17" PB and FireWire devices

[ScottCFrancis]

I have a 17" PowerBook (1.5 GHz) and a Sony Camcorder (DCR-TRV50).

I connect the camcorder to the PowerBook via the single FireWire 400 port.

I need more space for the video footage, so I now want to add a SmartDisk FireLite FireWire drive to the mix. I'm not willing to ante up for the FireWire 800 version. (Note: If the performance is a heck of a lot better for what I'll be doing, I might be convinced.)

My question: Is it possible to daisy-chain the camcorder and the drive so they're both connected to the single FireWire 400 port at the same time?

Thanks,

Scott

 

[Sun Baked]

In Barefeats USB2.0 test they compare USB2/FW800/FW400

http://www.barefeats.com/usb2.html

Firewire 800 is faster than the drive, FW400 and USB2 aren't.

Plus the old Oxford 911 FW400 chipsets weren't exactly speed demons.

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Usually people say daisychaining the camera on the drive doesn't ALWAYS work very well.

 

[RBMaraman]

I have a 17" PowerBook (1.5 GHz) and a Sony Camcorder (DCR-TRV50).

I connect the camcorder to the PowerBook via the single FireWire 400 port.

I need more space for the video footage, so I now want to add a SmartDisk FireLite FireWire drive to the mix. I'm not willing to ante up for the FireWire 800 version. (Note: If the performance is a heck of a lot better for what I'll be doing, I might be convinced.)

My question: Is it possible to daisy-chain the camcorder and the drive so they're both connected to the single FireWire 400 port at the same time?

Thanks,

Scott

Yes. I do this all the time with my LaCie drive or my SmartDisk FireLite drive and my camcorder.

Work great with absolutely no problems.

 

[RBMaraman]

Usually people say daisychaining the camera on the drive doesn't work very well.

Hmmm... Never heard that before in my life. It's quite the contrary actually. Mind telling us where you heard this?

I've been daisy chaining cameras with FW drives for several years now and I've never experienced any problems/slowness/etc.

 

[Sun Baked]

Hmmm... Never heard that before in my life. It's quite the contrary actually. Mind telling us where you heard this?

I've been daisy chaining cameras with FW drives for several years now and I've never experienced any problems/slowness/etc.

So you never had any skipped frames at all when importing a movie directly to the FW HD while it's daisy chained with the camera?

Guess you were luckier than this guy.

Sometimes there's problems with two ports, sometimes the bandwidth will kill you with 1 port.

EDIT: And I added the always to my previous post.

 

[ScottCFrancis]

Thanks...

Thanks, everyone. This feedback is very helpful.

I'm inclined to go ahead, though some of the issues outlined concern me. I suppose I'll try for myself and see how it works.

I'm still interested to hear any additional feedback if anyone has any.

Regards,

Scott

 

[RBMaraman]

So you never had any skipped frames at all when importing a movie directly to the FW HD while it's daisy chained with the camera?

Guess you were luckier than this guy.

Sometimes there's problems with two ports, sometimes the bandwidth will kill you with 1 port.

EDIT: And I added the always to my previous post.

I've never experienced drop frames, skipped frames, or anything like that with any external FW drive I've ever worked with.

You're right about the bandwith limitations, but like I said, I'VE never experienced problems, which doesn't mean anything because some people have. But, I do know many people who daisy chain cameras and drives and they also have had excellent results. So, I guess it just varies situation to situation.

By the way, I'm using an iBook G3 500mhz and usually capture with FCP 2.

 

[WinterMute]

You can set FCP to ignore dropped frames on capture, and I had to on my old 400 Ti Powwrbook, as it reallt didn't like having the camera daisy-chained.

I bought a LaCie 250gig FW800 drive for my 17" PowerBook, and don't have a moments problem with video or audio, and it lets me use a lot more audio tracks in ProTools.

I'd say FW800 is the way to go even if you have a tolerent camera.