Okay, I'm waiting for my wife to go to bed to I can wrap her presents. I was wondering, if one used an external direct-to-disk device with the FX1/Z1 such as a Firestore FS-4 (eagerly awaiting them to support HD!), does that bypass the MPEG2 encoder, alleviating all of these GOP dropout problems? Does anyone know the signal path from the CCDs onward? Oh, the bedroom door just closed, a-wrapping I will go! Advanced thanks for the enlightenment, and a Merry Christmas to you all.

Using a Firestore-type of device will not get around MPEG-2 compression in any way. The hard disk recorder will record the MPEG-2 stream off the firewire port. However, a hard disk recorder should get around any potential dropout problems, assuming that the dropouts you may encounter are due to physical tape errors.

At this time I don't know of any HDV-aware hard disk recorders.

You could consider using a component (plus audio) to DV converter and then to your Firestore.
e.g. http://www.spcomms.com/dvconverter/.
Don’t know what timecode, quality, power issues you’ll have but I’d speak to Firestore or check out their forum to ascertain compatibility.

David Farland

I currently have a firestore and would love to upgrade it.
But, not until they support HDV. I also would consider DVrack but again, not until it does HDV.

Dave

<<<-- Originally posted by David Farland : You could consider using a component (plus audio) to DV converter and then to your Firestore.
e.g. http://www.spcomms.com/dvconverter/.
Don’t know what timecode, quality, power issues you’ll have but I’d speak to Firestore or check out their forum to ascertain compatibility.

David Farland -->>>

You can already use the Firestore with the FX-1 in DV mode.. the FX-1 outputs DV via firewire, no need to do a conversion.
Either way, going to DV defeats the purpose of having a HD camera.

I plan on purchasing a HDV "firestore" type device when they're available.

Thanks, of course! FX1 uses DV codec in DV mode! ....weird!!

Checked Firestore site and 25mb/s is max capture rate.

Currently investigating uncompressed(ish) field capture methods.

Dave Farland