Is buffer or seek time more important for video capture and edit pc ?

D

DBenz

Geek Trainee
Hi, I am wondering if to go for a HD with 16Mb Buffer and 11ms seek time at £196 or 8Mb buffer with 8ms seek at £188. Both drives support NCQ, a buffer for reading off data I gather. Seagate barracuda being the make. I have three so far but never really considered buffer data. Transfering MiniDV to high spec PC, also converting Hi8 using sony Hi8 reader into digital via panasonic MX8 acting as analog to digital converter (actually not started that yet, was using a Hi8 camcorder into the MX8 then Hi8 died, when I did, I was getting dropped frames ). Also using Panny EH50 to transfer VHS to dvd-ram thence onto pc fro editing ads etc.
Wish to avoid dropped frames and to have best HD for keeping up with data incoming and playing and editing the footage. Adobe Premiere and VideoReDo in use with Ulead Movie factory 4.
WinXP home and 3.4Ghz pentium, 2Gb Corsair ddram, MSI 875P Neo Motherboard. GeForce 5600 256mb video card.
Just about to buy HD and need choose between 8ms seek or 16mb buffer !

DBenz
 
I don't think you will notice much difference between seek times. However because you will be using hard drive intense programs such as Adobe Premiere & Videoredo, the buffer size is crutial. Have you noticed that your PC is noticeably slower after you have encoded video using Videoredo? This is because the hard drive buffer is too small.

I use Videoredo on occasion, and my PC is a budget machine with a hard drive buffer of ONLY 1MB :rolleyes: I have to restart my computer every time i've finished video editing, just to get the performance back!
 
megamaced said:
I don't think you will notice much difference between seek times. However because you will be using hard drive intense programs such as Adobe Premiere & Videoredo, the buffer size is crutial. Have you noticed that your PC is noticeably slower after you have encoded video using Videoredo? This is because the hard drive buffer is too small.

I use Videoredo on occasion, and my PC is a budget machine with a hard drive buffer of ONLY 1MB :rolleyes: I have to restart my computer every time i've finished video editing, just to get the performance back!
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for the response.
I have plumped for the 16Mb buffer so did the right thing, pity its not my bootable drive, thats an 8Mb buffer Seagate Barracuda. Would it be that it needs to be the OS drive to make a difference that you talk about, this one is for the caddy that I am writing video to and reading from.
As I have dual boot and loads of progs a rebuild is no option now, or ever come to that, without a weeks leave :x:

DBenz
 
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