[MacDV] Re: Mac mini DV capture?

[Michael Winter]

On Jan 18, 2005, at 9:44 PM, Daniel Beck wrote:

>
> On Jan 18, 2005, at 3:11 AM, David Cole wrote:
>
>> It's never a great idea to capture DV to your internal drive:
>
> I agree with this since we are talking about a Mac with only one 
> internal drive (the Mini).

Just to toss in a different viewpoint, I don't see (and haven't had) 
any problems capturing to the internal drive, even if it is the only 
one. I used to do it all the time with my trusty old iMac DV (400 MHz 
G3). Even running until the drive was full didn't cause a problem 
-unless the drive was too fragmented, then I'd start losing frames near 
the "end".

I mentioned all the above partly to illustrate how "little" computer 
and drive horsepower it takes to capture DV in terms of today's 
hardware. As I've said before, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a 
new drive being sold today that couldn't keep up.

Having said that, if you're going to be doing this as more than just an 
occasional home hobby, it really does make life easier to have a 
separate drive. I eventually added a 60 GB Firewire drive (5400 rpm -no 
speed demon) to my iMac DV setup, which also worked great. Although the 
iMac DV is now the kids' computer, that drive still works for video 
stuff.

-Mike