Came across this by accident on the Canadian Sony support page. At the bottom of the page is a link to some software that apparently will make the .m2t files usable within FCP. Haven't tried it obviously (I don't use Mac), but thought it might be helpful. Take it for what it's worth.

http://www.sony.ca/hdv/support.htm

I used MPEG Streamclip for years now exactly to bring .m2t files to FCP. The important things to consider are: a) you need to select an appropriate codec to preserve you color fidelity. ProRes is not the best choice as you will add data loss to the data loss of 4:2:0 compression. Uncompressed or SheerVideo are better choices. b) if you shot your material at 24fps remember to enter 23.976 as you frame rate in MPSC in order to have the footage converted appropriately.

To use it with fcp instead of mpeg streamclip use this:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....6&postcount=23

I wonder if the bean counters at Canon have considered how many XH-A1 and XL-H1 owners would buy a solid state recorder designed specifically to match these cams? If Canon released a nice SD or CF writer at a reasonable price (say $500-700?) how many of us *wouldn't* buy it?

And of course in addition to selling these to a high percentage of existing Canon HDV customers, just imagine the overall popularity of a solid state recorder if it included a standard shoe mount?

Honestly I don't understand why a company like Focus Enhancements hasn't already come to market with something like this. No cooling fans or other moving parts, no expensive hard disk, etc.... And they could even market a low end unit with a single slot or a high end unit with 2 rollover slots. Oh well...

I think Canon has a thing or two to learn from Red. Very few people were dreaming with 4K Cameras. Red convinces you that you needed 4K then provided the cameras along with a host of other gears. All I'm saying is that Mr. Jannard is a genius, and Canon is not learnig from it.

Well lets be fair now, you could replace "Canon" with "Sony", "Panasonic" or "JVC" and have the same outcome :)

But lets not deviate into a Red vs Canon discussion here (actually, I think there might already be a thread for that).

Hi Phillip:
No intention in making this a Canon vs Red discussion. It's only that Canon plays it too safe when it comes to Video Cameras but not in photography. I was hoping from them a more aggressive approach to innovation. But anyway I'm fully aware of other choices.

Hey guys, I'm currently an HC1 owner looking to upgrade (but not necessarily replace my HC1), and I am bouncing around from thread to thread finding info. After looking around a bit, I started eyeing the XH-A1 as what would be a good next camera. One of the key points being the $3kish price.

But with my next camera, I really would like to be be able to record both to CF and Tape. My main purpose of this camera will be to record myself doing stand up around the DC area; however, when performing, I usually record other people's stand up performances and sell them their performance as a DVD. This works perfectly because it helps me get back some of the money I'm dropping on my equipment.

So that's where recording to CF would be perfect because I'd like to definitely have a hard backup of my performances in full HD, but may not need to get to it for a while. However, for the other performers, I need to get their DVD to them in about 1-2 weeks. So for them, I would just like to record to CF, get their DVD to them, and once everything checks out, delete their footage.

So that being said, if I haven't bought the XH-A1 yet, but really would like this functionality, should I look into something else? Or is there a very good chance that what we're discussing here for the Z7 will be available for the XH-A1 at a fairly reasonable price (although $700+ is still a bit hard to swallow).

In addition to stand up, I would also like to use this camera to work on a short film or similar project one day. I'm still debating on selling my HC1 if I get this camera because I'm not sure how much I would enjoy taking an XH-A1 to personal events as opposed to the portable HC1.

By the way, I think the OP should change this subject to something a bit more related to what we're missing. I skipped over the thread before finally clicking on it to see what it was all about. And it turns out it discussed what I was interested in.

The A1 has an SD card reader built in.

It would be so simple if this one could also be used for video recording purposes. it might be too slow, but, think of it, one minute... if a much cheaper consumer cam can do this, why not the A1? Any reason to think that the internal hardware is so different?

Unfortunately, I share the feeling that we don't have to expect a firmware update anymore, enabling new, magnificent features, but Canon, if you should read this: the Sony Z7 would look like an old camel with its backpack recorder if you could make the A1 record m2t's on SD-cards as well.

Now just upgrade the A1 with 1/2" chips for better low-light performance, and you'd have a killer camcorder.

can you play back the footage through the camera lcd from the HVR-mrc1?

This past weekend we were shooting and using as a scene camera the little hg10 so that we could instantly jump around and see the takes (slightly lower perspective) that way we can instantly see the last take or 5 takes ago with no tape winding or searching, it was so convenient. So with this CF recorder the real benefit would be to be able to check it on camera rather than having to keep jumping from camera to a computer to load and check the clips.

And if it does not work (playback through LCD) with the A1 does it with the sony it comes with, since this alone may be enough to justify selling the A1 and going for the sony since it has 24p and comes with the CF recorder.

Sept./Oct. is still such a long time away....ahhh.....hate dumping footage via tape. :( Rather than spend money now for firestores, I'd rather wait it out and spend the money towards this unit.

Sorry, didn't mean to bump with such a useless rant :S.

When is NAB? I saw a date for oct. in Europe. Hoping someone comes up with a similar product to use with our A1s before Sony's release.

Take a look at this link, it gives a brief look at the Sony camera and features

http://www.macvideo.tv/camera-techno...eviewid=100294

Any news?
 

Has anyone heard anything more about this?

Hi Paul,
I read the other day on another forum that this guy had been to a Sony roadshow in Australia & they had told him that it would be available later this year in Australia. I have nothing to back this up, but if it's true, then i will be the first in line to get my hands on one. Assuming the price is right of course! I am on the verge of buying a Firestore, but i think this would suit my needs much better. Heres hoping!!

Bryce

You may also want to take a look at this video

http://www.macvideo.tv/reviews/index...eviewid=101575

I have the Canon XH A1 but after a couple of tape failures I am seriously looking at tapeless recording - the Sony may be my answer although I love the picture quality of the Canon

Vincent,

Thanks for posting the link.

I hope this isn't a needless "bump," but I am quite excited by the prospect of this little Compact-Flash recording device, AND it's nearly September. I don't suppose anyone has heard any more information on when and how much, etc?

Is anyone else getting the feeling that Sony is going to either
(a) Not release this at all, realizing that they'll drive a bunch of XH, V1, etc.. owners out of the cam market for another 2-4 years.
(b) Realize that not one single other company has stepped up to fill this product gap and charge some outrageous amount of money.

Still can't believe Focus Enhancements or some other company doesn't have a unit like this. All the interfaces and software are engineered and paid for ... just point the data to a CF card instead of a hard drive. Sigh.

Patience.
Sony will release it for public use. After all it's more money in Sony's pocket when they do. And Sony is all about making money. =)

Anyway, I remember talking to a Sony rep several months back and said that it would be released sometime around OCT-FEB, and run somewhere around $1,200 or so.

Ah... so option B it is ;)

Check the news section like I said september, get ready for some tapeless action guys!

"The HVR-MRC1K memory recording unit is expected to cost ¥98,490 (US $900)."

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/digital-v...0-hvr-z5j.html

It is being advertised as available in the UK, but no price I can find.
Sony : HVR-MRC1K (HVRMRC1K) : Product Overview : United Kingdom
Anyone know of availability or pricing in their part of the world?

Here is a the official line from Sony UK

"The HVR-MRC1K is due to be shipped in October so we are hoping to have stocks around the middle of the month. At the moment we have tentative list price in the region of £580.00 excl VAT but the final price will be down to the Dealers."

Does this unit have a memory cache, I would like it record about 10 seconds into cache so that I never miss a bird taking flight or a soccer goal

Bob

I seem to remember reading about a 3 second buffer - see if you can find a Sony z7 brochure or user-manual, since the MRU1 has been shipping with the z7 for several months.

Thanks, I should have done a search of this web site, I found the manual http://www.dvinfo.net//conf/sony-hvr...er-manual.html

it appears that the cache is 14 seconds which is fantastic

Bob

Perhaps it's a bit of engineering costs.???

A brand new PC stand alone tower quoted to me by a private builder for $900.

800 mhz front end buss

2.4 dual processor

500 gig HD 7200rpm

ASUS motherboard

Software

4 Gig ram

+Many more goodies...

Well, you get the picture..

$900 for quite a bit of hardware and software....

But for the A-1....

A 100 gig processor, just to 'record' analog to digital runs well over $1,000.

Like I said...gotta pay for those engineering costs.

:)

Rog Lee

Got a reply from a Sony representative
 

Fired off an e-mail to Sony, and this was the response I got:

Hello Alex,

Thank you for your interest in Sony products. I am not sure when the HVRMRC1 will be released for sale as an individual product or how much.
I have also heard that this unit should be available for purchase as a separate item but do not know if it will be sold through a reseller or through our parts department.

The best that I can suggest is to keep an eye out on our web site Sony | Broadcast and Business Solutions for the part to be listed. Once it is available on the website, we will know if it will be consider as a part that can be ordered through our parts or a unit that will need to be purchased through a reseller.

I am sorry I do not have more information available for you at this time.

Regards,
Donna De Genaro

Well the response is ridiculous as the MRC1 is going to be sold separately. But being sold as the MRC1K.
As Sony had already announced that the MRC1K will be sold separately so new users of the Z5 can purchase them for use with their cameras.
It was also posted that it is the same unit that currently ships with the Z7.

Release date was scheduled for October and retail around $940.

This directly from the Sony Press release.

Now as for price. it might go up or down, but Sony also said it would retail for

I may have missed it somewhere in this thread but will the Sony unit record Canon's 24F from the A1 and will it be able to record the 24f from the HV20?

Sorry if this has already been addressed here.

Thanks,
Garrett

I believe someone in this thread has recorded 24F to the unit. The HV series records 24P within a 60i stream, so that's just standard 1080i/60 as far as a recording unit is concerned. We should be good to go... when Sony finally releases it :)

As far as I know, no it can't.
Sony and canon have different methods of recording 24P footage.

Actually Sony has moved to progressive 24P recording in their newer models, same as Canon's.

But do they encode the same way as Canon's 24F?

Yes, its native progressive at 24fps. Their newest VTR even works with 24F footage. People need to stop being confused by the "F" :) Doesn't matter that the sensors are interlaced and magically produce a progressive frame that Canon calls F instead of P, the resultant MPEG2 stream is progressive 24fps. Just like Sony does now.

Interesting, really, but not too practical if you want to record native m2t files. A friend of mine uses a small portable PC with an 80GB HDD inside, software needed for this and records both in the tape and in the portable PC. The only limitation is the portable PC, 150-160 minutes. But you can solve , if you want, this limitation too. And it is cheaper.

I was wondering about a small laptop too. Not only can you record direct to disk, but you get a bigger screen to look at. Our current laptop is quite big and heavy, but I use it when doing stuff close to the house - it's quite heavy on battery power, and that is probably its main limitation, so I have to be within cable reach of a power supply.

While a laptop is a good and viable option, many of us, like myself, need to be totally compact and portable.
So a laptop is not an option.

Most of the time I am run and gun for sports events, weddings, and such. A laptop would be viable option for my stage performances and some cooperate production. But a CF recorder is very small, lightweight, and very reliable (as there's no moving parts). Plus the cards are swappable, whiole hard drive solutions are not.