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Ensuring no loss in video & sound quality with external hard drive editing


Jack Foreman

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Camcorder: PXW-X70

Computer: Macbook Pro OS X Lion (2011) (includes firewire & usb outputs & SD slot)

Editing software: FCPX

External hard drive: ???

 

I want to get the highest possible picture & sound quality from my PXW-X70, to do this I need to shoot using the following formats:

Video: XAVC Long GOP 422 10-bit 50Mbps (1920x1080) at 60p

Audio: XAVC QFHD : Linear PCM 2ch, 24bit, 48kHz

 

I know nothing about external hard drives. How do I avoid loss in sound & picture quality?

Because I don't know much about this, I don't know whether

a) the hard drive itself is what matters,

b) the transfer method (firewire vs. usb vs something else),

c) the method of moving data back & forth between hard drives, or

d) all of the above.

 

Any feedback would be helpful

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The only thing you'd be losing is transfer rate. Image will be the same. Now if you're re-rendering the files or something, that WILL result in quality loss.

Edited by Macks Fiiod
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I have been curious about that camera for a while now. What is your opinion about the image quality?

 

 

My suggestion is get an external recorder, even as cheap as the Ninja Star by Atomos, and record direct to ProRes. Since you are using FCP, having ProRes files from the very beginning (directly from the camera) will maintain the most quality and be the easiest. Since that camera has internal 10 bit processing, take advantage by shooting directly to ProResLT. It is a step up from what the camera can offer internally and will be easier on the firewire 800?? bus. Is firewire 800 the fastest port on your laptop? A spinning hdd spinning at 7200rpm is what you need. Firewire 800 is becoming harder to find. OWC has them

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA-FW800-FW400-USB

Edited by Chris Burke
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