what's a scratch disk?

In the Final Cut Express menu go to System Settings. The first panel lets you set the capture scratch and other locations.

Tom Wolsky wrote:
In the Final Cut Express menu go to System Settings. The first panel lets you set the capture scratch and other locations.

Thanks Tom,

But which ones do I adjust ? I also looked at page 49 of your book.

Do I tick all the 4 boxes (Video Capture, Audio Capture, Video Render, Audio Render) on the top window or do I set the Waveform Cache, Thumbnail Cache, Autosave Vault ?

But why are there 4 rows of Video Capture, Audio Capture, Video Render, Audio Render ?

Thanks

Video and audio capture go together. You can set audio and video renders to wherever you want. usually they're sent to the media drive. The cache files and the vault can go wherever you want as well. The book discusses this.

There are more than four rows. There are 12. You can set up to 12 separate devices which the application will fill sequentially based on the minimum allowed free space which you can also set in the panel.

Tom Wolsky wrote:
Video and audio capture go together. You can set audio and video renders to wherever you want. usually they're sent to the media drive. The cache files and the vault can go wherever you want as well. The book discusses this.

There are more than four rows. There are 12. You can set up to 12 separate devices which the application will fill sequentially based on the minimum allowed free space which you can also set in the panel.

Thanks Tom for your explanation which I really appreciate.

Now I have some worries.

You see, I bought a Lacie FireWire 800 external 500GB Harddisk. I wanted to put all the media files into this external harddrive.

But I have also connected this Lacie to the Time Machine. I noticed that Time Machine keeps on doing backup on my Lacie external harddrive. I was thinking, soon my Lacie will be run out of space and full of Time machine backups & there will not be enough space for my media files, right ?

What shall I do ?

Thanks again.

Get another drive to do Time Machine.

Thanks Tom,

But my iMac has only one FW800 which is connected to the present Lacie.

There is one FW400 but I use it to import video.

I was told USB external harddisk is too slow for video editing I-O, is it true ?

So, what is the best option you reckon I should take ?

Thanks again

You could plug another LaCie into your existing one and plug your camera into that.

You probably won't achieve the full FW800 with both HDs but I wouldn't worry about that.

USB 2.0 HDs are not recommended for video work but many people have used them successfully, including myself.

Could the USB 2.0 be used as the Time Machine backup?

P.S. Your camera can either be plugged into your iMac or the FW HD.

Message was edited by: Ian R. Brown

Guys-

I know firewire is better. My imac is set up using firewire 400 now for DV and HDV. However, I really really want the new macbook aluminum vs white. Can I use an USB external drive for AVCHD editing? or will I totally regret that decision. I will try to keep file sizes small. I don't even have an AVCHD camera yet. However, I do have an HDV and the file sizes on those are not small. I don't want a macbook pro and the aluminum one is thinner and well prettier:)

Don't. You probably could get away with for a while, but you're likely to run into problems as the drive fills. AIC material requires pretty high throughput. If you want to use HDV you must have FireWire input. Get a MacBook Pro, the 15" is very sweet, even with its glossy screen.

Hi Ian,

The problem is I have only one slot of FW800 in my iMac.

Can a USB external harddrive be used for Time Machine ?

If can, then I can dedicate my Lacie FW800 external harddrive solely for video editing and use the USB ones for Time Machine backups

Thanks

Use FireWire for video; use USB for Time Machine.