Hi all,
I was wondering what model of firestore would work best for a Sony PD170P, I notice they are all for HDV now. I also need to know if it can work completely tapeless, I don't want to have to drop tapes into the camera each time. I am under the assumption I need to start and stop the recording via the harddisk itself with this type of camera. I use two Sony PD170P's and have a Final Cut Pro 6 workflow on a Dual 2.3GHZ G5. If the firestore is no good, would it be better to get a citidisk?

I have an FS-4 Pro HD and it works just fine with my PD170. However, the PD170 does not appear to put out the control signals when no tape is in the camera.

I usually use the FS-4 in LOCAL mode, where you start and stop it from the FS-4 independent of the camera. I almost always run tape as a backup; however, I believe I ran some initial tests without tape and it worked just fine. (I suggest running a tape as a backup, just in case. You could even reuse those tapes.)

The one thing about the Firestores that bothers some people is that it breaks the files about every 8.5 minutes. However, the files joint together seamlessly (at least in DV mode) when they are put on the timeline.

Buddy