It seems that both the DV Rack with HDV add on and the FS-4 HD are having problems with time code in HDV format. So my question is, has there been a clear cut winner in the DTE/DTD HDV product category.

I'd love the idea of using the firestore, but without time code in HDV, it's not looking like a winner.

DV Rack with HDV seems like a great choice as well. You get a lot of bang for the buck with this. The only problem is having to be at the camera AND the laptop at the same time.

Has anyone been able to get successful "reliable" HDV DTD done period?

It seems all I'm hearing are small problems that are plaquing the direct to disk products- has anyone been using one successfully- even without timecode?

I did manage to get some test footage footage with the trial version of DV Rack with the HDV add on. It was only 2 minutes worth of shots, but it was completely tapeless. Dropped it into Vegas 6d and edited it without a problem. I did notice there was no sound, but I don't know if that was my inexperience with the new camera or something else.

See what I mean- No sound! There always seems to be something not right with DTD and HDV- has anyone got anything working at all?

I'd like to pickup another Sony FX-1 and go totally tapeless- but I have yet to see anyone post a success.

It could be that the HD100 doesn't record audio unless there's a tape in the bay. I don't know. I'm still trying to figure this thing out, so it could just be me as to why audio didn't record.

Steve.
It was me and my inexperience with the camera. I was able to record HDV signals tonight WITH sound. :)

Heath, great. When you have some significant time using the tapeless setup- let us know how reliable the tapeless solution is- we're all anxious to hear a successful story. Keep us updated.

(Keeping my fingers crossed)

Now all we need is for Firestore to be the first to substitute a card writer instead of the hard disc in their unit and we can all be using solid-state capture. (If they don't, then rest assured someone else will...)

Robin

I briefly tried connecting my HD10U direct to desktop PC, via DV Rack trial version. I did get some footage captured, but the machine locked up several times before I did manage to capture. Has anyone managed to run it consistently without getting lockups (with any HDV camera)?

I briefly tried connecting my HD10U direct to desktop PC, via DV Rack trial version. I did get some footage captured, but the machine locked up several times before I did manage to capture. Has anyone managed to run it consistently without getting lockups (with any HDV camera)?

I've recorded two minute chunks on my latop. I did have one time where the HD monitor in the software freaked out, but a quick reboot fixed it.

Now all we need is for Firestore to be the first to substitute a card writer instead of the hard disc in their unit and we can all be using solid-state capture.

i *think* that the current crop of memory drives that are in the ide-compatible package format already include the card writer in the drive... it's supposed to be a direct drop-in replacement for an ide hard drive.

they are not cheap, but if get one with enuf sustained write speed capability, it should be a plug-n-play swap for the hdd in your fs-4.

of course, the drawback is the price vs. capacity, which doesn't begin to compare to a regular hdd.

Thanks Dan, that sounds interesting.
My reasoning was that with all the fuss about the Panasonic P2 range of cameras, then with this type of add-on unit, any of our cameras could have the same solid-state capturing and file transfer protocol.


Robin

My main concern: is it worth it. Tapes are inexpensive right now. But to go tapeless on a Sony would be great. question is , would it be 1k great? or 1500 great?

My main concern: is it worth it. Tapes are inexpensive right now. But to go tapeless on a Sony would be great. question is , would it be 1k great? or 1500 great?

So is the conclusion that noone is doing successful DTD HD recording? So in theory, a laptop, external firewire drive camera link is not been done yet?

We do have customers doing it on a daily basis. DV Rack (with the HDV PowerPak) will capture in the .m2t file direct to any hard drive with a letter designation (C:, D:, E:, etc.)

In response to one of the comments above about the HDV portion causing "lockups," we can almost always trace this problem back to one thing - insufficient processor speed. HDV is extremely processor intensive, and in order to decode/play back the video, you need a processor with a clock speed of 2.0GHz or higher (maybe a little less for a dual-core.) A 1.6 GHz Pentium M is not going to be able to handle HDV playback/monitoring.

To see if you are running into this problem, fire up DV Rack, and then press CTRL-ALT-DEL. Go to the processor performance graph, and leave it running. Then, connect your HDV camera, and start recording. If the processor shoots up past 85%, you are running the risk of maxing out the CPU, which could cause it to lock up or crash.

In the field monitor menu, there are three settings that can help reduce the CPU load - make sure Visible Lines is set to Even, MPEG Resolution set to Half, and MPEG Frames is set to I Only. This will reduce the decoding to a minimum, and cut the CPU load down. If this works without maxing the processor, bump each of the values up in turn. I usually start with setting MPEG Frames up to I+P to get a better frame rate in the field monitor. Again, keep monitoring your processor load, and bump the values back down if you start reaching the danger level.

have u seen anyone running your software on a Mac with windows?? I would love to use your program but I'm not going to buy a Wintel box to do it.

We have heard from over 10 customers running the "boot camp" option, and it does work. However, keep in mind that Apple Boot Camp is beta software. We have not done any testing of this configuration at this point.