|
|
|
|
|
May 3rd, 2007, 07:38 AM
|
#286 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Incline Village, Nevada
Posts: 604
|
It is my understanding that the FS4-ProHD will not record 24p frame rate QT files even with the latest updgrade.
Only the FS-C will record 24p QT files. |
|
|
|
May 4th, 2007, 08:53 AM
|
#287 |
|
New Boot
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenija
Posts: 5
|
Me again...
The more I use it, the more problems I discover.... But now I am really angry!! I guess I didn't made such long recordings before just short clips. I was filming a very long event in one "clip". I opened the clips in Vegas and noticed that the event was divided in 9 minute clips by firestore. All seemed OK....but... Remember the talk about "no dropped frames when the clips are splitted"? Well...Frames are really not dropped but AUDIO IS!!! I just couldn't believe when I heard some strange clicks where the clips are cut by firestore. It happens at every 9min12sec23frames. If I look closely at the cut and I enlarge the audio waveform I can clearly see that there is some audio information missing where the cut is made. Out of 10 cuts only one is perfect!! In all the others the audio is "interrupted". Just can't believe. Hopefully I had my precious TAPE copy and I had to recapture the bad pieces ruined by firestore.... Because of firestore "problems" I always use a tape in my camera!! Just really really dissapointed with it. How can I be confortable when passing to HDV for example and buying one of the HDV units that are even more expensive??? Do they work with no problems? As far as I can read on these forums - NO! Matt? |
|
|
|
|
May 14th, 2007, 12:34 PM
|
#288 |
|
New Boot
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Italy
Posts: 7
|
FS4 HD + GY-HD111E: unable to capture tapeless
Hi there! I am sorry if my English is not correct as your, but I never studied it too much (only 3 yrs at school): the rest is self learned on the Web, so please forgive my mistakes (I hope you'll understand me by the same).
It's my 1st post: congratulations to all the friends in this Forum, I found many helps in these years from you. But now... I am not able to find a solution to my problem: I have a JVC GY-HD111E (PAL) with "(A)" firmware, so the one recommended by Focus. I have also a Focus FS4 HD (firmware 1.1.0) and I am not able to capturing in "tapeless" mode. It's all ok with the tape, but when I switch it in "tapeless" mode I can capture clips of 2-5 secs and when I stop the recording with REC button the FS4 doesn't stop (or better: it stops and restart recording a new clip=! FS4 Configuration: Record: Normal Hdd Mode: DV Recorder (same problem in HD, but let's use DV mode); Use ext. FS4: no DV Formats: AVI Type2 Setup: time and date identical to the Camcorder's ones Functions: FA Tapeless, FB Disp, FC Lock Utilities: nothing special, I've formatted the HDD several times and restored factory default settings Play: Play Clip Control: Tapeless When I press "Tapeless" (FA) button a black square (Stop Icon)+ "E" appears in the top left corner of the display. I press REC button on the camera and it starts recording (display light blinks blue and pink): it records few seconds, then it stop and restart recording a new clip of 2-max 5 seconds. Could someone kindly help me? Thank you all! |
|
|
|
|
May 16th, 2007, 02:25 PM
|
#289 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 540
|
Sorry to hear of your troubles. The audio glitch at the clip boundries has been a problem since back in my FS-1 days and now with the FS-4. I've had lots of dialog with Matt about this issue, but have found no solution other than cutting-in a few seconds from the mini-dv tape from my XL-1 for the affected clips. My symptoms match yours -- 1-2 frames of perfect video, but missing audio.
__________________
-- Vic Owen -- |
|
|
|
|
May 22nd, 2007, 01:14 AM
|
#290 |
|
Inner Circle
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Tucson AZ
Posts: 2,211
|
I'm not familiar with the JVC so this might not be helpful, but on my Canon GL-2 I have to set the camera to provide "control" over the firewire in order to get tapeless recording on my FS-4 controlled by the button on the camera.
Have you checked if there is a similar setting on the JVC? |
|
|
|
|
May 28th, 2007, 03:43 AM
|
#291 | ||
|
New Boot
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenija
Posts: 5
|
I am sorry but I have no words to describe the anger that I feel towards this device. This thing is driving me nuts. Now I always expect that something will go wrong... OK. What happened?
I was filming an event for an hour and half. Both FS4 and my XL1 were always ON. I only used REC/PAUSE on the camera. Again thanks god I had tape in my camera. I regularly check if the time code is running during recording.... So everything seemed fine when I returned home until I copied the material from FS4 to my PC. I knew I had filmed around 80min of material, but when I opened all the clips in Scenalyzer (which I always do to check for consistency and errors) the counter showed only around 62min. It was very strange so I made a so called scenalyzer cliplist file which essentially makes a text file very similar to an EDL list with file locations, timecodes, durations, errors etc... In that file I quickly saw serious timecode problems. Based on timecode data i saw that some clips were missing. Even one very large of about 15 minutes. There are some obvious timecode problems even in FS4's log. Please take a look at this: This is the short version of Scenalyzer cliplist export: (Pay attention to the places where instead of timecode only "-1" is shown - looks like serious timecode problem.) Quote:
Same problems are visible also in FS4's own log. Example: Quote:
I have timecode problems from the start because Vegas is not reading the FS4 timecode at all. So.... I had to manually capture the missing clips from the tape. I also attached both log files if someone wants to analyze them. |
||
|
|
|
|
May 28th, 2007, 07:50 AM
|
#292 |
|
Trustee
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Bristol, CT (Home of EPSN)
Posts: 1,192
|
Thank you Bohan. I'm sorry for your problems and hope you get them resolved. Your posts saved me $1000 and a world of grief. I will not even consider buying an FS product. Thank you.
|
|
|
|
|
May 28th, 2007, 05:13 PM
|
#293 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Fresno, California
Posts: 528
|
To resolve some of the gaps in your files, check out this thread...
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...ight=danny+fye It's a work around to the gaps problem. We use JVC HD-110 Cameras and record only to the firestores. We have never really had a problem with them other than the gaps. The construction I will admit is less than optimal - Their FS-3 units were MUCH more solid. But we use IDX battery systems and use a powertap connector off the battery mount to go to the firestore that actually powers the units, and it recharges them somewhat when they are plugged in. We never get the alarm problems. We have not recharged the firestore units in 3 months. |
|
|
|
|
May 28th, 2007, 05:53 PM
|
#294 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Lexington, KY
Posts: 692
|
I have one as well
and I am less than impressed with it. the synchro slave issue is a major
pain. If you forget to set it, you have no footage. Tape is a pain to capture, but is cheap and reliable. I am GLAD I didn't buy a Firestore for myself. Work bought one for me. I HATE shooting tethered. Makes it a pain to have both the FS4 and a Battery pack at the same time. the FAT32 file system sucks. the 2gb limit is a royal pain. Until there is NTFS, I wont have a DTE. If thenew XDCAM XE is as good as is supposed to be, I will spend the money and get one of those, and shoot on Express cards. If you can, return that pos, and buy some cheap $2.00 Sony Premium tapes. |
|
|
|
|
May 28th, 2007, 11:14 PM
|
#295 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Denton, TX
Posts: 334
|
The construction is a bit shoddy but so are many products nowadays. Still,for the price and the small package, I'd expect something darn near indestructable. Focus' pricing strategy is a bit out-of-whack, too--charging nearly $500 more for another 20 or 40 GB when the price differential between two 2.5" drives is negligible, and there is not ANY work on Focus' part to support a larger drive (up to a point, w/FAT32) seems egregious. And the display seems constructed of cheap components--mine is discolored along one side.
Still, the FS-4 has better reliability reports than other portable DTE's, according to articles I've read (one specifically detailed the experiences at The Burning Man thing....). When I called Focus for a replacement disk cable for my out-of-warranty FS-4, they sent me one--free. I've never had a problem with dropped video (when I've remembered to set my camera's 1394 to HDV-out!!), but always use a tape anyhow. Hitting the sync button, followed by lock, is just part of my work flow, and I never thought anything about it until this thread. And I'm able to muck about with the contrast to get the display to remain readable. This is certainly NOT a product that my detail-oriented-self would have sent to market. But it IS still best of breed, for now, and for me does what I need it to do. No tape dropped frames, and easy start on editing (although converting M2T to Cineform takes at least as long as a tape capture...but no dropped frames!). [edit]Oh, and one more thing--a decent external laptop batter functions well as a power source. I got one at Fry's with interchangeable tips and use an old laptop cord to charge it up. Works great & no alarms, lasts MUCH MUCH longer than Focus' expanded battery (although they may change the power adapter form factor if they are spiteful). I get several hours of constant run time (haven't actually run the battery down yet--longest time was 4 hours and the external read as almost full still...) [/edit] Thanks, Matt |
|
|
|
|
May 29th, 2007, 07:21 AM
|
#296 |
|
New Boot
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenija
Posts: 5
|
Thank you all and thanks to Kit Hannah for the link.
Unfortunately the post describes problems with Vegas and *.m2t HDV files which is not my case. I have regular DV avi files. Anyway... I don't really understand how can such a product find its way into companies like JVC, CANON or PANASONIC which sell these DTE recorders along with their cameras. It seems that SONY is the only one which is "refusing" to follow that pattern. I think it would be great if this companies make their own disk recorders, they would certainly make a better job. |
|
|
|
|
June 19th, 2007, 09:11 AM
|
#297 |
|
Tourist
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Austin, MN
Posts: 2
|
Firestore FS-4 workflow?
Hi, I'm fairly new to DVInfo, and have been reading up on the FS-4 and the many problems people have had with HDV. We're shooting on the XL-H1 at HDV 1080/60i and recording onto the FS-4ProHD with .m2t format.
This DOS command works well for combining the files together and makes editing much easier. However, we have quite a few producers who would not know or even want to do something like this when they have to shoot with the FS-4ProHD and our HDV cameras. My question is therefore, what kind of workflow do people follow when using the FS-4 and recording in HDV? So far, I haven't read anything to that here or anywhere else. Thanks! |
|
|
|
|
June 19th, 2007, 07:25 PM
|
#298 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Fresno, California
Posts: 528
|
Quite honestly, even though I push the workaround all the time, I really don't use it. In Vegas, there is always a 6 frame drop. If you're using one camera, I can see the problem, but we use multiple cameras, so I usually just cut to another one when the drop occurs.
|
|
|
|
|
June 28th, 2007, 11:55 AM
|
#299 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Sacramento, Elk Grove. Calif
Posts: 306
|
Need some basic info on FS4
Hope you guys can shed some light on this.
In researching the possible purchase of FS4 I have found 2 units that I have been told are the same thing, supposedly just older and neweer part numbers. An ASYF 1158-01LF and an ASYF-0919-01. They are supposedly the same unit BUT I can get the first one for about $650 and the second one for almost $1000. Doesn't sound like the same unit to me. Does anyone know if there is a difference between the two??? As far as I can tell they both come with the same accessories (firewire cord, battery, belt clip etc.) These are 40G units - not the Pro model. Any help? I want them for use with the PD150, any problems? Thanks
__________________
Puttin the wet stuff on the red stuff! |
|
|
|
|
June 29th, 2007, 06:54 PM
|
#300 |
|
Major Player
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Sacramento, Elk Grove. Calif
Posts: 306
|
No One Out there to help??
__________________
Puttin the wet stuff on the red stuff! |
|
|
|
 |
| ||||||
|
||||||
|
|
