Hard Disk Recorder for Sony V1
 

Fellow V1 users - anyone using a hard disk recorder or card recorder? Any recommendations? Anything cheaper than the Sony HVR-DR60?
Thanks very much
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Crispin Holland, Director, CrispTV Ltd - CrispTV Ltd | Video Production London UK | Home/Contact - 07711 069 100

I have been using Sony's MRC-1K compact flash recorder very happily with a V1; mounted in the supplied holder/battery pack on top of the camera and plugged into the V1's firewire port.

Absolutely superb, makes tape merely a backup medium and ingest from the cards is FAST. Costs around 600 UK Pounds plus VAT. A single NP-F570 battery to power it seems to last forever too.

I've been using Lexar 300x 16GB cards - they're expensive but I'd prefer to pay for reliability than have lower spec cards fail on me. Having said that, lots of people have posted here that they're happily using (much cheaer) Kingston or Transcend 133x cards

Thanks very much, David. I didn't know that the Sony's MRC-1K was also for the V1. As there's only one slot, are you able to change CF cards while you change tapes and vice versa (so keep recording continuously)?

Anyone else with any experience of other solutions? Thank you.
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Crispin Holland, Director, CrispTV Ltd - www.crisptv.co.uk - 07711 069 100

Sony HVRDR60 Hard Disk Recording Unit
 

I was planning to buy hvrdr60 for my V1U and found out that this has been discontinued. Is Sony MRC-1k a good alternative for the DR60?

David, can you give me more information this and also like to know a 16GB card can record how long on HD.

Thanks

Also, if you want to kick it up a level, take a look at the NanoFlash from Convergent Design. It can record from the HDMI on the V1 at full 1920x1080 4:2:2 color depth. (The V1 processes at 1920x1080 internally before reducing it to 1440x1080 for recording on HDV). I originally bought the NanoFlash to use with my EX1, but it's great to be able to record from my V1 as well. I'd particularly recommend it for any blue or green screen work. It records on high speed CF cards - I've been using the Delkin 64GB cards. It also has the option of recording to final cut MOV's - I have a couple of clients who absolutely love this feature.

Looking in-between the lines of the Sony announcement to their retailers, there may be a replacement model coming for the HVRDR60. The sods just weren't giving anything away up front.

Our (me + rep) best guess at the time was that it might be a newer model with a larger HDD capacity.

Still, as nothing has been announced since you might as well look at the alternative card options. Especially if they are cheaper.

Andrew

I got a HVRDR60 and never used it. (got a FX1). then a purchased an EX1.
IMHO, these kind of external device are a pain to use.
You never know where to install them safely, you need to provide power, so even if they are small and light, adding a battery makes them bulky and heavy.
I think if you need to go "solid state", purchase a new camera, it is all better since you will benefit a better technology.
The only case where i would use my DR60 would be the one-shot-no-mistake (like weddings) to backup the takes. But even in this case , a B-cam would probably cost less and provide the same safety.
Most of time i still use my FX1 with tapes, and never get even a small glitch.

I believe it works with any camera that fires DV or (1080i) HDV out of the firewire port, eg some Canon users have plugged the MRC1K in with few problems. It's fine on the V1, albeit a little bulky as another person has mentioned. Still weighs less than the Z5 which fits it directly on the back mind you.

I'm not sure about changing cards and tapes, I've never had cause to shoot continuously like that. I seem to recall there have been some posts on that matter on DVInfo so if you do a search of the MRC1K's own part of the forum you should spot some useful info.

Regards
David

I'd always prefer card over a hard-disc simply for reliability reasons, although I appreciate that a hard-disc gives a longer continuous recording time.

A 16GB card gives you 72 minutes of HDV or DV recording as I recall (they're both 25Mbps so the same record time whether SD or HD)

Of course you can now get 32 and 64GB cards though I have not tried them.

Regards
Dave

Incidentally...
 

PS Something worth a mention is that "Expanded Focus" stops working when you have either a hard disc or MRC1K attached.

I have no idea why Sony did this but they mention it in the manual. It's very irritating.

This is not the case on the Z5/Z7 which were designed from the outset to have the MRC1K on the back and manage to do Expanded Focus quite happily!

Regards
Dave

Thanks for the response everyone. Does the Sony MRC-1K has the limit of reading upto 16GB cards. I know David mentioned that he has not tried any 32 or 64GB cards.

According to the Manual
133 x 2 GB or more. It does not list any max. I use 16 GB, 133 Transcend Cards.

I use 32GB cards exclusively. No issues. Avoid the Kingstons.

Has anyone used the MRC-1K with an FX7?