Hello everyone,

There seems to be a very worthy competitor to the Videonics Firestore called the QuickStream DV...it comes with HD installed and capable of capturing 4.5 hours of raw DV footage directly from the FW port on the miniDV camcorder....have a look what their site says,


Introducing the QuickStream DV from MCE... Intelligent FireWire DV Storage.

The MCE QuickStream DV completely eliminates the time consuming step of capturing DV footage into your non-linear editing (NLE) system... The portable, self-powered QuickStream DV captures and digitizes your DV footage on-the-fly, via your camera's FireWire port, while you are shooting! After you are through shooting simply unplug the QuickStream DV from your camera's FireWire (1394, i.Link, etc.) port and plug it into your NLE system's FireWire port and begin editing your footage IMMEDIATELY.

The QuickStream DV will be available in three configurations: 90 minutes, 3 hours, and 4.5 hours of recording time.

This product is expected to ship in Q4, 2002.

Product Features:

Rubberized Armor - The QuickStream DV is designed to not require any type of carrying case or other non-essential protective devices. The Quickstream DV is fully encased in protective, shock-proof rubber and is ruggedized to withstand the bumps and rigors of the field.

Internal Battery - The QuickStream DV is self-powered by an internal lithium polymer battery. The internal battery is automatically re-charged when plugged into your NLE's FireWire port, the included A/C Adaptor, or the optional Auto Adapter.

Cord Management - Channels on the side of the QuickStream DV allow for the wrapping and safe-keeping of most sizes of FireWire cable.

Multi-Attachment System - One of the most exciting features of the QuickStream DV is its Multi-Attachment System. With this system the QuickStream DV can be attached to most any DV camera via hot shoe, tripod attachment, etc. It also has a host of other attachment options including belt and arm attachments.

Intelligent FireWire Storage - The QuickStream DV is the first, of many, Intelligent FireWire Storage devices to come from MCE Technologies, LLC.
http://www.mcetech.com/quickstreamdv.html

Sound very interesting, and seems reasonably priced as well. Anyone have experience with capturing directly to a hard drive like this?

I guess my question is what do you end up with when you go to your NLE...one large file that you then need to make clips from or does it break things down into smaller units or takes. Anyone know?

Barry

I've seen this unit at the past couple trade shows. Could be the next big thing. Only problems are the limited built-in battery life, and the raw DV files it writes... most NLE's are not set up for this and therefore they are not edit-ready files. You'd still have to "capture" this data into your NLE at a real-time rate. But... keep your eye on this thing anyway.

Interesting thing, would love to try this unit out. Very handy.
Personally i dislike tape. But then again, no easy large storage
for backup yet.

Converting RAW DV to AVI is very very simple. There are lots
of converters for the PC out. No need to "recapture". For the Mac
i'm not sure. I believe Premiere can handle native raw DV.

MCE appears to be a mac-oriented peripheral developer. According to the press release (link to pdf on their site) the device appears to write a native QT file. So I guess good news for mac users, or other NLE's that import quicktime files.

---"Files import directly into Quicktime based video editing applications such as Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier, and iMovie."

---"QuickStream DV comes in three models: 90 minutes, 3 hours, and 4.5 hours of recording time each carrying an MSRP of $499, $599, and $799 respectively. An optional auto adapter will be available for $14.99."

I'm itchin' already.

Barry

For those $100 i would definitely go with the 3 hours version
instead of 1,5 hours only... That is a 100% increase. If you
go from 3 to 4,5 which is a 50% increase you are paying 200%
more ($200).... so 3 hour version is probably best to buy....

I wonder why they didn't set these up to use USB 2.0 in addition to Firewire.

I'm actually hoping the next version of the Canon XL* has this feature(USB 2.0), where these kinds of items are powered by your camera, then there is not much need for any batteries on the device (with the exception of your camera batteries to power everything).

Get rid of the Svideo, and build in USB 2.0 (official request =) !!!!

Anyone tried the MCE QuickStream DV with a PD170? I'm curious as to how good it works. I'm planning to use this with a PD170 and edit on a Mac with Final Cut Express.

I'm looking for a tapeless solution for those programs that are about 2 hrs and longer so I don't have to change tapes and miss anything.

Hi Paul
My friend and I purchased one of these units, the first shoot went fine, we used a tape as backup incase anything went wrong. The second time we used them, when we returned to dump the footage, the units failed to mount, the diskarbitration daemon spawned and fsck_dos process that eats your CPU, 100%. The unit fails to mount everytime. Trying to contact MCE gets us no where, although last night I got a phone call from MCE and they promised to mail me a firmware upgrade, but that was an empty promise. My friend was promised a firmware upgrade last week, but he also has received nothing. The unit mounts in Windows, and the footage is ther, but we use Apples an FCP, I am franticly trying to get the item returned and refunded but my pleas fall on deaf ears, I would definatly recommend buying something else other than the Quickstream

Regards


Jed

Well the Quickstream saga ends for me with me eating a LARGE slice of humble pie! The delay in responses to my mails was simply caused by a holiday they have in America called "4th of July" (Not sure what it is all about, but I think they celebrate a film with Tom Cruise in it about cars or something) ANYWAY, I received a bunch of calls from them re my problem, they even sent me the software to re-initialise the drive, and it worked (munch munch as I continue to eat my pie)
Since then (and by the way the retractable firewire cable has been replaced by an Apple 4 to 6 pin one) I have had few if any issues with the unit, I have recorded a 4.5 hour continuos scene (clouds moving over the tower in Dusseldorf) and it didn't miss a beat. So I think I will crawl under a rock to eat my LARGE peice of humble pie, and by the way to ALL our American friends "A Happy, although much belated, 4th of July"

Jed "That 4th of Jluy better not be you all gloating at your Independance ;_)" Stone

P.S
Continuos..... Hmmm the spelling doesn't quite look right? Best I get my dictionary out old chums!

merry christmas all,

i just wonder if anybody has some expierience with the
mce product
1.5 hours = 599.00
3 hours = 729.00
4.5 hours = 849.00
6 hours = 999.00

http://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MTOS&Category_Code=DV

since i tape almost all of my events in a studio setting, i am looking for a tapless device. need at least min of 2 hours .

thanks
karl

Not a lot of people seem to have the MCE device (here), so not
many experiences. However, in this forum (as you can see) some
people have had no problems with the device while others had
trouble getting it to work etc.