I just purchased a lacie external hd. It uses firewire instead of usb 2.0. If I buy a firewire hub, can I import my video straight to the lacie from my mini dv camcorder? Or, do I need to return it for a 2.0 model? My PB only has one firewire port, so am I screwed? Thanks.
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Question about firewire hard drive...
- Thread starter nospleen
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You should be able to daisy-chain them and and import your DV (using iTunes or FCP) onto your external drive.
i_b_joshua
i_b_joshua
In regards to your original question, you probably have to still use the computer. Firewire doesn't inherently need a computer (like USB), but the camera or the hard drive would need software onboard to make the transfer happen.
As for daisy-chaining, the hard drive should have two Firewire ports. Just plug the hard drive into the computer and the camera into the hard drive. Even though you'll be using the computer to make the transfer happen, hopefully the data will go directly from the camera to the hard drive.
With USB, the processor has to handle every chunk of data. That's why USB 2.0 is theoretically faster than Firewire 400 (480 Mbits versus 400 Mbits per second), but Firewire wins in real world tests. If you're transfering data from your Firewire hard drive to your internal hard drive, the processor has little to do with it and you'll see speed loss on your system (unless you are doing another disk operation or heavy into virtual memory.)
As for daisy-chaining, the hard drive should have two Firewire ports. Just plug the hard drive into the computer and the camera into the hard drive. Even though you'll be using the computer to make the transfer happen, hopefully the data will go directly from the camera to the hard drive.
With USB, the processor has to handle every chunk of data. That's why USB 2.0 is theoretically faster than Firewire 400 (480 Mbits versus 400 Mbits per second), but Firewire wins in real world tests. If you're transfering data from your Firewire hard drive to your internal hard drive, the processor has little to do with it and you'll see speed loss on your system (unless you are doing another disk operation or heavy into virtual memory.)