New HDV hard disc recording device...
 

Has anyone seen or used anything from this company? I will be purchasing a Firestore device within the next month and want to know how this compares to the Focus Enhancements FS4 PRO HD or the Focus Canon Firestore...

http://mcetech.com/quickstreamdv-hdv/index.html

I do like the design of this. I was originally looking into the Canon Firestore with the BeBob holder, but everyone complains you can't adjust settings while it is in the BeBob, which is why I kind of like this.

Thoughts?

I wonder if it would do 30f/24f modes. My guess would be no.

That is my concern exactly because it is priced about the same as the Focus FS4PRO HD and that one does not...

If the A1 is in 24f mode, wouldn't that come through the firewire in 24f and on to the recorder in 24f?

This would be something I would definitly want. Imagine... no more dirty heads.

-John

Update....
 

Ok, I just finished talking to MCE and I was told that the device will record the video in whatever mode the camera is in. So if you are recording in 24f then that's the way it will be saved on the HD.

I also asked if they were aware of any issues or compatitablity problems with A1 and he said that the device is 100% compatitable with the A1.

I am really considering getting this in the near future. There are a lot of advantages in using this.

-John

Wow! That is awesome news John. Because before this you would need to buy an FSC-60 or 100 ($1200 - $1700) and a Bebob holster ($300) and you can do both of what those 2 things do for less than a grand. I'M SOLD!

That is good news! I will definitely consider buying one if everything checks out well!

I couldn't find a price on their site, but how much are these generally going for?

Sounds very interesting for me, too.

But two disappointing that I noticed:

1. I can see no display or indicator that shows recorded time, remaining disk capacity etc.

2. The technical specifications say the disk is formatted FAT32. So this would mean a maximum file size of 4 GB ... :-(

According to their site, the pricing breaks down as follows:

QSDV-HDV-360 MCE QuickStream DV/HDV - 6 Hour $799.00
QSDV-HDV-540 MCE QuickStream DV/HDV - 9 Hour $999.00

Extra batteries are $99/each.

Wonder how this compares to the nNovia QC line...?

By the way this is not a new company... we used to have a dedicated MCE QuickStream forum here at DV Info Net; you'll find it in our Archives section.

Yeah I have heard of Quickstream before, but this HDV unit is brand new. It just came out like a week or 2 ago.

Quickstream
 

This looks very similar to the Citidisk, which I own. If it's made by the same manufacturer then you may have problems with the device losing footage whenever something goes wrong (i.e. when the firewire cable comes loose, when you turn off the camera before you turn off the capture device, or if the power shuts down before turning off the capture device).

I'd recommend testing it thoroughly with the camera(s) you'll be using it with before using it out in the field.

Point 1 I could see it being a big issue. Point 2 you could just "butt up" the clips to make them seemless on the timeline. In my view, having 4GB files would make them easier to back up to DVD :).

I've been waiting for something like this to come out. Gonna get this as soon as the budget allows.

Not true
 

Max size for fat32 is actually around 128GB. I upgraded my 40GB firestore to 120GB and partitioned the drive using the unit. The unit supports only FAT32.

I think you're talking about the maximum partition size... not the maximum file size, which is 4GB (minus 1 byte) for FAT32.

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table)