Here's the way I see it...

I always film with tapes and when capturing to the systems, I use a dedicated deck. With regards to capturing HDV, I actually had the M10 deck but sold it and purchased a handful of the Canon HV10's - they're cheap, decent pocket camera for the family, and work just fine as a deck, and even if it breaks, I have a bunch more and it's still cheaper than a new, dedicated deck. You really shouldn't use your cameras, particularly if you're doing batch capture. If your camera is eating tapes, are you using many different brands of tape and/or is your camera properly maintained, and are you using good tapes or cheap junk you find in a local store on occasion.

As far as HDD recording, I've been using Nnovia drives for about 14-15 months and I haven't had any problems thus far. I have 2 80G drives and 1 100G model. They have performed flawlessly. They are a tad bigger than the competitors (Citidisk and Firestore) but on the mere basis that it's made out of a nice, sturdy metal casing, if it is dropped, there's no way it's going to break that easily. I have heard of several issues with CitiDisk models and I personally think the FireStore's are clumsy. I've tested these and never liked them too much.

I recently sent in all of my Nnovia drives for the free HDV upgrade that will allow them to capture m2t files and just purchased two of the newest models, which are HDV ready and have swappable hard drives - I got the 120G models for only $1900 each. Looking at the cost per gigabyte and the fact that the drives can be swapped out, and that they are very reliable (service is really good, too) I really do stand by these things. :)

I use these drives for every shoot that we do, dump the footage to external hard drives, and store the tapes as backup just in case. Until cameras are solely HDD-based, I will always do tape and drive recording. It's a cheap safety-net.

X-Post: How much is MOBILE HDMI or HD-SDI PLUS analog SD/HD aquisition worth to you?
 

Hi, you may want to have a look at this thread
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=84702

this forum may have been a better choice for that topic than the "General HD/HDV Aquisition" forum; if a moderator can move the thread here I would appreciate it.

Another Citidisk Warning
 

I know there's already been a lot of bad press about these things already but I've had a recent bad experience with mine that I thought I'd better pass along to warn others.

I bought a Citidisk HDV (the120 GB model—FW1256H-120) last October and have had lots of problems with it. It is poorly designed and very unreliable. For example, if you accidentally shut off your camera before you stop recording with the Citidisk (or if the camera battery goes dead or if the IEEE cable comes out) you will not be able to recover any of the footage that you've just captured on the Citidisk unless you send it back to the manufacturer (Shining Technology) and they're able to find the files with their special utility program. I shot a soccer game recently where this happened (i.e. I accidentally turned off the camera before I stopped recording with the Citidisk) and was unable to locate any of the footage when I later attached the Citidisk to my computer. I overnighted the device to Shining and they were able to locate about 40 minutes of the 60 minutes that I had shot, but unfortunately the other 20 minutes are gone forever. Worst of all, my camera tape had run out right when my client's team scored their only goal of the game (and this was also part of the missing 20 minutes on my Citidisk) so now I have to explain to my client why I didn't get it on video. Shining told me they would consider fixing this problem in the future but for right now it looks like all Citidisk owners will just have to learn to live with it. Incidentally, the Firestore FS-4 Pro that I own does not have this problem so I would definitely recommend buying a Firestore (or another brand) until Shining gets this fixed.

To summarize, here are my gripes about the Citidisk:

1. It loses some or all of your footage if something goes wrong.

2. It comes with a very poorly written owner's manual that’s difficult to understand and does not warn you of the problem mentioned above.

3. It has a battery switch separate from the main power switch that you have to remember to turn on and off each time you use it. Because the battery switch is very small and doesn't have a light to warn you when it's on or off it's easy to forget about turning it off in order to prevent wearing out the battery. They should have designed the Citidisk so that the battery powers up automatically when you turn on the main power switch (just like most other electronic devices) rather than having 2 separate switches.

VeeScope Live - direct to disk recording/monitoring/live keying/etc. - for Mac.
 

"Veescope Live provides real-time visual feed back on a live video source connected to your Apple MacIntosh computer. Veescope displays real-time chroma key, and high and low video level Zebra patterns. It uses the computer's graphics card, instead of the CPU allowing for much better performance.

Veescope Live works with any Quicktime video input source, such as a DV firewire stream, or a high-definition video capture card. In addition, Veescope Live can display a waveform or vector scope directly on top of the video.

Veescope Live provides industry standard scopes such as, Waveform and Vector. Veescope Live overlays any scope directly on top of the video in order for you to locate problems with the video. The video underneath the scope is changed to black and white, in order to make the scope more visible."
This text was copied from the dvdxdv website:

http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookS...e.overview.htm

Haven't tried it yet but sounds promising, for a fraction of the cost of some competitors.

Which DTE Recorder Provides the Best Solution for Me?
 

I've been reading with great interest about these not so new Direct-to-Edit recorders and fully appreciate the improvement to my workflow if I buy the correct one.

I'm in PAL land and shoot 99.9% in 1080/50i with my Canon XH-A1s and edit in Vegas 7.0e. From what I understand having read quite a few threads, my options would be to buy either the Focus Enhancements Canon specific FS-C 100GB, or their 100GB FS-4Pro HD.

Given my inexperience with DTE recorders, I'm hoping folk can help me decide which one will best suit my needs by addressing the questions below.

1 Are there any larger single capacity DTEs available, e.g. 120GB?

2 How long does it take to change the reel folder in which you wish to record, e.g. from R0 0 TO R1 1?

3 What is the largest battery capacity available for the respective DTEs?

4 Which DTE has the most accessories?

5 Other than on the hot-shoe, what would be the best way to mount a DTE to a XH-A1?

6 Is it possible, or acceptable to mount a DTE to a pan handle?

7 Can a DTE be used straight out the box or does it need to be formatted and configured via a computer prior to use?

8 Are DTEs susceptable to frame drop like tape?

9 Is the voltage to the DTE power supllies 110~220V and 50~60Hz?


TIA
Neil

Full featured Portable Recorder
 

Hey check out the box I'm working on to record video directly from HDMI, or component for that matter to a small computer. HD, SD, whatever.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=97526

Chris

Wireless to Computer ?
 

Hi everyone, a question for you all.

I have the multi-camera (2) sorted out, plugged in via firewire, no problem. My question is ......

Is it possible to send a wireless SD signal to the firewire on the computer so that we can get up on stage and have free range of moving about without dragging cables around.

Many Thanks for any ideas

Andy

can the MCE quickstream DV record HDV?
 

I found one going cheap but I wanted to check - it's just data right? the Quickstream shouldn't care what type it is - I think?

http://www.mcetech.com/quickstreamdv/index.html

Capturing Live video to a computer
 

Hi guys,
I was wondering what people were having success with when capturing live to a computer. We were looking at the AJA, Black Magic and Matrox cards. There are times when we will need to record up to 10 hours of video (HD-SDI) , but we would like to record it post switcher. Is a very fast computer running with a HD Card and minimal software to bog down resources going to record sufficiently without dropping frames and getting messed up? What solutions have you guys been using to achieve a "live capture"? By the way, the stream would be a 4:2:2 or full 4:4:4.
Thanks in advance.
Kit

Anyone used the DataVideo DN-300 ?
 

My dad was sniffing around and came across this Direct-to-disk 250gig DN-300 DV/HDV recorder from a DataVideo Technologies based in Taiwan. It's available as a special order product on B&H, but it only has one review with two stars.

Product Specs here.

I know it doesn't have a battery, but for 250gigs and 18 hours of footage, this has the possibility of being a good alternative to Firestore for the price.

I use a JVC HD110 that outputs HDV 720p. One thing that I'm not clear on about this and other Direct-to-disk recorders is if it will record this format or not. I know Firestore makes a special JVC version, but I guess I just like to have options.

I'm just looking for opinions and information from anyone who has used one, owned one, seen one, bought one and trashed it, owns it and loves it...

tapeless component
 

Is there some kind of tapeless component acquisition wich goes through a "Cineform like" hard wired plugin ?
this would be great as a simple hard disc could record easily up to 80Mbps ?
According that the cineform aspect/prospect Hd gives files that are twice the size of a HDV (m2t) , why doesnt such hardwares exist ?

Hi Levi, I'm sitting here with a DN-300 beside me - It's on 'demo' loan so I can trial it, however I'm 99% certain i'll buy it. It's very easy to use, works well.
It records in raw .DV, but you can convert to AVI I or II, however this does take almost as long as the initial record time AND requires the same amount of free hard drive space as the footage in order to convert.
I just dropped the raw .DV files on to my Sony Vegas timeline and it works fine - Vegas gets a bit sluggish with the .DV format, but then that could just be my computer. The HD .m2T files work great. I can't confirm if it works with 720p HDV. I tested it on 1080i with a Canon XH-A1.
Manual can be found at: http://www.gdbint.com.au/ProDocument...al_26Nov07.pdf
Perhaps email support at www.datavideo.us and ask them. They have responded very quickly in the past to my technical questions....
Cheers.

Home made DTE - Continued
 

December 27th, 2007, 02:21 PM :

I read Mr Suthers thread and i must admit its spirit reinforced me to go on with a project i started some weeks ago.
although i did purchase the FS-4 as an of-the-shelf solution i think i will be able to build a portable solution similar to the FS-4 using my electronics engineering skills with the thought of making it as cheep, versatile and open sourced as possible.
my main guidelines are to use an embedded mainboard (Via, ARM...) which i will include the cpu, memory, storage device (hdd or an later to be added solid state memory like CF), a small LCD, some input buttons and firewire connector(s).
i also think of implementing a linux OS to eliminate license issues and i also have some options at hand.
I believe this is quite feasible given the availability of rather simple embedded solutions available at retail and online stores.
i hope this site, with the aid of other users (and i am more than happy to share this whole project with any one who wishes) will help to the completion of this project...
I have already started investigating the firewire issue and am looking for the motherboard, power supply and other peripheral elements mentioned above to get going with it.
so, of course i will gladly hear any comments about the electronics involved, software suggestions (i chose linux because there are may small and effective FREE programs which may be very helpful ) and any thing on your mind for this matter.
Thanks again.

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December 30th, 2007, 03:29 AM

I have just received some good news regarding one of the hardware i am considering.
It will be on the market starting the end of January - Via's EPIA-PX motherboard which is a 7cm by 7cm all in one mother board
( http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/ma...erboard_id=472 ).
it includes everything needed except the Firewire port, however i have just received an answer from them as there is an expansion port (which its name was new to me) called "Multimedia Port" and as they wrote - "... it does not include Firewire port" so there is a good chance for this to go.

i wish everyone a good week ahead and a happy new year !!!

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January 27th. 2007

Yesterday i have completed my personal POC for a DTE system on a via mini-itx motherboard.
the results are very good - it is very simple implementing linux on the EPIA-M motherboard which has two on-board firewire ports and using Kino's software to capture (with online preview) i got very good results for DV (avi and TS).
i am now looking for a solution for HDV.
I am also in contact with more companies for a solution for the smallest and most suitable hardware for this matter and it seems there are several available.
two issues though - there are not many companies which have firewire solutions for their products which will make me choose the best company and then design an add-on card on my own for that matter which in this case i will add some more features like analog video output, touchscreen i/f, the power supply etc.
the second is finding a decent lcd/tft screen 3.5" to 5" - it seems these sizes are not too common so further investigation is required ...

ok, that's it for now, will post again with news when have some... will appreciate any comment.