Hi all,

I came back to this forum after trying virtually all brand of HDV cams and here I am, I purchased a second hand HVX200. The reason why is that HVX200 does the best in capturing fast motion without breaking up much.

Anyhow, I figured out some facts of using iPod with HVX200, so here it is.

1. The fastest way to make the iPod work with HVX200 is to initialize it back to the factory default by iTunes. After initializing it, connected to HVX200, go to 1394 host mode and format the drive.

2. I was able to save 4GB card 10 times on iPod with one battery charge. But the 11th attemped led to failing the backup although I had little more battery life and more space on the hard disk. So, may be 10 backups would be safe? I will try that again.

3. Now you can buy extra battery packs for iPod. I bought the one that you can put four AA batteries to add more juice to iPod.

4. With the error I had on the 11th attempt to back up, may had been corrupted something, so in order to copy all of the backups to Mac, few time some files looked corrupted upon playing back. When this happened, I had hard time removing the mounted P2 volumes unless I conducted initializing with Disk Utilities then go to iTunes to conduct factory defualt initializing.

5. I probably had more problems when I try to initialize it with DOS format using the Disk Utility then try to mount it on HVX200. I always should go to iTunes and initialize the iPod before I take it out with HVX200.

Kaku,

The fact you got it to work at all is surprising. At issue, is that unlike a typical external FW drive, all iPods have their own controller software built into the unit which wants to act as the primary control device for I/O to the internal storage of the iPod. External drives however (the Firestore being the exception), do not have a built-in controller or I/O bridge and the in HOST mode the camera is the controller, not the external drive. This could be why after only 10 attempts the iPod finally said "no more" transfers.

I strongly recommend that anyone considering using an iPod for HOST mode not consider it a preferred method but instead, only as an emergency back-up if you have no other options at that moment. External FW drives with their own power supply, be it corded or cordless, is the proper transfer methodology.

Robert,

With the other battery operated Firewire drive I have which won't even let me save one time, to me iPod method is a lot better. The battery life on iPod is just amazing. But yes, it is odd solution, so if anyone has one lying around and use it for emergency, there you are.

There are a host of 3rd party drive manufacturers that make an external, customer-loaded FW enclosures that have Li-Ion or LiPo battery packs. This solves the problem of being in the field and not having power for the FW drive.

Another alternative to location powered drives is to bring a car-socket adapted inverter which would power both camera and external drive easily. In fact, I've been using both of these methods for location HOST mode transfers for over a year without a hitch.

what kind of iPod are you talking about? my video iPod is USB.

this is 3rd generation firewire iPod.

what kind of iPod are you talking about? my video iPod is USB.

Your iPod sould have also came with a firewire cable.

Nope, I have a video iPod purchased last fall. only the USB cable with the multi-pin ipod connector on the other end was in the box. I don't believe it is possible to use it with Firewire, there's nothing in the docs about that.

Sure it works with firewire. I don't think they have ever made an iPod that didn't work with firewire.

And it "should" have came with a cable.

I still, for the life of me, cannot understand why on earth you would WANT to use a $300+ ipod? Ipods have a much higher failure rate when used a storage in this manner, you have to re-flash your ipod EVERY time you want to use it as an ipod and there are MUCH cheaper, MUCH better solutions. You can get a battery powered USB enclosure for $25 and a 160GB drive for $125... for HALF the price you get twice as much. Battery power will last ALL DAY, I have filled these things up multiple times before recharging. There are now firewire external enclosures with battery power as well. Ipod back-up should IMHO be an emergency solution only.



ash =o)

Sure it works with firewire. I don't think they have ever made an iPod that didn't work with firewire.

And it "should" have came with a cable.

None of the current iPods have FW.

-gl

You can get a battery powered USB enclosure for $25 and a 160GB drive for $125... for HALF the price you get twice as much.

Hmmm..where? I am not familiar with a battery-powered usb enclosure for that price.

-gl

Thanks George, I thought I was missing something.

The problem with externals is they need to be Firewire if you want portable battery operated because the camera only outputs via firewire in host mode. If you have AC power available then your options are much greater. That's why Kaku wants to use the iPod (must be an earlier model tho.)

Thanks George, I thought I was missing something.

The problem with externals is they need to be Firewire if you want portable battery operated because the camera only outputs via firewire in host mode. If you have AC power available then your options are much greater. That's why Kaku wants to use the iPod (must be an earlier model tho.)

You *can* get power from USB of course but, I don't know if the HVX will support that.

-gl

There's no juice coming from HVX's firewire nor USB.

I think you missed my point. You cannot output P2 data via USB except with the P2 Viewer software loaded on an XP laptop or desktop (which then allows you to transfer to any HDD connected to the PC), hence limiting portability.

You can put the HVX in "1394 host mode" and dump P2 directly to a Firewire HDD connected directly to the HVX with no intervening PC (not in real time unfortunately). So, a battery operated Firewire HDD would give great portability, hence the iPod trick. This is why the Firestore is popular because it allows battery operated portability and captures real-time, because it contans the controllers necessary to do this.

And, if you want to dump to a Mac (non-real time) you need to be in 1394 connect mode. Hope this helps.

Hmmm..where? I am not familiar with a battery-powered usb enclosure for that price.

-gl


Several places have them in the $25 - $35 range. I own two of them, one of an eBay reseller and one from Meritline I think.


ash =o)

Thanks George, I thought I was missing something.

The problem with externals is they need to be Firewire if you want portable battery operated because the camera only outputs via firewire in host mode. If you have AC power available then your options are much greater. That's why Kaku wants to use the iPod (must be an earlier model tho.)


Actually, most the USB battery powered enclosures support "on the go" functionality. Press the button, back-up the card. It does seem a little slower than firewire but it works and I have done it myself.


ash =o)

The firewire case with battery that I got don't work good. It turns itself off during the backup process. Then I added external battery pack then it worked good for few times, then stalled in the middle, then now it won't mount on HVX200's host mode, while iPod60 is still working. As it is now, I still take my iPod out with my HVX200. Can anyone direct me to any good external drive that work good with HVX200 on the go?

Firestore?

-gl

no, little pricy and I need to shoot in native mode.

Kaku, check over at DVXuser, there are many with the USB OTG solutions up and running.




ash =o)

Kaku, check over at DVXuser, there are many with the USB OTG solutions up and running.
No good - HVX200 doesn't output via USB in Host mode, only 1394.

Dick,

That is my understanding. USB is provided only for connecting to PC.

Dick,

That is my understanding. USB is provided only for connecting to PC.


You missed the key point -- USB "OTG", which stands for "On The Go". With a USB "On The Go" device, the drive itself acts as a host. The drive pulls the data off the HVX's cards because the drive is an intelligent host.

It works fine, it's just about half the speed of using the camera as a controller for a firewire drive.

Barry, thanks, that's a good example of USB idiot as I am because never used much of them (besides keyboard and mouse). What is the download time for 4GB volume like? Has anyone tried one from Maxtor if they have one?

So, Ash, Barry, what do you think of this?
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consumer/consDetail.jsp?oid=63061068

The description explains something like it has a host mode with writing only the differences in the volume. That might comes in handy.
Also, it could play back H.264, too, so that might be fun to show some clips in there. And, it's made for viewing, and I would imagine the battery life would be longer than cheaper OTB drives.

Hoooray! It worked. The Epson P-5000 worked fine as OTG host. First I had some problems by using whatever USB cable lying around, but when I switched to the USB cable came with P-5000 then started working fine.

P-5000 has replacible Li-Ion battery, it has SD and FC slots to back up to 80GB internal HD, plays back photos and Divx and H.264 video.

More reports at the link below.

http://web.mac.com/kakuito/iWeb/KakugyoBlog/VideoBlog/55F7C8DE-4EBD-4D3B-95A6-C3353F29282E.html

wow - learn something new everyday. thanks

What is the download time for 4GB volume like?
7:45 for a 4GB card.

I don't know why it's so slow. I used a Hitachi 7200rpm drive, put it in a firewire enclosure and it transfers a 4GB card in 4 minutes. I put the same drive in two different USB On-The-Go enclosures, and in both enclosures that same drive takes 7:45.

As another alternative for USB, I have an Archos 504, which is a portable 80GB video/music player device, and which has the capability to act as a USB host. It's got a nice two-pane directory interface for copying files over, sort of like the old Norton Commander. But it's s l o w... it takes about 15 minutes to copy a 4GB card. No idea why.

The Epson P-5000 worked fine as OTG host.

How long does that P-5000 take to copy a 4GB card?

Barry,

Hm, it took over 12 minutes. I guess it goes through more verify scheme or something. It reads also playback okay in the P2 import window of FCP.

One certain problem I run into using iPod is that when I connected it via Fiwire to Mac, it tries to be recognized on iTunes no matter how you set it up. Then if I make mistake and click on "use this iPod for this computer" then it seems to write some tag in the volume. That could have been the reason why I had some problems before to reconnect the iPod to HVX200. Also, right at this moment, the iPod won't unmount from Mac's desktop. Try to unmount then it restarts itself and come back mounted. Safely disconnecting would be by shutting the computer down or copy all of the files and reinitialize it.

At this moment, iPod still is the fastest to make backups from HVX200, tho.