Best external HD to use for 4k editing?

[ChopSticks]

Just curious what everyone is using for storing and editing? what's the best bang for buck?

 

[BradBuskey]

Two different drives in question here.

I have a 1TB drive in the PC for editing (with a 256GB SSD for the apps) and a 12TB NAS for storage.

Editing 4K on an external drive is asking for frustration. Get to know Proxy/Optimizing the footage well with your software.

 

[BorisTheSpider]

I edit 4k cineform (so highly uncompressed, maybe as much as 50 megabytes per second) from an external esata HDD (just some few year old 2tb I had laying around, nothing special) without any issues. I find working with uncompressed files easier as the PC is less loaded decompressing the video during playback, when skipping around etc.

USB3 should be fine as well.

 

[ChopSticks]

I edit 4k cineform (so highly uncompressed, maybe as much as 50 megabytes per second) from an external esata HDD (just some few year old 2tb I had laying around, nothing special) without any issues. I find working with uncompressed files easier as the PC is less loaded decompressing the video during playback, when skipping around etc.

USB3 should be fine as well.

So no need to go for a SSD? any recommendations for 3.0 externals?

 

[BorisTheSpider]

So no need to go for a SSD? any recommendations for 3.0 externals?

Yeah no need for an SSD. Editing doesn't need fast seeks and random reads/writes, just good sequential performance which a hard disk is fine for.

Other people don't seem to have had the issue I had with editing mavic mp4 files - I find them choppy and hard on the PC due to the high compression of the codec but YMMV, however given that I can edit transcoded huge cineform files from an external HDD you shouldn't have any issues no matter what file format you edit, whether raw mp4s straight from the drone or transcoded to whatever format.

I can't recommend anything in particular other than to say I have western digital hard drives in my file server and they've been reliable and no trouble. I'm sure their USB external drives are good too.

 

[Kilrah]

There are 2 extremes:
- Highly compressed video, small amount of data that is peanuts to handle for the storage medium, but needs huge processing power to decode
- Low compression video, which needs much less processing power but takes a LOT more space so taxes the storage medium instead.

The footage that the Mavic and most other consumer products is of the first category. You need a beast of a computer to edit it smoothly, but as far as storage needs anything goes, even the card it was recorded on obviously, even in a slow USB2 reader.
If your computer is too slow you can use the proxy feature of your favorite editor to create a lower compression version of the footage, and if you make a 4K low compression proxy THEN will you need very fast storage to work with it... but that's why those programs also typically let you make low resolution proxies e.g. a 720p version you use to do your editing, before switching to the original for final rendering.
But IMO proxy editing is a workaround that is never a pleasant solution - between the time to create them, the extra working storage space needed, the inability to live preview the real result etc it quickly gets frustrating.
Good solution if you're not doing this often enough to warrant a decent computer, but then if the experience is a pain it gets into a vicious circle and you'll do it even less...

 

[ChopSticks]

There are 2 extremes:
- Highly compressed video, small amount of data that is peanuts to handle for the storage medium, but needs huge processing power to decode
- Low compression video, which needs much less processing power but takes a LOT more space so taxes the storage medium instead.

The footage that the Mavic and most other consumer products is of the first category. You need a beast of a computer to edit it smoothly, but as far as storage needs anything goes, even the card it was recorded on obviously, even in a slow USB2 reader.
If your computer is too slow you can use the proxy feature of your favorite editor to create a lower compression version of the footage, and if you make a 4K low compression proxy THEN will you need very fast storage to work with it... but that's why those programs also typically let you make low resolution proxies e.g. a 720p version you use to do your editing, before switching to the original for final rendering.
But IMO proxy editing is a workaround that is never a pleasant solution - between the time to create them, the extra working storage space needed, the inability to live preview the real result etc it quickly gets frustrating.
Good solution if you're not doing this often enough to warrant a decent computer, but then if the experience is a pain it gets into a vicious circle and you'll do it even less...

Thanks for all the info, since I am in the first extreme with a really ****** computer (Surface Pro 4) and have to basically generate proxy for all my editing, is it better to get a SSD over a traditional 7400 rpm drive?

 

[BradBuskey]

Thanks for all the info, since I am in the first extreme with a really ****** computer (Surface Pro 4) and have to basically generate proxy for all my editing, is it better to get a SSD over a traditional 7400 rpm drive?

I do not think you will notice any significant difference on the SP4. Using Proxy media is a good process and will help on any media. However, you will get better storage/$ for the HDD over the SSD.

For what it's worth, the SP4 is not a terrible machine. At least it isnt filled with bloatware like most Windows PC's.

 

[ChopSticks]

I do not think you will notice any significant difference on the SP4. Using Proxy media is a good process and will help on any media. However, you will get better storage/$ for the HDD over the SSD.

For what it's worth, the SP4 is not a terrible machine. At least it isnt filled with bloatware like most Windows PC's.

Thanks I got the highest SP4 model, hopefully that helps. Since I'm doing proxy media, wouldn't it be faster with a SSD? also with final rendering?

 

[BradBuskey]

Thanks I got the highest SP4 model, hopefully that helps. Since I'm doing proxy media, wouldn't it be faster with a SSD? also with final rendering?

We're talking about an external drive via USB3 (through a USB hub, I guess) so no, you wont see any noticeable speed increase in the rendering if you get an SSD. If you got the top SP4, then you should have plenty of space on the internal SSD to do the editing and rendering, then move the project off to a storage drive.

 

[ChopSticks]

We're talking about an external drive via USB3 (through a USB hub, I guess) so no, you wont see any noticeable speed increase in the rendering if you get an SSD. If you got the top SP4, then you should have plenty of space on the internal SSD to do the editing and rendering, then move the project off to a storage drive.

Really? The t3 is benchmarked at 480MB/s through usb but a lot of the rpm drives only go up to 150MB/s?

 

[BradBuskey]

OK, nevermind. Don't ask the question if you already made the decision and just want to argue.

My answer still does not change.