Hard Drive Requirements for Video Capture

Power Computing provided the information in this article and it was deemed accurate as of 14 November 1997. Apple Computer, Inc. is not responsible for its content. This article is being provided as is and will not be updated in the future.

I want to purchase one of your PowerBase A/V systems to capture full-motion, full-frame video at millions of colors. What type of hard disk do I need: IDE or SCSI?
The miroMotion DC20 video capture card used in our A/V configurations requires a sustained transfer rate of 3.5 MB/sec to capture 640x480, 60 field/sec, 29.97 frames/sec at millions of colors.

Most Enhanced IDE hard drives (such as those used in the PowerBase) perform at an average of 1.5-3 MB/sec, and thus are not recommended for this application.

The built-in SCSI on the PowerBase can, however, handle the required throughput as it can maintain a sustained transfer rate of 4-5 MB/sec with most SCSI devices.

Machines Affected: PowerBase
Published Date: Feb 20, 2012