usb2 external hardrive and best confirguration?

[Media Selectah]

Hello, I have been setting my new configuration for live visuals, recently adquiring your Resolume Software,
a MacBook Pro and a USB2 Hard Drive that runs at 7200rpms.
Now I was reading yor notices, and you don´t recommend using USB external harddrives!!! :S
is that also for USB2?? even if it runs at 7200rpms? :S

Hope you can recommend me the best way to work !
Here are some issues I have enconuntered, and also a description of my configuration intented for Vjing and Live Cinema, mostly using only video and visuals to visualize with other music artists.

MIDI CONTROLLER
I am trying to see if my old MIDI controller is practical with your software, or if I will need to get another that suits better. I have a OXYGEN O2 MIDI CONTROLLER, from MAUDIO.

MOVIE CLIP FORMATS
I have a lot of video clips in the DV-NTSC compressor of Quicktime, and Resolume doesn´t recognize them,
only the ones that are in Photojpeg, and H.264 , so I will convert them, but don´t know what is more convenient is converting them to DVIX, Photojpeg, or H.264?? Which one would you recommend? I use mostly 720x480 or 640x480 clips.

MY CONFIGURATION IS:
1 Mac Book Pro with Mac Os X 10.6.8 / 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo / 4GB /
1 external Hard Disk: Seagate - FreeAgent GoFlex Pro / 500GB USB 2.0 / 7200rpm
Resolume 3.3.1
External Video Display: 640 x 480 pixels / DVI-VGA connector

[cosmowe]

Hey Media Selectah,

I have made some tests with external drives in the past...And I must say that the only things I can recommend u is to use USB 3.0 or eSATA drives... If u really whant to use a external way.
I've made some tests with a 5400RPM external usb 2.0 drive....the videoplayback often wasn't very smooth

The best performance u will reach with internal Sata HDD and/or SATA SSD drives.

external
USB 2.0 -- 60 MByte/s !!THEORETICAL!! Never had more than 40MB/s
USB 3.0 -- 625 MByte/s !!THEORETICAL!! Never had more than 450MB/s
eSata -- 300 MByte/s

internal
Serial ATA 3,0 GBit/s -- 300 MByte/s upto..depends on the physical drive
Serial ATA 6,0 GBit/s -- 600 MByte/s upto..depends on the physical drive


Hmmm...your midi controller is okay...choosing a controller is a personal decision.. nobody can tell u "THATS THE BEST" ...it depends on your way of working with the software.

But u may have a look on these:

BCF2000 http://i65.servimg.com/u/f65/14/55/99/73/bcf20010.jpg
BCR2000 http://herr-z-berger.de/wp-content/uplo ... 00_web.gif
Novation Remote http://www.amazona.de/media/articles/ar ... raight.jpg
.
.
.
and many many more!!!!!!


Your clipformat....hmm....just use the recommended codec DXV wich comes with resolume.
YES...it will give u the best playback performance.
I've made some test in the past: http://www.resolume.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8441



Greetings
cosmowe

[Media Selectah]

Hello, and thank you for answering.

I am still wondering about the hard disk.... :S

So you are saying that with my set up,
it is better to use the internal Hard Disk that comes with the Mac Book Pro,
it´s and Hitachi (Serial ATA 3,0 GBit/s and 5,400rpm),
than my external one, that is a Seagate - FreeAgent GoFlex Pro / 500GB USB 2.0 / 7200rpm ????

Before, I use to work with Arkaos, and I also have Firewire 400 external hard disks, all at 7,200rpm, that I could use to keep the video clips, with the old laptop, but now with the new one that only has firewire 800, I have to use a converter (firewire 800-400). Would you recommend using this?

The thing is I can´t buy anymore hardware for now, :S!!
So I just want to work the best way with what I have now .

thank you very much

[cosmowe]

Thats exactly what I'm saying

If I understand you right.....your Seagate - FreeAgent GoFlex Pro is a USB 2.0 drive with 7200rpm...
so it is much much much slower than your internal SATA 3,0 GBit/s 5400rpm drive of your Mac Book Pro.

Use your GoFlex to store your clips....and your internal MacBook Pro drive to run the show from.

Firewire 400 is not much faster then USB 2.0... so I will not recommend u to use it.
Firewire 800 has a transfererate up to 100MB/s...I think that should be okay...but as you wrote before....u only have a FW400 plug....


Greets
cosmowe

[Joris]

Firewire 400 is not much faster then USB 2.0...

If you get to the nitty gritty, FW400 gives a guaranteed 400Mbps, where USB2.0 *can* give 480Mbps, but often it drops lower because it shares resources with the system. So if you have access to a FW400/800 drive, it should perform better than the USB2.0 one. Aside from that, Cosmowe's advice is on the money!

[cosmowe]

@goto10 ...ohhh...
yes of course....absolutely right!

[Media Selectah]

wow! thank you both!!

One more thing, when you say:
"Use your GoFlex to store your clips....and your internal MacBook Pro drive to run the show from."

You mean, I can store my clips in the usb2 hard disk, and the Resolume sequence in the internal Hard Disk?
Because that is what I am doing right now, but wasn´t sure if it would be ok? or if the HD would be too slow...

thank you guys

[cosmowe]

ehm... no!

Copy all the clips u want to use in your show on the Mac Book Drive for best performance. Do not use your USB2.0 external drive.

Greetz
cosmowe

[Media Selectah]

oki doki
that is for sure very clear!!

I will accommodate all in my laptop, oh yess!!

Hope to send you some photographs of the show we will have in Chicago soon,
in the first days of Sept.

thank you again