I'd like to know if anyone has tried the new QuickStream DV/HDV.

Give me a couple months:)

Yes, you do need to get the firewire ports on your cameras working first!

Thanks for reminding me:) Its in the works I "THINK" I found a guy if it works out i'll post his info, man its going to be a tight year.

If the repair goes well, I'd sure like to know. What did he quote you? I'm real careful with firewire ports, but it's always good to have options, should repair be needed someday.

Well I didnt get an exact quote yet, he told me that he doesnt normally work on JVC but he knows the problem. Its 3 ICs that need to be replaced he said its pretty much all labor. at least 3 hours @$100 an hour he said roughly $500-$600. I am in a unique situation I am a EIC for a TV station who is looking for a new bench tech to sub out to. So I think im going to get a look for free. Right now he is looking at my Sony DSR-30 which also ended up with a blown port (4 pin weird) I should here on that one tomorrow. When I feel good that he does good work at a good price I will let everyone know how to get a hold of him.

I wrote to MCE and asked a few questions. These are the questions I asked and answers I got back:

(Q) I'd like to know what type of hard drive is in the QuickStream DV/HDV (PATA, SATA?).

(A) PATA

(Q) I assume you use 2.5" hard drives. Are the drives formatted using NTFS or FAT32?

(A) FAT32

(Q) Is there anything non-standard about the drives?

(A) No.

(Q) How accessible are the drives?

(A) Not terribly difficult to access.

(Q) Would it be difficult to replace the hard drive in a QuickStream DV/HDV?

(A) Not difficult, but it would void the warranty.

(Q) I would also like to know if you have any plans to market a removable flash memory version of the QuickStream DV/HDV anytime in the foreseeable future?

(A) Although there are currently no plans to incorporate removable flash memory, a non-removable solid-state hard drive is currently being tested and considered for future release.

I like the MCE over Firestore for a couple reaasons. 1. It mounts using a hot shoe or thread and GIVES IT BACK. unlike the Firestore which has a mount that leaves you without a light. Also its smaller and simpler I dont need my drive to do a bunch of fancy stuff I just need it to recorrd when I hit the trigger. I dont need displays to go bad and other junk. I do have 2 concerns 1. Im not crazy about fat 32 but I guess its o.k. 2. I read in another thread on this forum of folks having alot of problems with the citi-disk which I think this is a derivitive of. Something about losing footage if you dont power down properly or if the FW cable comes out etc. which scares the crap out of me.
I hope they fixed that.

I called MCE to get some info on the new drive, it sounds like a winner although the salesman didnt know about GY-HD100 support(even though its on their site) he did say without a tape you would get no timecode other than that it seemed o.k. if you were recording and something went wrong ie removal of the firewire connector the drive would close off the last file recorded. The cool thing is he said its pretty easy to open and upgrade the drive after the warrenty has run out of course. Its a IDE.

Anyone checked MCE latley? they now have a solid state version! Its pricey but a sign of things to come.

Hi any one know if you could swap the harddrrive in a firestore or MCE with
2 X 32GB CF cards and a CF to IDE adepter like this one

http://www.1topstore.com/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=94

Give it a shot then write a tutorial.:) Seriously I dont know but I do know that MCE was pretty open about their hardware. I asked them if I could open it up and upgrade the drive myself (down the road of course) and they said sure its just a ide drive. Which I suspect the new solid state drive is just a ide solid state that you could put in after prices drop.

Anyone checked MCE latley? they now have a solid state version! Its pricey but a sign of things to come.

I couldn't find it, do you have a link? Thanks!

http://mcetech.com/quickstreamdv-hdv/index.html

http://mcetech.com/quickstreamdv-hdv/index.html

Oops, I missed the clickable circle on that page that moves you to the right page. Thanks!

Hi any one know if you could swap the harddrrive in a firestore or MCE with
2 X 32GB CF cards and a CF to IDE adepter like this one

http://www.1topstore.com/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=94

That would definitely work...well sort of. Addonics makes one that works with 2.5" harddrives which a lot of these storage units use.

I have a firestore FS-4 and the very first thing I did when I got it 2 years ago was rip the small 40gb hd out and replace it with a nice 100gb drive.

Now with the firestore, I believe only one of the CF slots will work because the second slot is a slave and not striped with the first to make one large harddrive. It actually would be a piece of cake, even to modify the FS-4 casing to allow you to swap cards easily, but here is the big question - why would you want to?

I mean sure it would be fun to do, but at the current time you would almost be downgrading your device, costing more to get less space, etc. If the cards were cheaper or there was a way to hook up multiple CF slots and of course a way to get rid of the FS-4's goofy casing, it would be great.

The MCE device looks great (the solid state one) but not for that price!!!!! I like that it mounts on the bottom of the camera which I think would be the most convenient place to mount it - but again it lacks a few things, no removable battery and no removable storage! Plus, before I got the FS-4 I bought a citidisk which was made by the same co (just under a different name) and the thing was the biggest POS ever. They sent me I believe 2 or 3 different units and not one worked right - the firestore has never ever failed on me.

So I guess like everyone else, I am waiting for the next great solution but I feel it definitely should have removable media and bettery and a loooooong life!

We ordered a quickstream dv/hdv drive on May 22nd and it still has not arrived despite many phone calls.
Does anyone have any insider thoughts about what is going on?

We ordered the quickstream dv/hdv drive from MCE on May 22nd and have still not received the drive or been given a clear delivery date from customer service. If I don't get it by next week I am canceling the order.

Has anybody else tried ordering this product?

I've done several searches on the forum for the Quickstream DV/HDV and found a number of threads from a couple years ago where people were frustrated with it because it wasn't reliable. But I haven't found anything of substance that has been posted recently (as in, the last six months).

Does anyone out there use the Quickstream DV/HDV recording device and if so, do you have any problems with it? At this price, I'm guessing its either a POS or else the best thing since sliced bread. But with the lack of posts about it, I'm guessing its more likely to be a POS 'cause if it were great, everyone would be running to get one.

So what's the skinny on it?

I'll take the silence as a "no."

web site says: "If you are not completely satisfied with the QuickStream DV/HDV for whatever reason simply notify us and we will arrange for it to be picked up at your location by FedEx. Your entire purchase price, including shipping, will be cheerfully refunded."

you can test it for 30 days an give it back if your are not happy.
the only bad point is the SSD version cost the hell.

I have QuickStream sitting in my cupboard that I purchased about 4 years ago from a company here in Australia. In fact the one in my cupboard is the second one I have owned - the first started giving trouble very early in its 'life' and was promptly replaced via the Australian agent.

I used the replacement unit about four or five times a year since then and it performed flawlessly...

... until earlier this year and that's when my troubles started!

I discovered that the company that I purchased my unit from no longer handled them but instead now stocked the Firestore units (uneasy feeling started to tickle my spine). Their answer to my phone inquiry was that I would have to deal direct with Quickstream (tickle started to change to an mild itch).

My first email to Quickstream took a long time to be answered (mild itch now a strong irritation) with the response that I would have to ship the unit to them before they could comment - not entirely unreasonable.

My follow-up email asking more questions has never been answered and so I have consigned it to the cupboard.

I don't know what their customer support is like in the US nor do I know what it is like in other countries but I do know what it is like for me!

I need to update this post.

I was re-arranging my storage cupboard and rediscovered my dead Quickstream unit so decided to give them one more go, after all it only takes a few minutes to whip off a quick email. So, I sent off another email outlining what had happened in the past

To my surprise, I received a reply within 24 hours that not only apologized for the lack of communication but also answered my questions! So I am now in the process of arranging to ship it across to them.

I will keep posting updates just in case anyone is interested.

Wayne