Q: Firewire v USB

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USB3, but not USB2.

Take a look at this article on ports and connections.

Russ

suighibne wrote:

Which is better for transferring film footage - USB or Firewire?

None.

firewire imports only dv (mini-tape)

usb imports only cards (SD/CF) or solid state mem.

Apple .. Oranges .....

from HDDs, usb3 is best in terms of 'cheap'.....

thunderbolt is best in terms of speed and 'smoothness' (usb could, theoretically, create 'hiccups')

The following is what I posted above but subsequently deleted it, hence  the empty space , as I was not sure if  transferring footage was from a camcorder or to an external hard drive.Looks like I got the THIS HELPED ME before I edited, just in case you others  are wondering.

If your camcorder is equipped with both a FireWire port and a USB port, you can only use the FireWire port to transfer film footage to your Mac.

In this case the camcorder will invariably be Tape .

If your camcorder is equipped with a USB port and NOT a FireWire port, ( yes you guessed it) you can only use the USB port.

In this case the camcorder will be e.g a Hard drive or memory card .

It would appear from your question that you have a FireWire camcorder or else you would not have a choice, so if this is the case then it would be FireWire.

I am not a FCP X user so it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further.

I have no experience of USB 3 or Thunderbolt either.

Russ and Karsten have far far more experience than I do, so I hope they will pick up on this and  provide information on the type of hard drive and it's connection that is best for you and also your comment about creating archives.

Hope you get your answer.

What are you using at present? It seems like you are using USB 2 for external storage of the captured footage, is that correct?

USB2 is slower than Firewire, theoretically USB2 is faster than FW 400, but in reality it never performs at max speed. It also has issues sustaining high data rates & is generally not great. Firewire is better at keeping up with high data rates & is less likely to be effected by other connected FW devices.

Firewire 800 is faster and Thunderbolt is screaming fast, it has a direct connection to the internal bus, making it like an internal disk.

If you have the cash & want the speed get a Thunderbolt disk, otherwise Firewire 800 should be OK. The Lacie is using a 5400 rpm disk which will be slower than an SSD or 7200rpm model, however for portability you my have a tough time beating it. I'm a bit 'meh' on Lacie rugged drives - I have seen at least 2 fail over a period of about 10 years, I'm not convinced they are as rugged as they claim.

There is this list of device bit rates that may help you get an idea of speeds, many state the max, not real world so be careful what you believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bit_rates (search in page)

I think the iLink (HDV/DV out) on the Z1 is Firewire 400, so it may be ok … if you want to be certain it will be OK, you would need to find what format you are capturing & see the bit rate for it, I suspect Firewire 800 will be OK, but double check.

The data-rate of DV is so low, in theory usb2 should handle it without fuzz.

(ok,always good to have some overhead...)

Plus, transfer of tape is real-time only - so, why discussing thunderbolt & rpms?

For handling dv, any usb3 drive is 'good enough'; TB comes into play, when handling MultiCam from several (HD) sources....

I see no use to invest into some TB-beast and neglecting the topic 'back-up'!

=> in theory, every HDD asks for its twin to care for data-security....

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

 

The data-rate of DV is so low, in theory usb2 should handle it without fuzz.

(ok,always good to have some overhead...)

Plus, transfer of tape is real-time only - so, why discussing thunderbolt & rpms?

 

For handling dv, any usb3 drive is 'good enough'; TB comes into play, when handling MultiCam from several (HD) sources....

I see no use to invest into some TB-beast and neglecting the topic 'back-up'!

=> in theory, every HDD asks for its twin to care for data-security....

Sony Z1 is HD, not just DV.

I can't recall HD rates but DV PAL is about 3.5MB/s, most decent USB thumb drives can sustain that nowadays

Drew Reece wrote:

…  Sony Z1 is HD, not just DV.

HDV - btmk, that was the same rate.....

Drew Reece wrote:

… most decent USB thumb drives can sustain that nowadays …

I lately 'discovered' for myself those usb3-sticks - wowy, that is fun!

I have to hand-out some of my unedited cam-material really fast (=copy for the coach) - drag'n drop of 8-13GBs is done in seconds...

............ ok, minutes.-

Try the firewire connection.

Firewire uses a more constant stream of data delivery.

USB 2 delivers data in packets that can be interpreted by a video stream as timecode breaks.

Probably the cause of your capture breaks.

Al