Tilt Media Blogspot

We have gotten hard drives from several of our clients so we can transfer footage for them. In many cases they are USB drives, and although they are the least expensive, they are also the worst choice for copying and storing video files.

USB is great because it is universal and allows manufacturers to develop inexpensive products. It is not a great transfer protocol for large files, however. Firewire (especially Firewire 800) is specifically designed for this task. Drives with a Firewire interface are only a bit more expensive than USB drives so look for those if you are planning to copy large files.

Even better, and gaining ground, is the ESATA interface. Although these drives will require a power source (many USB and Firewire drives can run on bus power) ESATA drives need an external source. Other than that an ESATA drive can provide up to 4 times faster file transfers than even Firewire 800, making it the best choice for editing right off the drive.

You will need an ESATA card since most computers won't have an ESATA port built in, but it's worth the time you will save copying files.

Leave the USB-only drives to consumers....if you are a video professional go for the Firewire 800 or ESATA drives for sure.