

You are welcome to stop by my two websites, http://www.Silversow.com (a video portal, movie filter type site) or http://www.avoidinglife.com (my blog about life in Japan).
I'll be shooting lots of videos and uploading them to both sites in the comming weeks as soon as I get my firewire cable.

later,
Jamie

Mike Cecotka · October 22nd, 2003, 10:03 PM

Hi Bogdan,

>>Using USB? Aren't you using the 1394 to PC for capture and back to tape. See the main question which started this thread. The man's wondering if he needs 1394 to capture video. <<

Yes I'm using USB 2 to capture video.
Yes he needs firewire port to connect camera - I don't know if at this point there is camera with High Speed USB 2 OUT.

If next question comes to mind why not to daisy chain firewire camera to external firewire drive.

I used that configuration for over a year.
It's heavy, large and needs power suply.
Did I mentioned that this little puppy 60 GB which really fits into your shirt pocket dosen't need power supply.

I did some editing in Europe this summer so I need portability.

So here is my setup
Camera firewire connected bypasses laptop to external USB 2 pocket drive. Average 3 hours per project. No single frame drop in over 100 hours of footage editing.

Mike

Jamie Patterson · October 22nd, 2003, 11:26 PM

So let me ask something..

My plan is to hook up my gs100k via firewire and then record video to an external drive via USB that is hooked up to my laptop. Judging from the discussion thus far, this sounds like it should be fine right? The USB2 connected harddrive will be fast enough to act as a scratch disk. Is it not recommended to use my computer's internal drive to record video, or is that okay too?

Mike Cecotka · October 23rd, 2003, 06:47 AM

Yes you can use laptop drive too.
I have external because I'm editing 2 projects at the same time.
My internal 60GB is split 10 gb system and 50 gb video.
Just make sure External is USB 2 and your computer is fast and "modern" with built in USB 2 ports.
Mike

Bogdan Vaglarov · October 23rd, 2003, 06:33 PM

I don't want to get in discussion here and it’s great that Mike has great results with such a set up. Yeah, modern laptop should be able to coop with this tasks as shown by Mike.

However the disc where the system files/OS are, is frequently accessed from the software so it’s always good idea to use separate physical drive for capturing video.

Seeing from the previous posts that the DV stream is only about 4 MB/s and modern systems have minimum of 10-15 what Mike says is possible. Bare in mind that the single drive (no matter how many partitions you made) have usually 1 platter with 1 head which has to read the software to execute your actions and in the same time to write your video stream. For editing this is no problem (just slow), but for capture? May be the results will vary case by case.

And finally – the video capture interface is IEEE1394 (firewire). The storage interface can be any – USB2 and laptop internal IDE (as Mike chose), firewire external and of coarse desktop – Parallel ATA and Serial ATA.

Jamie Patterson · October 25th, 2003, 07:40 PM

Okay, so I bought a firewire cable and a USB external hard drive.
I hooked it all up and am capturing video.. BUT when I use the USB drive as a scratch disk Premier starts dropping frames like crazy and the resulting video is unwatchable. I don't know for sure, but my fear is that my laptop might only have USB1.1 and not USB2. I just bought it a few months ago, so I assumed it uses USB2, but I just don't know.

My question is.. how do you figure out what version of USB your computer has installed on it. When I look in the device manager all it ever says is USB this, and that.. but it never says which version. Any idea?

Also! My computer has one firewire connector which I use to hook up my camera to the computer. My external drive has an "i-Connect" slot on the back which the manual claims can be used (with an adapter) to connect two firewire cables. At least thats what I think the manual claims, because its in Japanese.

My second question is.. if it turns out that I can't use USB to capture video, is there a way to connect two firewire cables into my laptop even though there is only one firewire slot?

I'm sorry if any of this seems really obvious to you guys, but I'm kind of a USB2/Firewire newbie in a lot of ways.

Jamie

Jamie Patterson · October 26th, 2003, 08:04 AM

Okay never mind..
I'm pretty sure my laptop doesn't have USB2. USB under device manager should say 'enhanced' but mine doesn't.
That's annoying.. I just bought this laptop. I can't believe it has USB 1.1 only. Don't buy HP Pavilions everyone! They suck.

Guess I'll have to buy a USB2 buscard.

Clive Muskus · October 26th, 2003, 03:18 PM

Hi Jamie,
Keep asking simple questiions, don't be afraid. I am learning a lot!. I will be going through your pains in a couple of months when GS100k comes to Europe.
Clive.

October 22nd, 2003, 07:26 PM	#19
Jamie Patterson Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 31	thanks! Thanks for all the advice guys! Very helpful. You really know your stuff too. I used to work at Trailervision.com doing lots of shooting and video editting using PD 150s and Canon XL1s, but we always used firewire for everything. Just curious if USB could do the same thing. Guess not huh? You are welcome to stop by my two websites, http://www.Silversow.com (a video portal, movie filter type site) or http://www.avoidinglife.com (my blog about life in Japan). I'll be shooting lots of videos and uploading them to both sites in the comming weeks as soon as I get my firewire cable. later, Jamie

October 26th, 2003, 03:18 PM	#26
Clive Muskus New Boot Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Lanzarote, Spain Posts: 12	Hi Jamie, Keep asking simple questiions, don't be afraid. I am learning a lot!. I will be going through your pains in a couple of months when GS100k comes to Europe. Clive. __________________ Clive

October 22nd, 2003, 02:37 PM	#16
Alex Zabrovsky Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 175	Yeah, forgot about audio indeed, but that needs a measurable amount of bandwidth comparative to video.

October 22nd, 2003, 06:30 PM	#17
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	<<Yes I'm capturing video first to external drive from camera then sending back creating master.>> Using USB? Aren't you using the 1394 to PC for capture and back to tape. See the main question which started this thread. The man's wondering if he needs 1394 to capture video. It's good to know you can stream to and from external HDD via USB2. But the cam is using IEEE1394 to transfer to the PC/Mac which handles the external drive.

October 22nd, 2003, 06:44 PM	#18
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	<Can the USB cable that the camera comes with be used to capture video to a computer beyond simple images or mpeg movies?> - NO <I've been trying to get Premiere and MS Movie Maker to capture video ... Am I doing something wrong, or trying the impossible?> - IMPOSSIBLE <Will I have to buy a firewire cord> - YES <Can the DV Studio 3.3 program ... be used to capture video> - NOT SURE But if you have Premiere it's much better anyway!

October 22nd, 2003, 10:03 PM	#20
Mike Cecotka Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Toronto Posts: 53	Hi Bogdan, >>Using USB? Aren't you using the 1394 to PC for capture and back to tape. See the main question which started this thread. The man's wondering if he needs 1394 to capture video. << Yes I'm using USB 2 to capture video. Yes he needs firewire port to connect camera - I don't know if at this point there is camera with High Speed USB 2 OUT. If next question comes to mind why not to daisy chain firewire camera to external firewire drive. I used that configuration for over a year. It's heavy, large and needs power suply. Did I mentioned that this little puppy 60 GB which really fits into your shirt pocket dosen't need power supply. I did some editing in Europe this summer so I need portability. So here is my setup Camera firewire connected bypasses laptop to external USB 2 pocket drive. Average 3 hours per project. No single frame drop in over 100 hours of footage editing. Mike

October 22nd, 2003, 11:26 PM	#21
Jamie Patterson Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 31	So let me ask something.. My plan is to hook up my gs100k via firewire and then record video to an external drive via USB that is hooked up to my laptop. Judging from the discussion thus far, this sounds like it should be fine right? The USB2 connected harddrive will be fast enough to act as a scratch disk. Is it not recommended to use my computer's internal drive to record video, or is that okay too?

October 23rd, 2003, 06:47 AM	#22
Mike Cecotka Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Toronto Posts: 53	Yes you can use laptop drive too. I have external because I'm editing 2 projects at the same time. My internal 60GB is split 10 gb system and 50 gb video. Just make sure External is USB 2 and your computer is fast and "modern" with built in USB 2 ports. Mike

October 23rd, 2003, 06:33 PM	#23
Bogdan Vaglarov Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Yokohama, Japan Posts: 366	I don't want to get in discussion here and it’s great that Mike has great results with such a set up. Yeah, modern laptop should be able to coop with this tasks as shown by Mike. However the disc where the system files/OS are, is frequently accessed from the software so it’s always good idea to use separate physical drive for capturing video. Seeing from the previous posts that the DV stream is only about 4 MB/s and modern systems have minimum of 10-15 what Mike says is possible. Bare in mind that the single drive (no matter how many partitions you made) have usually 1 platter with 1 head which has to read the software to execute your actions and in the same time to write your video stream. For editing this is no problem (just slow), but for capture? May be the results will vary case by case. And finally – the video capture interface is IEEE1394 (firewire). The storage interface can be any – USB2 and laptop internal IDE (as Mike chose), firewire external and of coarse desktop – Parallel ATA and Serial ATA.

October 25th, 2003, 07:40 PM	#24
Jamie Patterson Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 31	Okay, so I bought a firewire cable and a USB external hard drive. I hooked it all up and am capturing video.. BUT when I use the USB drive as a scratch disk Premier starts dropping frames like crazy and the resulting video is unwatchable. I don't know for sure, but my fear is that my laptop might only have USB1.1 and not USB2. I just bought it a few months ago, so I assumed it uses USB2, but I just don't know. My question is.. how do you figure out what version of USB your computer has installed on it. When I look in the device manager all it ever says is USB this, and that.. but it never says which version. Any idea? Also! My computer has one firewire connector which I use to hook up my camera to the computer. My external drive has an "i-Connect" slot on the back which the manual claims can be used (with an adapter) to connect two firewire cables. At least thats what I think the manual claims, because its in Japanese. My second question is.. if it turns out that I can't use USB to capture video, is there a way to connect two firewire cables into my laptop even though there is only one firewire slot? I'm sorry if any of this seems really obvious to you guys, but I'm kind of a USB2/Firewire newbie in a lot of ways. Jamie

October 26th, 2003, 08:04 AM	#25
Jamie Patterson Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 31	Okay never mind.. I'm pretty sure my laptop doesn't have USB2. USB under device manager should say 'enhanced' but mine doesn't. That's annoying.. I just bought this laptop. I can't believe it has USB 1.1 only. Don't buy HP Pavilions everyone! They suck. Guess I'll have to buy a USB2 buscard.