ingest data flow for FCP on Macbook pro

[harygopper]

Hi. I have a 17" macbook pro with FCP. I am going to use a firewire ext HD for editing. I need the FW port to get the video in from the camera, so do I have to ingest the footage onto the laptop through the FW800 port, then swap to the ext HD on he FW800 port and transfer the footage back out to the HD, then delete off the Macbook? It seems a bit of a long way around. is there a more efficient way, maybe using the esata port as well? can I get a firewire adaptor for the esata? thankshttps://forums.macrumors.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

 

[spinnerlys]

As Firewire is able to daisy chain up to 63 devices, you connect the FW800 HDD to your MBP, then connect the camera to the HDD with the appropriate cable and capture onto the HDD. You can also use the USB 2.0 port on the HDD and MBP to connect the HDD with the MBP, if you use a DV camera. We do that at work and haven't had any dropouts with any of our 200 DV tapes we ingested till today for our current project.

 

[mBox]

As Firewire is able to daisy chain up to 63 devices....

Ive tested gear from Canon XL1 (DV) to Sony XDCAM through a GRAID2 4TB using FW800. The cam gear is FW400 so you will need some connectors.
Their cheap and worth it.
There is the speed rule that you have to take into account.
The slowest being the last on the chain I think? I forget now
Someone please clarify

 

[spinnerlys]

Ive tested gear from Canon XL1 (DV) to Sony XDCAM through a GRAID2 4TB using FW800. The cam gear is FW400 so you will need some connectors.
Their cheap and worth it.
There is the speed rule that you have to take into account.
The slowest being the last on the chain I think? I forget now
Someone please clarify

If you have one FW400 device connected to the FW800 device connected to a FW800 port, you get FW800 speeds with the FW800 device, that's what I read at least.

But as DV only has a data rate of 3.125MB/s, even USB 2.0 or FW400 will do.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Daisy-chaining typically works but it isn't 100%. If it doesn't work you can always get an eSATA or FW800 card for the ExpressCARD slot. The FW bus will only run as fast as the slowest device attached to it so if you daisy-chain a FW800 device and a FW400 device the whole chain will operate at FW400 speeds.


Lethal

 

[spinnerlys]

The FW bus will only run as fast as the slowest device attached to it so if you daisy-chain a FW800 device and a FW400 device the whole chain will operate at FW400 speeds.


Lethal

That's what I thought too, until someone corrected me on that. I will it try later at work with connecting a DV camera to a FW800 HDD connected to a Mac via the FW800 port.

 

[mBox]

That's what I thought too, until someone corrected me on that. I will it try later at work with connecting a DV camera to a FW800 HDD connected to a Mac via the FW800 port.

Nothing wrong with FW400. Im running Avid DNxHD 220 codec files off a FW400 at the moment. As long as your doing it to ingest then dis-connect and move back to the FW800 port, you should be fine.