HDV desktop hard disk recorder
 

http://www.hdvrecorder.us/index.html

This is from the same company that distributes the Avio stand-alone NLE. The web site claims that this is a better way to store HDV footage than tape. I have a hard time buying that but it might be a good way to playback HDV edits without tape.

while it looks great, if you think again, this is just a PC, with dedicated software.
for an average PC with a 250 Gig HDD, i doubt you have to pay 2000$.
For sure if you add the hassle of assembling it and paying for all the software needed, it still competitive for a plug and play stuff, but probably all the guys with an HDV camera already have a PC with about 200 gig of storage, so you had beeter to invest this moneu in upgrading you PC.
by comparison it looks cheap versus a firestore (holding only 80 gig ), but the lack of portability makes all the difference.
conclusion, would be nice to try.

A laptop with HDVrack or the even the free videoLAN software is a far better solution, and far more portable.

Another option is a Laptop + HDVSplit. I did not realize that it did capturing also, but it does. I tried it the other day and it works pretty well and was a lot easier to run and then start capturing than VLC.

http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/hdvsplit.htm

HDVsplit supports only the Sony cams HC1/A1/FX1, but I think they ment to say tested with or why wouldn't they list the Z1? Anybody try to use it with the JVC cams? It also has huge system requirements, much higher then I found workable with VLC.

I think tapes would be much more secure for long term storage than any hard drive.

Abso-stinkin'-lutely.
We recently had a power supply failure that allowed our drives to stay powered while the fans failed. We lost 10 drives in a RAID. None of them recoverable, both backups and main....

In the past 10 years I've seen a total of 3 scsii drives die and one firewire, for no apparent reason. During that same time I have never had a tape failure or even a dropout. Sony is claiming even better reliability for their XDCAM disks, and if a person must go tapeless, it seems to me that's a reasonable solution, in terms of cost and ruggedness.

The cam still records to tape at the same time as all of the solutions listed above, unless you choose otherwise. A laptop with HDvrack while also recording to tape is an amazing battery only failsafe solution. I prefer to use an external usb 7200rpm drive with the laptop when plug-in power is available. Anyone know of a battery solution for an external drive?

What exactly are HDV Rack, VideoLan, and HDV Split used for?

As I understand it, this works with power supplied via USB, but is limited to using 2.5" IDE HDDs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817145658

Alex: HDV rack or DV Rack with the HDV PowerPack upgrade as it is officially known is an HDV/DV monitoring software. It displays what you your cam see's whether it is recording or not. You can choose to capture whenever you want so your footage is already on a HDD when your done shooting. Huge time saver. It has additional features such as zoom, vectorscope, waveform, user definable zebras ect...
http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrack.cfm

VLC VideoLAN is a freeware mediaplayer that handles HD footage very well and has the added benefit of allowing live streaming so you can monitor your footage on screen (like HDVrack) and record it to the drive, but without all of the other fancy stuff.
HDVsplit is similar again, but I haven't used it.
Micheal gave the link to HDVsplit above, so don't be shy and have a read.

Thanks for the link Robert. Great price for that enclosure. 2.5" are just so damn expensive, would love to find a 3.5" solution. But even at that price $200 for a usb2.0 powered, enclosed 60gb to plug into the laptop would give you 4+ hours of recording.

You can use a 5400rpm drive for capture (I've done it). Make sure the drive is defragged though.