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-   -   Can I capture to external hard drive via USB? (https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-workflows/8622-capture-external-hard.html)

greeneagle 04-08-2018 01:21 AM

Can I capture to external hard drive via USB?
 
My Windows XP computer has a PCI-to-USB-2 card and I have USB 3.0 external hard drives. Would this be okay for capturing VHS tapes or would the connection be too slow?

leeoverstreet 04-11-2018 12:40 AM

When you say it's a PCI-to-USB-2 card, do you mean it transfers at USB 2.0 speeds? Assuming so...

Your USB 3.0 external drive will only run at USB 2.0 speeds when you connect it to a 2.0 connection on that XP machine, BUT... That still should be fast enough. USB 2.0 tops out at 480Mbps TECHNICALLY. But really you typically get half that. But since lossless standard definition video is usually in the 35Mbps range, and DV is 25Mbps, it should work. Just make sure you aren't doing any other significant movement of data across USB on that machine while capturing.

Now if that PCI card is old and only does USB 1.1 speed (12Mbps), the answer is a big fat NO. Or, if something else is going on with your machine such that it's not using that card correctly, or some other software/hardware issue is slowing it down, it may not work either.

Basically, try it! If you get dropped frames, it ain't fast enough. ;-)

lordsmurf 04-11-2018 12:47 AM

PCI card to add USB2 ports, internalized hub.

- Usually fine to capture, yes.
- But to capture to USB hard drive, no. You need non-USB for capturing. Even USB3 isn't going to work, due to how USB has non-sustained write speed. Those can never be used like that.

ehbowen 04-11-2018 10:58 AM

What I did with an old surplus Dell was add a PCI SATA card. It was cheap and let me connect a new 2 TB internal drive and a hot-swap bay. Or, I could use the eSATA connectors to connect an external HDD dock.

Since I put this in...two days' worth of capture space available (using a 2 TB drive and VDub/HuffyUV lossless) and ZERO dropped frames. Not too shabby for a twelve-year-old Dell....


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