What's my best option for the Canon HV20?
 

What's my best Direct to Disk portable recorder for the Canon HV20? I was going to go with the Firestore FS-4, but I'm reading that alot of people are unhappy with it.

I'd go with a cheap laptop - it would be nice to have it double as a monitor, but opened up, it's going to be rather bulky.

What are my options? I'd like to spend $700 abouts, but I'm willing to go higher if it means that I'll be avoiding problems down the road.

well i would recommend an FS-4 HD or a tablet notebook(one that you can fold over if needed). if you decided on the FS, check out my tutorial on how to upgrade it. oh! i got my FS-4 for $711 on ebay, I picked it up locally here in Irvine, California.

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=114271

See, here's my problem.

I'm often doing one-man-army stuff... and to me, well, quite frankly? That FS-4 is overpriced as hell. Yeah, yeah, I know it's great and all, but it seems like there's a real price premium there just because it's video equipment.

What's tripping me up is not the $650 price. I was just about to drop $750 on a Canon HG10 - the FS-4 would give me all of the advantages, none of the disadvantages of that camera.

But a Gateway Tablet PC costs only $300 more. So, for $300 more I could get not only a hard drive recorder but also a monitor. I wouldn't have to void my warranty to put in a bigger hard drive. And I could look up stuff on the Internet when I'm not using it.

There are pros and cons to each approach, of course. The biggest con for me would be the tablet's 5lbs vs. the Firestore's 1lb. I'm often one-man-army out there, I suppose, however, that I could somehow custom build a rig to mount the laptop on the tripod while I'm shooting.

But there are huge pros to going with a tablet PC. For one, you get an entire PC vs. a hard drive. You get a 720p capable monitor with it. It's perfect to show interviewees exactly how they look right after the interview. (showing them that they look "great" in HD might get them to come back for more)

And I'm hearing some bad things about the FS-4's noisy fan and low battery life.

I don't know. What do you guys think?