FCP X and hard drives

specialman

specialman

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Pat MacInnes
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Just being taught how to use FCPx and I need to get some new hard drives for storing files on. I'm led to believe that the faster interface the better to improve performance so looking at FW800 drives - anyone got any preferences? Am I right to dismiss USB 2.0 drives?

Was looking at this - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/lacie-d2-quadra-hard-disk-2tb-10725199-pdt.html - because it's in-store (so convenient), has various interfaces, I trust Lacie.

Just had a crash course in the software and I now have a headache :) but it looks fun and I'm starting to understand the terminology... a bit!! :lol:
 
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How about internal? SATA 6Gbps is faster than firewire.

Hard drives, especially fast ones are a must for video editing as you will spend a lot of time dealing with and encoding uncompressed files which can be huge. Also since OSX is a total load of **** and can't read the raw files from these cameras properly, you have to transcode the video to a more friendly format before you even start to edit it.

Thankfully I use Windows and I can literally drag the files from the memory card into Vegas and go from there, and my PC is powerful enough to edit 1080p in real time :)
 
ohara said:
How about internal? SATA 6Gbps is faster than firewire.

Hard drives, especially fast ones are a must for video editing as you will spend a lot of time dealing with and encoding uncompressed files which can be huge. Also since OSX is a total load of **** and can't read the raw files from these cameras properly, you have to transcode the video to a more friendly format before you even start to edit it.

Thankfully I use Windows and I can literally drag the files from the memory card into Vegas and go from there, and my PC is powerful enough to edit 1080p in real time :)
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Internal is a no-no. I need something (semi) portable and one that can be shared between different users and machines if need be. Plus, FW800 is common across all of the machines at work so it seems to make sense.

I don't know much about editing yet - just learning at the moment - but FCPx seems fine for importing straight from the camera or from a folder already on a drive. Of course, the files in video work are massive compared to my stills stuff but my new MBP seems to be handling everything fine. :)
 
I claimed my money back from Apple after buying FCPX because it couldn't do many things I took for granted. Like handle audio in a professional manor. I also got the impression that moving the project to a different machine would also be a problem, because the whole project is so embedded in the individual machine. One of the few things I loved about it was its ability to play H264 files without a transcode.
 
FCP X will do your basic video tasks fine.

One of the few things I loved about it was its ability to play H264 files without a transcode.
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yep, file compatibility is the one fantastic thing about it. Everything else, namely the complete lack of such specialist and professional features such as, y'know... being able to use two screens.... sucks....
 
oldnick said:
I claimed my money back from Apple after buying FCPX because it couldn't do many things I took for granted. Like handle audio in a professional manor. I also got the impression that moving the project to a different machine would also be a problem, because the whole project is so embedded in the individual machine. One of the few things I loved about it was its ability to play H264 files without a transcode.
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Not familiar with the requirements for good audio so can't comment in that respect. We're just producing 60sec - 5min web featurettes and content for out iPad apps. I'm the guinea pig so to speak (the rest of the guys use FCP7), although the dead of dept. produced two 30-minute DVDs through it and he said it worked great. Plus, it's been a much cheaper outlay - £200 as opposed to triple that for FCP7....
 
Just in case you didn't know, I don't think you can open FCP X files in FCP7 or vice versa, which is a shame!
 
bensilcox said:
Just in case you didn't know, I don't think you can open FCP X files in FCP7 or vice versa, which is a shame!
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Yep, this wass one of the major worries. We'll keep FCP7 on the machines that have it currently just in case we have to re-visit old projects, but it looks lie the rest of the team are going me on X after crimbo.

My new i& MBP is handling it all fine, although some more RAM is required. The interface on the software has been surprisingly easy to get a handle on - I was really worried about it being too techy and hardcore. It's very Garageband-eseque, the drag and drop interface (although I don't know how it compares to v7). It's just a case of playing now to really get to grips....
 
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