XHA1 & Firestore FS-C Question at DVinfo.net

Jeff Mahar · June 23rd, 2007, 09:19 AM

Hello,

Please forgive my ignorance, but I am a complete Noob in regard to HDV editing and process. I have just purchased my XHA1, should be seeing it Weds. I am very interested in getting the Firestor FS-C as a companion, but must admit that I do not completely understand all that it does aside from offer tapeless recording. Do the file just simply need to be dragged over once you attach to your computer, or do the still have to go through some sort of a conversion before you can edit them?

At this point I'll be building a new editing system and I feel pretty good that I have speced the computer itself from a hardware, drives and processor perspective properly. I am just not sure if I will be needing some type of capture board, or in/out board if I am using the Firestor or if the files that the Firestore is saving keep me from needing specialized video hardware products.

I will definitely be using the Adobe Professional Production Suite CS3 (Love After Effects), and am also willing to look at in addition having Edius or Vegas on the PC. But I have been reading a lot of threads that sound as if Aspect HD with PPCS3 would maybe be a pretty good software solution without the need for additional software? I don't know I'd love to be able to edit the HDV in realtime.

I am a bit confused as to what solutions might work best with the XHA1 and the Firestor and could really use some advice prior to building out this system.

Thank you so much for your insight,
Jeff

Larry Kamerman · June 23rd, 2007, 03:28 PM

Jeff-
Unfortunately- from your perpective - I'm a mac person. I can tell you that the A1 and the FS-C work together fine with Final Cut. You literally drag and drop the files from the FS-C. I believe it works the same with PC based editing programs (I think I've read about others using Premiere Pro), but I'm not sure specifically which ones.

Jeff Mahar · June 23rd, 2007, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Kamerman

I'm a mac person. I can tell you that the A1 and the FS-C work together fine with Final Cut. You literally drag and drop the files from the FS-C.

Actually that is not totally foreign to me Larry, that is helpful. I have a new Macbook pro with FC2 Studio coming in a few weeks (when they start shipping) The 2.4 Ghz version with I believe 3 GB of RAM. I will use that at times as well, but I am primarily on PC since I work on Web Development as my daily function. But I did get the Macbook Pro for any work that I will be doing on the road. Any advice on that in terms of the harddrive space. I got the 160GB. Primarily the Apple and Adobe products will be the only things taking up space on it.

I am glad to hear they work so well together with the Firestor for that case. Thank you.

Is the general consensus that you want a decently powerful video card, but for HDV you do not need to have a special converter capture card in order to achieve real-time editing that does not degrade the footage in any way?

Larry Kamerman · June 23rd, 2007, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Mahar

Is the general consensus that you want a decently powerful video card, but for HDV you do not need to have a special converter capture card in order to achieve real-time editing that does not degrade the footage in any way?

I believe so.

Geoff Brandenburg · June 23rd, 2007, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Mahar

Actually that is not totally foreign to me Larry, that is helpful. I have a new Macbook pro with FC2 Studio coming in a few weeks (when they start shipping) The 2.4 Ghz version with I believe 3 GB of RAM. I will use that at times as well, but I am primarily on PC since I work on Web Development as my daily function. But I did get the Macbook Pro for any work that I will be doing on the road. Any advice on that in terms of the harddrive space. I got the 160GB. Primarily the Apple and Adobe products will be the only things taking up space on it.

I am glad to hear they work so well together with the Firestor for that case. Thank you.

Is the general consensus that you want a decently powerful video card, but for HDV you do not need to have a special converter capture card in order to achieve real-time editing that does not degrade the footage in any way?

Jeff,
For smooth RT editing, Final Cut Pro will want to see a separate big, fast scratch hard drive, rather than your boot drive on the MacBook Pro. Many problems can arise from using your boot drive as the scratch disk.

Jeff Mahar · June 23rd, 2007, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geoff Brandenburg

Jeff,
For smooth RT editing, Final Cut Pro will want to see a separate big, fast scratch hard drive, rather than your boot drive on the MacBook Pro. Many problems can arise from using your boot drive as the scratch disk.

Thanks Geoff any particular portable you'd recommend. This will be my first Mac in 7 years, so I have some catching up to do on the Mac side of my setup.

Brian Spatz · July 29th, 2007, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Kamerman

Jeff-
Unfortunately- from your perpective - I'm a mac person. I can tell you that the A1 and the FS-C work together fine with Final Cut. You literally drag and drop the files from the FS-C.

I was looking at B&H and the site wasn't specific about whether the FSC will record in 24f to disk (site says "HD MPEG-2 Transport Stream (1080i 50 or 60).") Have you tried this before? I will be shooting 60i from now on and using Magic Bullet for film effects, but I still have several tapes that were shot in 24f, would I be able to play back these tapes into the Firestore? Final Cut still has hiccups trying to recognize my A1 and I need a more reliable way to get the clips going. thanks in advance. Brian

David Chia · July 30th, 2007, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Mahar

Actually that is not totally foreign to me Larry, that is helpful. I have a new Macbook pro with FC2 Studio coming in a few weeks (when they start shipping) The 2.4 Ghz version with I believe 3 GB of RAM. I will use that at times as well, but I am primarily on PC since I work on Web Development as my daily function. But I did get the Macbook Pro for any work that I will be doing on the road. Any advice on that in terms of the harddrive space. I got the 160GB. Primarily the Apple and Adobe products will be the only things taking up space on it.

I'll get the 7200rpm harddrives not the 5400rpm harddrives for your 2.4 Macbookpro. Also get an external 800 firewire drive for your footage. It is always better to have FCP and your footage seperate.

Larry Kamerman · July 30th, 2007, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Spatz

. . .but I still have several tapes that were shot in 24f, would I be able to play back these tapes into the Firestore?Brian

Not sure if the Firestore will record from a tape as it's played by the A1.

Kalulu Ngilo · July 30th, 2007, 08:59 PM

can the fs-c hdd be expanded by purchasing a new drive at the store?

June 23rd, 2007, 09:19 AM	#1
Jeff Mahar Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 26	XHA1 & Firestore FS-C Question Hello, Please forgive my ignorance, but I am a complete Noob in regard to HDV editing and process. I have just purchased my XHA1, should be seeing it Weds. I am very interested in getting the Firestor FS-C as a companion, but must admit that I do not completely understand all that it does aside from offer tapeless recording. Do the file just simply need to be dragged over once you attach to your computer, or do the still have to go through some sort of a conversion before you can edit them? At this point I'll be building a new editing system and I feel pretty good that I have speced the computer itself from a hardware, drives and processor perspective properly. I am just not sure if I will be needing some type of capture board, or in/out board if I am using the Firestor or if the files that the Firestore is saving keep me from needing specialized video hardware products. I will definitely be using the Adobe Professional Production Suite CS3 (Love After Effects), and am also willing to look at in addition having Edius or Vegas on the PC. But I have been reading a lot of threads that sound as if Aspect HD with PPCS3 would maybe be a pretty good software solution without the need for additional software? I don't know I'd love to be able to edit the HDV in realtime. I am a bit confused as to what solutions might work best with the XHA1 and the Firestor and could really use some advice prior to building out this system. Thank you so much for your insight, Jeff

June 23rd, 2007, 03:28 PM	#2
Larry Kamerman Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: New York,NY Posts: 100	Jeff- Unfortunately- from your perpective - I'm a mac person. I can tell you that the A1 and the FS-C work together fine with Final Cut. You literally drag and drop the files from the FS-C. I believe it works the same with PC based editing programs (I think I've read about others using Premiere Pro), but I'm not sure specifically which ones. __________________ www.gencofilms.com

July 30th, 2007, 08:59 PM	#10
Kalulu Ngilo Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Riverside, California Posts: 112	can the fs-c hdd be expanded by purchasing a new drive at the store?