storage drive-internal or external, for movie files

[tech3]

~
I don't work with movies much, certainly not enough to need mass
storage, but a friend has plans for taking movies from his work and
converting and burning these to dvd. I pointed him to some software
but I cant find specific info on hard drive storage for movies.

Specifically, can an external hard drive hooked to USB 2.0 pci card
function well enough for storing movies imported from a digital (or
tape) camcorder? Or, is it better to install an internal storage
drive?

If the external drive is sufficient to upload his movies into, will
it also be able to burn the dvd's from that drive or is the throughput
not fast enough?

He's leaning toward an external drive of about 200Gb, but I want to
be sure it's capable. Otherwise I'll tell him whatever most of you
use.

 

[Arno Wagner]

~
I don't work with movies much, certainly not enough to need mass
storage, but a friend has plans for taking movies from his work and
converting and burning these to dvd. I pointed him to some software
but I cant find specific info on hard drive storage for movies.

Specifically, can an external hard drive hooked to USB 2.0 pci card
function well enough for storing movies imported from a digital (or
tape) camcorder? Or, is it better to install an internal storage
drive?

If the external drive is sufficient to upload his movies into, will
it also be able to burn the dvd's from that drive or is the throughput
not fast enough?

He's leaning toward an external drive of about 200Gb, but I want to
be sure it's capable. Otherwise I'll tell him whatever most of you
use.

Should not be a problem for all these uses. USB2 is slower with
some external enclosures. If this is a point he may try to get
an external SATA drive. They have the same speed than internal
ones. Also possible is an internal drive enclosure where the drive
can be removed. Put a second one in the home PC. But they usually
do not protect the drive well while it is being transported.

Apart from that, external drives cannot really be used in RAIDs,
and may die if dropped. But if it is mostly for moving data,
an external drive is possibly the best solution.

Arno

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Should not be a problem for all these uses. USB2 is slower with
some external enclosures. If this is a point he may try to get
an external SATA drive. They have the same speed than internal
ones. Also possible is an internal drive enclosure where the drive
can be removed. Put a second one in the home PC. But they usually
do not protect the drive well while it is being transported.