2nd HD or partition for capture - how big?

[Scurvy]

Scenario: I just bought AIW 7500. I will game a bit, but I am really excited about the capture capabilities. I used to use a Dazzle DVC for capture, which is Mpeg1 of course. I started a Star Trek collection, and was able to put one episode on a CD at a better bitrate than VCD, with the commercials edited out. It was a beautiful thing, except because the video was compressed in real time, it didnt edit so good. I had lip sync problems frequently.

So, with my AIW 7500, I have a chance to start from scratch, get it right, and at a better quality standard to boot. If my understanding is correct, I will need to capture on raw/AVI settings to ensure I dont get the audio sync problems if I am editing. True?

How big a hard drive or partition should I have dedicated to this task? One hour show, in case you didn't know.

As for longer captures, I am hoping that if I'm capturing a full movie, off HBO fer instance, that I can use real time encoding since it wont need any editing. True?

 

[DKatman]

I got into video capture a while back. First I used my Studio MP10 analog capture form an 8mm videocamera. Then I bumped up to the Studio DV after I bought my digital videocamera.


First of all, a second partition on the same physical hard drive does nothing for you cause that physical disc has to jump form one spot to another to write.

I was given a few golden rules by reading posts on forums form people who had lip sync problems and such. I pretty much followed them straight off the bat and never had any issues. Video is video, so it makes no real difference if the source is a VCR or a vidcam.

You may not like what my research discovered was the best scenario:

I use three separate hard drives...Sound a little overkill? It is flawless and always has been perfect. I use my main hard drive for windows. Windows is just chattier than we all might like and may want disc time just to say "hi" while you are recording. The second physical disc for the application you are using to perform the capture. Mine was the studio software. This allows the discs to access the part it needs to perform...(Please don't flame me about sharing an IDE port, it worked). I would reserve the third drive on the other IDE port (2nd) as the straight capture drive that would allow smooth writing while not competing with either the OS or the software.

If I am not mistaken, you have not mentioned anything about your particular system that might shed light onto what your obvious weak link might be...ie all of my drives are 7200rpm.

Good Luck,
Dave

If you read between the lines a little I think some of this, taken from the pinnacle website might answer your space question.

"If you are using Windows 98SE and the FAT32 file system is installed, there is a 4GB file limit on a captured file, so a Full Quality file has a maximum length of 18.5 minutes.

(18.5 minutes = 1110 seconds, @ a datarate of 3.6 MB/sec is approximately 4GB)."

Link to thread at Pinnacle