Has anyone had experience with Firestore in an "out of studio " setting, that is, no AC available. Also what are the best portable drives for shooting up to 1 hour of video in the field.....again evrthing running on battery power....editing on MacG4 OS9.2 withFCP3 (Heard firestore does not work with OS10)

There are some other strings about this here. It's not that the Firestore won't work with OS-10; my DP G4 won't read the FW drive formatted as FAT32 volume when using OS-10.1.3. The end result is the same, but it's not a problem with the Firestore. I'm likely going to have one for sale soon, because OS-10 has been working well with FCP and I don't want to drop back to OS-9.2 just to use it. Great concept, but not ready for prime time in the OS-10 world yet.

Vic,

will it read the HD if it's mounted via the Firestore device itself?
And as a Mac user of FCP- do you find it very useful- I've been eyeballing it myself lately.

Thanks- have fun.

Nope - doesn't matter how it's mounted. So far, it's not useful at all. If I can ever get it work with OS-10, it will be great. OS-9.2 reads it just fine--I just don't want to edit in "9". As mentioned, the problem is the inability of OS-10 to recognize it-- the fix that Videonics suggests doesn't work. Maybe some day....

Vic,

OS X 10.1.5 just released today and I'm reading many post on other boards that many new devices are now recognized by OS X. You might want to try upgrading to see if it helps. What did videonics suggest that didn't work? I'm currious.

Steve,

I'm an Avid editor from way back and I switched a year and a half ago and FCP is great. It is stable as a rock with version 3 and OS X. Each version just gets better and better. If you have specific questions fire away and I'll try to help.

Jeff

Jeff,

The fix is described on this page:

http://www.focusinfo.com/support/faq/firestorefaq.htm

I consists of going into the Unix shell and moving a file out of the /sbin subdirectory. I did that part OK, but it made no difference.

I'll download the latest OS upgrade -- I imagine that sooner or later, my machine would have adivsed me of the new version.

Thanks for the tip.

Well, I upgraded to 10.1.5. Still no joy reading the FW drive. Maybe it's just the Cooldrive model. I'll have to try a different brand.

I wish they made a "drive-bay" device which is just slightly
larger then a drive but does contain a place to but a battery
to power both the drive and the bay and that all the electronics
to store the streams in there too. I think the firestore is just
to big (especially since you can't put the drive in there too). It
shouldn't have to be this big. There seems to be a lot of wasted
space there.

Actually I'm here at the InfoComm show in Las Vegas right now and Focus Enchancements is here practically next door to our booth. I've shown this thread to Matt McEwen, the Product Manager for FireStore. Once he gets back to the office on Monday, Matt's going to e-mail Vic with a solution and then we'll post that process here as well. So Focus Enhancements is aware of this particular user issue and definitely will respond. Rest assured that they just now looked at this entire thread, plus I showed them the search feature to bring up other FireStore threads as well and they're going to go through all of them. Matt's going to register on our boards here and provide some direct feedback and assistance for you guys. Hope this helps,

Plus, Vic, the problem is definitely *not* with the CoolDrive. Matt just verified that.

Great -- I'm breathlessly awaiting the solution! Exhausting the various options has been a real exercise in frustration. The Firestore, I must say, does make a great paperweight, so far.

Have fun at the slots, Chris.

Hey, that's great news. it's got to be a driver issue. there are other products that are fat 32 working on OS X with no problem. thanks for your hard work Chris.

Jeff

Does anyone know if plans are in the works for a "portable" solution for the Firestore- something that perhaps incorporates an internal HD (or alloted space) and runs off battery power- hopefully a 1-piece unit???

....I am very enticed by the Firestore but thoughts of lugging a bag and the Firestore unit, batteries and HD seem a bit much- sorta kills the convienence for "outdoor use"....


....if it incorporated space inside the unit for user placeable HD's and internal power supply- this would be awesome!!!

Any clues as to a rework or similar product.
(Apple should make thier iPods work like this)

There is enough empty room inside FireStore for installing your own hard drive. But there is no provision for it, so you would have to fabricate your own internal mount.

Ashley Guy has a couple of photos showing the inside of FireStore. Go to http://www.guygraphics.com/ > Product Reviews > FireStore (at bottom of page).

I've seen the luggable bag and using it is no big deal... just sling it over your left shoulder or under the tripod. It's actually pretty convenient in my opinion. But I would like to see someone mount an internal drive and battery for it.

i've heard about "pulling the signal directly from the ccd chips" with the use of a break-out accessory, and i've seen a picture of one of these break-out boxes on the back of a camera (in Digital Moviemaking, by Scott Billups, p. 53).
1. i can't seem to find information on how to do this anywhere
2. i lay awake at night dreaming of getting the RGB signal or the next best thing out of my new PAL XL1, and into my new G4 with FCP3.
does anyone know how to do this?
when i first heard of Firestore, besides being very efficient once you get back to your editing computer, i thought it was a way to decrease "loss" compared to tape, but Chris tells me that dv is dv and using tapes or using firestore yeilds the same quality video.
so, how can i get better quality video going into my NLE?

Jay, if you are using the XL1, the only was is to break open the
camera and directly pull the signal from inside. You are ofcourse
voiding your warranty here and you have to know electronics
to do it (if it is possible). Otherwise you need professional
camera to do this.

okay, so i guess i have to live with tape / or firestore to hard drive.
so the best i can do is shoot on mini dv tape, or shoot through firestore to a hard drive...and the consensus is firestore to hard drive is the same as tape (in quality)?
correct me if i'm wrong, but can't you connect a laptop to your XL1 via firewire or other cables and shoot directly to it (assuming you have FCP on it) with the use of an external h drive? i mean actually shoot to it, not just transfer footage.
thanks guys.

Quality will not be different at all what medium you use as long
as you using the DV signal. DV is 100% the same on miniDV
tape, the firestore or your computer.

Yes, you can record directly into your pc. Whatever the XL1 is
looking at it puts out over firewire, so if you start your capture
program you can record it, even when the camera is not recording
anything itself. You cannot, however, trigger the computer to
start the recording exactly when you hit REC. This might be
possible with future software, but for now, you have to do it
manually. But it is possible. I did it myself a couple of times.

thanks for the info. glad to see someone else is experimenting.
p.s. why isn't holland in the world cup? they're one of my favorite teams...."clockwork orange" and all that.

I'm not into soccer Jay, but there is a qualification thing I believe.
They failed to pass that. Doh.

Did Vic ever get his Firestore to work? I uderstand there is a ver. 2 out which is supposed to solve some of the problems along with Mac's OSX 10.1.5. update.
I am working on mounting a 3.5" drive in the Firesotore (on paper only at this time, no hardware, will them bread-board up first; will let you know if it works. I have found a very small firewire interface for the dirve, but the switching +/- 5 vdc is to the drive is the problem that needs working out so everything can run on a battery.

Have not heard back from Vic; Matt McKewan from Videonics has made an attempt to contact him but no answer yet.

I'm just about out the door to pick up a Firestore and LaCie 30GB Pocketdrive.
I've read that it can be used alongside tape as it will allow for a perfect copy onto the attached fw HD as the XL records onto tape- my question is: can an XL1S shoot without a tape at all? I realize i may see the "No Tape" message- but will I still be able to shoot while the Firestore records onto the fw hd? I'm looking for a totally tapeless solution.

(I'm betting I can- but am hoping for a confirmation)
Thanks fellas.

Yes, you can use the firestore with the XL1S without tape; but the firestore will be capturing everything the camera sees, no "start-stop" as with tape; why NOT use tape and get the videocam advantage of being able to "start" when you want to record, using the record/pause release; and "stop" when you don't want to tape (you save disk space this way. This gives you a "back-up" of your shoot.
Also the "Pocket Drive: is only 5400 rpm vs DV recommended speed of 7200 rpm for hard drives; 5400 should work, but I have not had experience with it. al.

Thanks aholston-

would turning the cam on and pressing record work- then turn the cam off or to standby to pause? Or do I absolutely need tape?

I do alot of casual taping which has allowed for some excellent "on the spot" video captures- knowing I don't need tape would only encourage me to tape more- needing to run tape sorta defeats the purpose for me personally-

Steve,
To use the "record", start-stop" functions of the camera, you NEED to have tape in the camera, or this function is disabled.
This includes"record-pause", too. The Firestore gets a signal frm the camera when "pause" is punched and creates a new file for each take, otherwise, you wind up with 1.9 gig files, while "contionusly" recording (and thats what you would be doing without tape.
Al

This falls under the think twice before you try this at home. In some camcorders and VCR's this will work. I have not tried it in the XL1, so it may or may not work. Buy a cheap mini DV tape. Cut the tape and remove all the tape. Put the empty shell into the camcorder. Try starting and stopping recording on the camcorder. Like I said, it works on some, not on others. The only downside is if it doesn't work you wasted a cheap min DV tape.

Jeff

Can't anything be simple?

Just when the Firestore was looking like the perfect "tapeless" solution- if anyone has a Firestore and has a tape they don't mind butchering- i'm willing to bet we'd all love to know wether it works with then pause/record feature-

thanks to anyone willing to try.

Uh, excuse me here, but actually I'm pretty sure that the XL1S *can* control pause/record to the FireStore *without* a cassette in the camera. This is one of the new features of the XL1S. It's called DV Control. The whole point is to enable the very thing you're asking about. FireStore does indeed have a slave mode for rec/pause recording in addition to its free run mode. The XL1S DV Control completes the picture... no tape required. The GL2 supports this as well (but not, of course, the XL1 or GL1). Hope this helps,

Thanks for the update Chris.
I have the XL1, so I know it needed a tape with the Firestore. Firestore instgructions & site didn't indicate anythnig about the XL1S "DV" mode (must be an older Firestore I was playing with, which is now back to factory for updating).
It's good to know that the XL1S has this feature -- yet another reason for updating my camera. al