An 80 Gig external won't last long doing movies. A 90-120 minute imovie working file can run to 20-30 GB, depending on the movies and if you use the Ken Burns effect with large jpgs.
If you want to archive the finished movies on the drive, then you'll need the same amount of space as on the DVD, up to 4.7 GB per movie, or more for Dual layer.
Don't trust archiving on DVDs, as they have notoriously short lifespans. I archive on a main 300 GB drive, and backup onto two others, one external.
If you calculate the price per GB, I believe the 300 Gb drives are about best value ATM.
Edit. I use Seagate drives, and have found them very reliable, with usually a 5 year guarantee.
You also need firewire interface cases for faster sustained throughput. USB 2 doesn't cut it.
You might want to look at Serial ATA II if you want the fastest speed, but finding an external firewire case that takes SATA II might increase the cost slightly.
As for an external burner, any Firewire case, and a Superdrive (shop around) might be the way to go.
Comments
An 80 Gig external won't last long doing movies. A 90-120 minute imovie working file can run to 20-30 GB, depending on the movies and if you use the Ken Burns effect with large jpgs.
If you want to archive the finished movies on the drive, then you'll need the same amount of space as on the DVD, up to 4.7 GB per movie, or more for Dual layer.
Don't trust archiving on DVDs, as they have notoriously short lifespans. I archive on a main 300 GB drive, and backup onto two others, one external.
If you calculate the price per GB, I believe the 300 Gb drives are about best value ATM.
Edit. I use Seagate drives, and have found them very reliable, with usually a 5 year guarantee.
You also need firewire interface cases for faster sustained throughput. USB 2 doesn't cut it.
You might want to look at Serial ATA II if you want the fastest speed, but finding an external firewire case that takes SATA II might increase the cost slightly.
As for an external burner, any Firewire case, and a Superdrive (shop around) might be the way to go.
Regards
Santa
Thanks for the help though, i just might have to shell out some extra cash!