[MacDV] Trying To Figure Out What to Buy

[Mark M. Florida]

The one thing that may allow you to do everything via FireWire would be a
FireWire PC card.  By adding a separate FireWire card to your CardBus PC
(PCMCIA) slot, you'll essentially add an entirely separate FireWire bus,
thus eliminating contention on the built-in port.  So, you could connect
your drives to the PC card and connect your camera to the built-in port.
You may also be able to find FireWire 800 PC cards in the near future (just
speculating here -- I haven't even seen any FW800 PC cards announced yet).

So...  You may want to give that a try.

Anyone on the list have any experience with this type of setup?

And about the DVD burner in a FireWire case -- MAKE SURE THE CASE SUPPORTS
OPTICAL DRIVES!  I got an ADS case last year expecting to install the
DVD-RAM drive that I removed from my G4/500 at work, and it didn't work at
all.  The tech at ADS said I could either send it to them to change the
firmware or I could connect it to a PC and do it myself.  Neither of those
seemed like a good option for me, so I used the case for a hard drive
instead.

- Mark


> Hi,
> 
> I have a TiBook 550 and I want to use it for video editing.  I replaced
> a G4/400 tower that I used to use for video editing so I already have
> the software I need (FCP 3) but I am missing two things: adequate disk
> space and a DVD burner.
> 
> About the first, I have considered upgrading the internal HD from 20 GB
> to 60 or more but the cost for a high-performance large capacity laptop
> hard drive is significantly higher than a 3.5 inch drive + a FW
> enclosure.  So I would rather go that route.  I fully realize that I
> can use multiple FW devices daisy-chained but will I run into problems
> attempting to capture video to a FW drive that's on the same FW bus as
> the video camera is?  Similarly, if I buy a FW DVD burner and want to
> burn video from my FW HD to it, will that be a problem?
> 
> As far as the DVD burner goes, my goal is to buy an internal burner off
> of eBay + a FireWire enclosure.  Other than the fact that iDVD won't
> support it, are there any things in particular I should look out for?
> Any particular brands/models to avoid or to steer towards?
> 
> I'm obviously hoping that my FireWire port can handle all my video
> capture, storage and burning needs but I'm skeptical and if you've got
> some experience/advice to help me out, I'd appreciate it greatly.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Ryan