Sometimes manufacturer reasoning leaves me completely baffled.

In this particular case, I stumbled across a firmware update for the ADS Technologies Pyro DV Drive. After performing the firmware update on my DV Drive, I benefitted in two astonishing ways. First, the glitchiness in the old firmware on drive startup is gone. Second, and most notable, I can now activate/de-activate the record mode by pressing the record button on the camera. I've been using the new firmware for 3 days, now, and have yet to find a complaint. This really uprates the DV Drive IMHO.

Why oh why some manufacturers don't make bigger media exposure of this kind of cost-free improvements to their products is beyond me. Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with this updated capability.

FWIW.......I've been capturing 30-60 mins of audio/video onto a hard disk capture system( PYRO DV Drive which is a rebadging of the Citidisk) and to onboard DV tape as a backup. The DV Drive has a 2 Gig limit on file size and will automatically begin recording to a second file when the first gig is filled up. I'm experiencing an audio dropout every 3-5 minutes(dropout is about 1 secs) in every record except the first 2 gigs. All audio/video acquired after the first audio dropout happens has lost sync. The onboard DV tape is fine, no audio dropouts. I've tried capturing to the DV Drive with two different cams and experience the same audio dropout with both cams.