QuickStream DV special pricing for DVXuser.com.

[Zoomforce]

Hey guys and gals, MCE just contacted me with some DVXuser.com special prices:

http://www.mcetech.com/quickstreamdv.html

For the 6 hour (normal price:$999) QuickStream DV, QSDV-360: DVXuser.com Members price:$924 ($75 discount)

For the 4.5 hour (normal price:$849) QuickStream DV, QSDV-270: DVXuser.com Members price:$774 ($75 discount)

For the 3 hour (normal price:$729) QuickStream DV, QSDV-180: DVXuser.com Members price:$679 ($50 discount)

For the 1.5 hour (normal price:$599) QuickStream DV, QSDV-90: DVXuser.com Members price:$549 ($50 discount)

Email dv@mcetech.com for this price, and you will need to mention that they are a DVxuser.com member to get this discount.

[puredv]

Man this Forum Rocks!!! you just saved me $75 I just convinced the Wifey to let me buy one as a christmas gift, but I am going to wait till someone else buys it so I can hear if it works. Is anyone else buying one anytime soon?

[Zoomforce]

Mine should come maybe Friday or Monday, and I should have a review done a couple days after that.

[boo]

i plan on purchasing 2 of the 3hr drives for a 2 1/2 hour play this spring. i'd first like to see its reliability out in the field. otherwise i will have to settle for the promax 3 hour direct drive which sells for $999 each?!!?

$679 for the 3 hr. drive is an awesome price jarred! you will actually be saving me $640 if these drives are proven reliable! i commend you on negotiating these prices!

[Zoomforce]

Hey, thank MCE for giving us this generous discount, they are very interested in the performance with the DVX100 and seem like a pretty solid company.

as for field work.. it like these things almost look like they are made for the military, some hardcore armour and such so I think it may be pretty cool. there is even a clear plastic shell around the Aluminum to protect the aluminum.

[Devin]

It is great you are doing a review this weekend Jarred, It will determine my xmas purchase (( Unlike some of you im gonnna be in the dog house when I buy this thing so close to christmas, but it is totally worth it if it is good ))

The discount is really nice, it lets me buy the next higher model without spending much more.

[Barry_Green]

Hey Jarred, you know what we have to know, so in your review please test & verify:

Does the drive record the cadence bits for progressive from the DVX, and does it pass that information on to Vegas...

Obviously the way to know is to shoot some 24P clips, then import the media into a 24P project in Vegas and check the properties. If it says "DV 24P (removing 3:2 pulldown)" then we're good to go. So please, check it out and let us know!

Thanks!

[Zoomforce]

yeah im all over it..

[Devin]

YES! my wife gave the go ahead to buy one for my xmas present. Hurry up and let me know it works Jarred so I can order one before xmas.

You can use this as a removable drive as well right?

[SirAllen]

The 6 hour would be 85 GBs or so right? Hmm, so is this thing solid state or using the small laptop size hard drives? If the hard drives, I wonder if you can buy the cheapest version and then throw in a bigger drive in there. Because the difference between the 20GB and the 85GB is $400....

[SteveNunez]

I'm gonna order one for use with a DVC80- I'll post my experience with it here.

[Zoomforce]

yes good idea Steve.. it will be interesting to see if there is any differences with the DVC80.

[SteveNunez]

Steve, you'd be surprised- a quick laptod HD swap just might do the trick........but we'll leave this up to the tinkerers here to find that out!

For me- I think the 90min batt capacity makes it somewhat pointless to buy the larger unit as you'd need to get to some form of household current to charge up the internal battery and at the same time you could dump the dv files to your pc/Mac HD...so I think the 180 min QS DV is the best solution.

PS- you just gotta believe the future (2006+) HDV cams will have internal swappable laptop Hd's that are placed in a caddy and swapped as necessary by the end-user....it seems a logical progression for a digital workflow- dump tape and go full digital- that's my vote!!!!!
((Tape can be an archival means))

[Zoomforce]

about the power thing... the Quickstream is incredible as it has a built in voltage regulator.. meaning you can put almost any voltage into the power port on the Quickstream and it will charge it.. so you could use any battery with an adapter to recharge it.

[David Jimerson]

What's going to be funny is how ridiculous these separate drives are going to look in ten years.

What -- your camera didn't have a built-in 300 gig drive?

[Zoomforce]

just look at it like cassette tapes... who the hell still uses those?

[Guest]

I've been reading alot of the tech pages on this unit & it it is mentioned several places that it is "mac os platform reliant" ...? Anyone have any idea about pc based compatability? Strange, but the drive hasn't shown up on any of the pc based onliners. Only macwarehouse, places like that ....

[Zoomforce]

yes it works with PC. The reason it hasnt shown up probally is because it was just actually ready for shipping last week.

[Barry_Green]

Review? You said back on the 17th you should be getting one that weekend...

I've got to get something like this very soon, so I'm anxiously awaiting the good word...

[Zoomforce]

Im still waiting on it.. It was supposed to get here before christmas but the whole holiday thing delayed it.

[speedbump]

This forum doth rock.

The sheer elegance and completeness of this solution is what you're paying for, and is probably worth it to run-n-gun videographers. I might be able to justify one of these to the Drunkard documentary sponsors. Hmmm....

On a related note, I just watched RUSSIAN ARK, the movie that was shot all in one take. If you haven't seen it, you gotta, just for the Making Of segment on the DVD. I was fascinated with how they rigged a mobile system for the Steadicam operator, who was lugging around an HD camera. I can't tell if the person with the foam-padded backpack was carrying batteries or hard drives, but they had a custom solution going. My girlfriend was saying, 'why do you keep backing this part up about the camera crew?'

[Zoomforce]

I just got it.. and man is it nice. Comes with some very nice accesories as well. I am going to power test it today and hopefully get a review out by tonight.

[boo]

Great Jared! *Can't wait for your review *:D *Can you puhleeeze check to see if it can capture 24p native regardless of pulldown? i need to purchase before the end of the year!

thanks!

[Zoomforce]

Just a quick update.. I did a very quick test on 24A with the DVX, and the quickstream dumped it into an .AVI file on the quickstream. When I imported it into Vegas... bam... auto detected the 2-3-3-2 pulldown.. so far so good :)

[Barry_Green]

That's my #1 question as well -- does it retain the bits so that Vegas recognizes a clip recorded in 24PA and automatically removes the 2:3:3:2 pulldown.

Question #2: what's with the battery life -- 90 minutes of battery on a 4.5-hour drive? Can it be connected to the camcorder battery, or a larger external battery belt, or something like that?

Question #3: can you fed-ex it to me and then tell them you lost it? I'll even send you my fed-ex number.

[Barry_Green]

Man Jarred, you are FAST -- you sent that response while I was typing my question. You answered it before I even asked!

(okay, so how 'bout that fed-ex question?) ;D

[Neil Rowe]

zoom,..BAM does not have a "b" at the end ..from this i have determined that your quickstream is obviosly defective.. send it to me and i will trash it for you at a certified dv equipment dump.

[Zoomforce]

bamb,bam,bamboo whatever lol..

Barry questions:

#1: yes

#2: yes 90 minutes; but; *The thing even has a built in Voltage regulator so you can power it by almost any battery pack you have kicking around. The power jack has a standard mini-power plug that you can buy at radioshack. It does charge via firewire from your pc or laptop though... just like an Ipod. It also includes an Adapter.

#3: Dont think so.. but I have some tasty Fruitcake we got for christmas I can send you.

Hold off on the q&A guys so I can get a review together, most of your questions will be answered I hope.

[Zoomforce]

Here is a little photo to keep you occupied.

http://www.Dvxuser.com/image/IMG_0019.JPG

[boo]

oooooh....it's like teasing a little kid in a candy store! can't wait for the review...

[Neil Rowe]

just send me the quickstream and it will be ok.. send it!

lol .. actually ive been debating as whether to get one of those, or a laptop to do direct to disk stuff on .. of course the laptop has some obvious advantages/perks, and obvios disadvantages of size/weight/durability compared to the quickstream. i think ill make my final decision based on the shooting environment of my next big project. ..i dlike to get one of each for whatever suites best at the time, but well see. the quickstream costs less too. defintitly a tastey little morsel.

i like the flowers on the blanket,, very pretty. man that nice..sits right on there.

[Zoomforce]

http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/quickstreamDV/

[ClaytonF]

Nice review Jarred. Thanks for putting it together. The hotshoe mounting is ingenious. Although the following comment seemed a little concerning:

> ...the files on the Quickstream are all AVI/DV or MOV formats, so its not pulling timecode or other data that the DVX would send in record mode.

So is this the case whether the DVX is rolling or not? I'm trying to think ahead to what implications you might have without having any sort of timecode with the file... Although you're not worrying about shuttling / recapturing from a tape it seems like this could be an issue when you are trying to work with the same footage between programs or do any other activity that may require a common point of reference for a frame beside that which an NLE attributes to it temporarily...

Am I understanding what you meant here correctly?

Thanks again,
Clayton

[Zoomforce]

Yes, you are correct to some degree. The files you get are basically the same AVI files you would get if you captured a tape into your NLE.. The AVI files create thier own timcode, so if you distributed the file around it would still maintain it's timecode, but for marking you would reference the clip as well as the time code in the file. MOV files also are capable of generating thier own unique timecode.

[Zoomforce]

Re-Reading my last post I think I may be more confusing than its worth. I will try and explain it easily by one of the tests I did, and I should add this to the article.

To see just what info was transfered to the Quickstream, I preset the timecode on the DVX100 to 00:08:00 and I hit record on camera (so Quickstream and a NEW tape where recording) while it was running I shifted the Iris.. (since the DVX adds Iris settings onto the Data track on tape).

I then took the Quickstream and plugged it into my NLE and dumped the file into my NLE. Without touching the file, I then hooked the DVX to my system and output to a different, new tape the file from the Quickstream.

Thats when I crossed my fingers. I then unhooked the DVX and put it into VTR mode, re-winded the tape and pressed play. The timecode started at 00:08:00 (meaning the file saved timecode) as well as it also played back the iris setting throughout the clip. So basically, all info as far as I could tell that would have been on the tape, stayed in the file.

[J.R. Hudson]

This looks amazing. Jarred, thanks for doing this. You are the man, really.

Wow. I love technology. Regarding the 2g's; aproximately how long (or short) would you say that is in recording time? I agree with you in that it would be hard to go over 5 minutes at one shot anyway...

Unless your DePalma on Meth.

[Zoomforce]

1.8 gigs, the Fat32 limit, is about 8.5 minutes.

[ClaytonF]

...re-winded the tape and pressed play. The timecode started at 00:08:00 (meaning the file saved timecode) as well as it also played back the iris setting throughout the clip. So basically, all info as far as I could tell that would have been on the tape, stayed in the file.

That's good to hear - so timecode would likely only be present when the DVX is also rolling tape right? When just going to the QuickStream (manually pushing record on drive) was any of the other camera data still carried across?

Thanks Jarred,
Clayton

[Zoomforce]

Yes. because when you dont press record on the camera, there is no timecode because the camera thinks you are just standing there waiting for something to happen.. The file will generate its own timecode, but wont be what the camera's is because there is none on the camera.

For me, I dont use timecode at all, honestly, ever. The only time I use timecode is when there is a composer or some other audio-related thing, I just put a timecode overlay on the file (vegas and most others do this).. The other rare time is when I am doing multicamera shoots... but that is just so I know which tape is from which camera, but you can just rename the files to tell you.

[cinebuddy]

Hey Zoom, is there anyway to upgrade the hard drive?

[Zoomforce]

I put this question to MCE, and they said they dont recommend it, because there are very few aftermarket drives that relaibly can capture DV streams for a sustained period, remember, there isnt the buffer's etc that your laptop have. However, they didnt specifically state that it cant be done, but I imagine it would void your warranty. If you do attempt to do it, dont by a cheap drive.

[joachim]

hmmmm, a standard DV stream is 25MBit/s, makes a bit more than 3 MB per second. All 2,5" drives available today sustain at least 10 MBps for read and write, cache should also be no problem.
A few years ago some drives needed thermal recalibration every hour or so, which caused dropped frames, but this is also not a issue today anymore.

It might be an idea to purchase a quickstream with the lowest disc capacity today and install a bigger drive after warranty has expired. I did the same with the drive in my ipod recently.

[Zoomforce]

Your right.... if the drive was siting on your desk. Remember this thing is portable and probally moving around, specially with handheld shots, which increases error correction etc of the drive and kills your effective throughput.

Bandwidth isn't the biggest factor, RPM's of the drive is, older drives that spin at 3000rpms are just too slow, and the newer 5400 rpm drives are fast enough, but more sensitive to vibration... you might say.. Hey, i saw a 7200rpm drive... yes.. then you gotta look at heat issues as well as battery life. *

Its not as simple of an upgrade as you would think it would be.

At any rate, I am sure that as long as you bought a high quality fast drive, it would work. Me, on the other hand, dont like the idea of screwing with it. Sure, if I had an ipod and the drive crashed and I lost all my Micheal Jackson albums it would suck a little, but I can just go download them again...

but for me to loose 5 hours of video forget about it... not worth the risk to me.

[Neil Rowe]

i wonder if we could talk the makers of the quickstream into making another slightly smaller device that simply connects the firewire signal to a firewire signal reciever wirelessly. sorta like wireless networking, only it just tranmits firewire i/o wirelessly. then you could capture directly from the cam in digital format to a nearby computer.. laptop would be nice. instantly review your shots at full res , and keep what you like. toss the rest- would be a nice setup. no cords. no tapes. straight digital- could easily install up to a 512 mb ram stick for buffer memory. sounds good to me .

[joachim]

wireless might be a problem though... The fastest wireless technology available today is 802.11g with a nominal bitrate of 54 mbit/s. Toss in error correction and protocol overhead and you are down to half of it as net data rate.
This would be enough for a dv stream with 25 Mbit/s theoretically but keep in mind that virtually no LAN technology today has Quality of Service features which would guarantee the bandwith.
Let alone the reliability issues of a radio connection (reflections, interference, the microwave oven of the catering people).

[Zoomforce]

In the next 6 months there will be 802.11n, which hits 100mbit/s.. which is kinda cool but as all the points joachim pointed out... good luck getting a decent signal for DV use, unelss they streamed mpeg4 like the JVC cameras can via wifi.

[Guest]

It's a shame that it cannot record in Matrox DV-AVI format. For Matrox users that means we will have to record in VFW-AVI format and then use file conversion software to make the transition. It kind of defeats the quickstream drive's convienence asset. Also, can the drive be formated in NTFS?

Regards,

Mark

[Zoomforce]

drive cannot be NTFS, because NTFS isnt compatible with Apple and the drive is dual format.

As for the MAtrox DV format.. are you sure the .DV format wont work with MAtrox?

[boo]

thanks for the review jared! *i just ordered two 4.5 hour drives and will pick them up on friday in irvine. *i didn't realize they are in my neck of the woods. :) *my first project w/ these will be in april where i will be doing a 2 camera shoot for a 2 1/2 hour theatre production. *wish me luck! :)

[Zoomforce]

wow.. 2 :)

Yeah the guys over at MCE sound pretty cool.

Your project sounds cool.. just think you save 5 hours of rendering right off the bat heh heh heh.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the good work jared. I spoke with Ben by telephone today & a drive is on the way to Norway :-)

[bjornaagedk]

Does the Quickstream DV work with both PAL and NTSC versions of the DVX100 ??

[Zoomforce]

Hey Barry... I rebooted the Quickstream for the first time this morning, and the audio probem went away believe it or not.

[Barry_Green]

Well, now that's good news! So, are you achieving 100% Vegas compatibility?

[scottchapin]

If you want to clear the drive by copying it to another, how olng does it take?

[Zoomforce]

I did this last night.. took a few minutes to dump. And saved me 3 hours of digitizing :)

[scottchapin]

That's great/ I want to be able to make tape backups after the fact on one computer while editing on another. I can't always record simultaneously to tape, since I would lose material during tape changes.

[Guest]

Hello all,

Ok, I'm not a DVX user, my cam is a GL2. But, hey, hope I'm welcomed :D. I've been investigating on buying a quickstream drive.

My main concern is power, I usually do weddings, and will need at least 5 hours of power. Is there a way to power this thing via my DC belt, would some type of adaptor work ??? Or please correct me if this thing can draw power directly via the firewire and let me record as long as I have enough Gl2 batteries?

Thanks for your help guys :)
emilio olivares
monterrey, mexico

[scottchapin]

Hello all,

Ok, I'm not a DVX user, my cam is a GL2. But, hey, hope I'm welcomed *:D. I've been investigating on buying a quickstream drive.

My main concern is power, I usually do weddings, and will need at least 5 hours of power. Is there a way to power this thing via my DC belt, would some type of adaptor work ??? Or please correct me if this thing can draw power directly via the firewire and let me record as long as I have enough Gl2 batteries?

Thanks for your help guys :)
emilio olivares
monterrey, mexico

Check the site out. They have 3 hour batteries available. You can use third party batteries with the right connector, providing the voltage is between 6 an 18 volts (I believe). Read Jarreds review and check out the site. Your questions are answered there.

[Zoomforce]

Scott, yes the quickstream (quite incredibly) has a built in wide range voltage controller so you can plug most voltages from almost any source into the quickstream to recharge it. They also just released a 3 hour extended battery that attatches to the drive.

I just came off a shoot this weekend where I used the drive for about 8 hours a day, and never had the thing die.

All I did was every once in awhile I plugged the included adapter into the drive to recharge it (doing so doesnt stop it's operation, meaning you can plug the cable in while its recording) This wasn't difficult because we where pretty locked off and it wasnt run and gun.

[scottchapin]

I'm drooling for one, two actually. I hope to get the 6hr unit soon, and hipefully the other in three months. These look to be excellent pieces of equipment.

[Guest]

IS the Quickstream DV interchangeable with its hardisk.Meaning if I buy the 1.5 hour and decides to up my capacity all I have to do is replace the present hardisk with a higher one? thanks

[nullphonic]

This was posted earlier in this thread by Jarred (if I follow you correctly).

"I put this question to MCE, and they said they dont recommend it, because there are very few aftermarket drives that relaibly can capture DV streams for a sustained period, remember, there isnt the buffer's etc that your laptop have. However, they didnt specifically state that it cant be done, but I imagine it would void your warranty. If you do attempt to do it, dont by a cheap drive."

While it's ultimately doable (as other posts suggest), it's not recommended.

[Multi-Media]

What about playback? Could I use one of these for client Demo's/Approvals? Does it only have firewire in/out?
Could it be used as a project back-up? Can it "record" or transfer files from a computer NLE ?
So many questions, I know but I am really intrigued by this little wonder. Definitely want one... wondering if I "must have" one.
Thanks for bringing this to the fore... I was looking at the Firestore earlier this evening... This looks Sooo much more like what we can use. The fire store didn't even have a drive.
Thanks Jarred ;D

[Zoomforce]

There is no playback on the quickstream, meaning you cant press a button and play back on your camera. You need to hook it up to your computer to see the footage.

I love this thing though, here is the latest mount I made, updated with rods:

http://www.dvximg.com/mount3.jpg

[Elvis]

O.K Jarred, now your just showing off!That just ROCKS! I might have to have one! 8)

[Neil Rowe]

did you have trouble finding the 15mm stainless, i know i did. unless i wanted to order 100 or more 12 ' lengths. :) thats pretty sweet though. what are you going to stick on there?

[Zoomforce]

its not stainless, its chromed aluminum, so its light. I actually found it at Home Depot.

[Zoomforce]

http://www.dvximg.com/mount4.jpg


Now I just need to learn how to anodize.. paint sucks.

I tried to anodize something last week and almost blew up my house, I couldnt find battery acid so like a moron I tried to subsitute it with Hydrochloric Acid and shit hit the fan. That stuff eats through a 1/8th aluminum plate in 30 minutes and creates quite the sci-fi production doing it.. boiling spraying and smoking like a madman. being on the 12th floor of a hi-rise, I almost had a heart attack thinking it would blow up.

[Taylor Moore]

Looks great Jarred, when can I put my order in....

[Zoomforce]

here you go http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3319&item=29890592 53 :P

[Neil Rowe]

is the spacing (hieght ) right for either the cavision or chrosziel standard mattebox mount bridge?

[Zoomforce]

the rods are spaced at 60mm center to center, I dont know if the height is exact, but if it isnt I can simply just mill out the piece that goes from the rods to the mattebox.

[Neil Rowe]

is it possible to mill the plate out, so that that front peice(the one with the quickstream) can be slid up *and down, and retightend for different heights? possibly somthing similar on the other version? cause if you could adjust height it would be even more kick butt.

[Zoomforce]

I was actually gonna do that but I changed it as I went along, if you can see there is a channel going horizontal that you can put bolts in to make left and right adjustments, Originally there would be 2 channels like that so you could go up and down. I decided left and right would be more important, as up and down adjustments can actually be done on some matteboxes. Anyways, I realized that as long as it matched the lens left and right I would never change it so I tapped bolts straight through. wont work on another camera, but is a mutch stronger system when stuff doesnt slide around.

[Neil Rowe]

how long does it take you to make one?

[Zoomforce]

The longest time is tapping the holes, because I need to do that the old fashined by hand way. If I made a bunch of them it probally would be faster, and If I could find some sort of powered tapping machine it would be pretty quick.

[Zoomforce]

If you guys dont have the snap on battery for the quickstream, you can make your own adapter that uses the stock DVX batteries.. that way you can charge the quickstream on camera without needing to have different batteries or the AC adapter.

I used the cheap $10 charger and gutted it, giving me the snap on thing, with a direct connection to the Quickstream. Since the Quickstream has an awesome built in voltage regulator, it will take the 7.2volts from the battery without needing resistors etc.

http://www.dvximg.com/QSbattery.JPG

[boo]

hey jarred, great idea! i'm getting ready for a theatrical shoot in april and was going to purchase two 3.5 hour batteries from mcetech for the quickstream. where did you get that charger at? what do you mean by, "gutted it?" thanks!

[Zoomforce]

I got the charger from the place in Asia where we get our batteries. I keep meaning to bring a bunch in to give to you guys that wanna do stuff like this..

Anyways, by gutting it I mean I took out the charging circuit so all that was left was the shell and the contact points.. the wind up cord I soldered directly to those contact points.

[boo]

jarred, i just shot some test footage using 24pa using the quickstream. is there a way to find out in final cut pro 4(i know you're on vegas) to detect the 2-3-3-2 pulldown? or how can i find out if the quickstream automatically removed the 2-3-3-2 pulldown? thanks!

[Zoomforce]

are you saving it as a Quicktime on the Quickstream? all of my tests show that the quickstream doesnt remove any pulldown, you need to set your NLE to do this. FCP i have no idea, although I think someone posted how to check in the FCP forum

[boo]

jarred, maybe i'm confused. i set my quickstream to quicktime .mov. so you're saying whether it be quicktime mov, avi, .dv, etc, the quickstream does not remove any pulldown? i know in fcp in the CAPTURE preset, there is an item i can check, "2-3-3-2 advanced pulldown removal." since all my footage is in the quickstream, i won't be doing any capturing. when in 24pa, does recording to tape remove pulldown? can you tell me your workflow in vegas? awww shit!?!? i'm one confused mofo ???

sorry for all the questions...

[Barry_Green]

I can't answer for what FCP does, but on Vegas, the pulldown removal is done on-the-fly. The pulldown stays in the file, as recorded by the camera. In Vegas, you could open a 60i project and import the file as 60i, and it would work fine as a 60i file. Or you could open a 24P project and tell it to remove pulldown from any files you import, and then import that same file, and it would come in as a 24P file. The pulldown is still in the file, but Vegas ignores the generated frames and extracts the original frames on the fly.

I don't know if FCP works the same way, but I'd bet it does.

[Zoomforce]

yes.. Barry is right. It records to the disk just as if you hooked your camera up to the computer and captured the file.. a NTSC AVI or MOV etc.

[boo]

<<on Vegas, the pulldown removal is done on-the-fly.>>

that's how fcp works as well. this is where i'm confused. when you're saying done on the fly, you're talking about capturing the footage such as that from your mq dv tape, correct? . but since you recorded to the quickstream, no capturing on the fly is needed. so how does vegas remove pulldown from quickstream footage if there was never a capture? thanks for helping me out guys! i appreciate your comments!

[Zoomforce]

no it doesnt capture it.. it removes the pulldown on the fly meaning that when you are editing on a 24p timeline the 60i clip is converted in real-time to 24p so you get frame accurate progressive editing. I guess you can look at it like a vegas filter, it does it while you preview etc. It doesnt actually change the clip on disk untill you save it out as something else (i.e. a 24p file)

[Barry_Green]

Right. The file is stored on the disk as 60i, either with 2:3:3:2 or 2:3 pulldown, depending on which mode you shot it in.

Vegas' capture utility does not remove any pulldown. It just copies the data straight off the tape. When you're editing, it "knows" which frames are "real" and which are "pulldown" frames, and it ignores the pulldown frames. But the file on disk is still an exact clone of what you shot on tape, with pulldown intact. As you edit, your source remains untouched, exactly as it was recorded (whether that recording was to the quickstream or to tape and then "captured" to disk, which is actually a misnomer since it doesn't "capture" anything, it just copies it from tape to disk.)

So the video on tape is recorded as 60i with pulldown. The video captured to hard disk is 60i, with pulldown. The video on the quickstream is 60i, with pulldown. Vegas interprets it on the fly, as you edit, to drop pulldown frames and reconstruct the 24P sequence, but never touching the source video.

I am guessing that FCP works the same way.

I'm pretty sure Avid's higher-end systems do NOT work that way. They actually capture 24P and write a 24P file onto the disk. But that's not the way Vegas works, and I think that's not the way FCP works. Noah Kadner (over at 2-pop or CreativeCow) could probably give you a definitive answer though.

Or, you could test for yourself: capture 10 seconds of 24P video, and look at the file size on disk. If it's storing it as 60i, the file should be roughly 36 megabytes. If it's storing it as pulldown-removed 24P, then it should only be about 30 megabytes.

[APDieb]

I don't believe FCP will remove a captured 3:2:2:3 pulldown patter from an existing file. Although, while capturing normally from a tape it can do it on the fly, I believe (I could be wrong though) that you will need to take the file from the Quickstream and run it through the Cinema Tools app to remove the advanced pulldown.

This is just a guess.

Andrew
Crystal Clear Media

[Zoomforce]

Noahs off in Australia wooping it up right now (must be nice)

But yes.. for the Avid Symphony, you need to convert to real 24p quicktimes to online the DVX footage.

[Johan]

is this device is the same as quickstream dv?
http://www.shining.com/products/totalsolution/citidisk_dv_pro/

[Zoomforce]

almost..

[boo]

thanks again guys! *i'm thinking that andrew is correct...i would hate to go that extra step in cinematools...kinda defeats the purpose of the quickstream dontcha think? *i will post on the fcp board so hopefully someone such as claytonf *;D can confirm the workflow...just curious, what if i didn't remove advanced pulldown and edited my footage? what would the final result look like? god i love this site! *;D *got dvx? *hey, that would make a cool t-shirt! *;)

[Multi-Media]

Hey Jarrod,
I was looking at your mounting device (nice granite counters by the way) and I was thinking of how to mount the quickstream under the plate of the Steadycam JR with a male to male threaded adapter I have when I got this ultra simple idea.
With a short piece of all-thread (long enough to go into the underside of the camera and stick out enough to twist on the quickstream... one could simply screw the drive onto the bottom of the camera...
This would only work for hand held stuff but pretty compact.
Just a thought.

[boo]

<<Or, you could test for yourself: capture 10 seconds of 24P video, and look at the file size on disk. *If it's storing it as 60i, the file should be roughly 36 megabytes. *If it's storing it as pulldown-removed 24P, then it should only be about 30 megabytes.>>

Barry, i just tested 10 seconds of 24pa footage and it is 36.1mb. so based on your quote above, this is not what i want since advanced pulldown hasn't been removed, correct? if i want to remove advanced pulldown, i will have to go into cinema tools to do this. damn, this sucks if indeed true. what is the purpose for removing pulldown anyway? thanks!

[J.R. Hudson]

Hey Boo.

GOt DVX would be cool. Cool thing about cafe Press is we can submit all kinds of designs or even do it solo if you want to do something cool.

Sorry. Thread jack. Now back to our regulary scheduled program.

[Barry_Green]

Hey Boo,

Actually, it sounds like it's a good thing. It seems to imply that FCP does indeed work like Vegas, by removing pulldown on the fly. Furthermore, it seems to imply that you'd have no trouble using the Quickstream with FCP 4 and 24PA.

[Zoomforce]

And Barry... Sony confirmed with me that Vegas 5 will fix that little bug with the quickstream. They took apart an entire stream I sent them.

[Barry_Green]

Awesome! Excellent news. Now if they'll just release a version of the Quickstream that has the ability to play back files through firewire, I'm set! Thanks for following up on that!

[boo]

<<Or, you could test for yourself: capture 10 seconds of 24P video, and look at the file size on disk. *If it's storing it as 60i, the file should be roughly 36 megabytes. *If it's storing it as pulldown-removed 24P, then it should only be about 30 megabytes.>>

<<Barry, i just tested 10 seconds of 24pa footage and it is 36.1mb. *so based on your quote above, this is not what i want since advanced pulldown hasn't been removed, correct? *if i want to remove advanced pulldown, i will have to go into cinema tools to do this. *damn, this sucks if indeed true. *what is the purpose for removing pulldown anyway? *thanks!>>


<<Hey Boo,
*
Actually, it sounds like it's a good thing. *It seems to imply that FCP does indeed work like Vegas, by removing pulldown on the fly. *Furthermore, it seems to imply that you'd have no trouble using the Quickstream with FCP 4 and 24PA.>>

barry, really? based on your 10sec. test above, don't i want a 30mb file since that's the one that would have, "advanced pulldown removed at 24p?" is there a way i can find out checking frame by frame if pulldown has been removed? if it helps any, i notice every 5th frame has interlaced lines. thanks for helping me get to the bottom of this! where's noah when ya need him...i know... i know... in australia...

[boo]

<<Hey Boo.
*
GOt DVX would be cool. *Cool thing about cafe Press is we can submit all kinds of designs or even do it solo if you want to do something cool.
*
Sorry. *Thread jack. *Now back to our regulary scheduled program.>>

john, i'm going to buy one of dem dvx guerilla shirts...but i wouldn't mind a, "got dvx?" shirt as well :) any takers?

[Barry_Green]

Again, I've never used FCP so I have no answers for you, just guesses.

Perhaps you could try over at creativecow.net, maybe they have an FCP forum? Their Vegas forum is superb, so maybe they'll have a comparable FCP forum...

[Anartiste]

Excuse me folks, but I've got a stupid question about this little cybernetic wonder (maybe it's already been mentioned before, but I'm too lazy a man to read all of the posts 8)). Here's the stupid question :
When in Quickstream-recording-only configuration, can we review our shots on the DVX or do we need a computer to do so ?

[Barry_Green]

As near as I can tell, that would not be possible with the current version of the QuickStream. I'm waiting to see if they'll announce a version with transport controls, where you can play back clips like a deck (as the FireStore does).

[Zoomforce]

the quickstream guy was telling me I think that the GL2 can preview it, but he was talking about something wierd and didnt really understand. I have no idea how to playback off the quickstream.

Look at shining tech, they make the a Quickstream type version with transport controls, minus the armour. That company however seems to take forever to release the product (same with MCE, I remember waiting 2 years from the Quickstream announcement till it actually was released) so maybe at nab they will be showing it off.

[Stanislaus]

Based on the your review I'm now thinking after I purchase the DVX I will just buy the 90min QuickStream DV and bypass my original idea of buying a second cheap MiniDV cam for a deck. It would be a tad bit more then the cheapest MiniDV cam but In my opinion would be alot more convenient all around.

[boo]

ok, i'm finally doing tests w/ both my 270 min. quickstreams for an upcoming 3 1/2 play. the quickstreams record footage into the hard drive sometimes but most of the time not?! i've tried 2 different cameras, firewire cables, and firewire ports...still no footage! any quickstream users experience this? this is not good...i will call tech support tomorrow...

[John C Lyons]

the POINT of the quickstream is to record footage to the hard drive. i dont get this last post? maybe your settings arent right if youre using the DVX. read the review here it tells you how to set it up...

[boo]

sorry, i DO know how to setup the quickstreams for shooting. i've tested them w/ my dvx as well as canon dv cameras. my mistake...only one of the drives records footage directly from my cameras, the problem w/ this drive is it keeps on powering down on my mac which prevents me from retrieving my footage. on my other quickstream, no luck in recording footage at all, whether i'm on standby w/ a tape/no tape w/ the dvx set to both. the drive doesn't power down like the first one...anyone else having these type of experiences? i'll be calling mcetech to see what may be wrong...1 drive defective may be acceptable but 2 drives is ridiculous...

[Zoomforce]

if the red light goes on it records.. just make sure that red light is on.. Ive never had a problem. however, when i used to use the ziplinq cable sometimes i had to press the record button on the quickstream instead of relying on the dvx button.. but after a cable change it works perfect.

[Zoomforce]

what do you mean it powers down on your mac? like it runs out of power?

[boo]

that's the thing, i've been pressing the record button on the quickstream w/ the red light turning on...one drive has the recorded clips, the other never...when i mean powered down, the quickstream makes that sound and acts as if it's in sleep mode(the sound when you turn it off). *the drives is still on but once it makes that sound, i can't retrieve my clips any longer(this happens only on one drive). *i've read the manual left and right as well as your review so i know i'm setting everything correct. *hopefully mce can fix these problems and i sure hope they aren't continous because i spent $1600 on these drives. *i am in their neighborhood so i will keep you up to date...

[Zoomforce]

take it back... If that happened to me I would never ever trust the drive and always wonder if it actually recorded, and the obviously is no good.

[boo]

ok, been spending much of my lunch break w/ mcetech...one quickstream is actually fine. *the reason why it kept powering down even w/ the power adaptor attached was because the power adaptor was trying to catch up to the recharging of the internal battery but couldn't. *i recharged my battery overnight and attached the power adaptor and its been running all day long.

the other drive however still wouldn't record dv footage...tried different things w/ mce tech support w/ no luck. *finally just dropped off the darn thing this afternoon they said that the files got corrupted some how. *gonna pick it up tomorrow so hopefully all is well...

-the quickstreamdv guinea pig *:)

[kkmace]

I've been trying to get a quickstream but don't seem to be getting a response when I send to the email and ask about the DVXuser.com discount. Does anyone have a direct contact?

[boo]

800-500-0622

[FatKid]

The quickstream is now 2-4 weeks behind in shipping. I ordered one on the 10th of March and was told 10 days. Recently I checked my order status, they said it could be 2-4 weeks, the rep couldn't verify.

If you want one, you will wait. Don't plan on using it in your production until it arrives.

I don't think they expected this kind of rush....which scares me! How are they going to support this thing, if they are getting backed up.

Good luck.

[boo]

yeah, i got a bad drive and was told 2-4 weeks.

[bgundu]

Does this discount apply to Canadians too?

[Laco]

Sorry, but what is that white focus ring?

[Zoomforce]

yes canadians count. And the focus ring is the Century focus ring.. it has hard stops and a drive for a follow focus.

[Laco]

Thank You, Jarred :)

[marinpa]

Hello to everyone! How are you guys/girls? How's life treating ya?

Just have a quick question. (more of a thought...) ???
What if I use one of those 80-250GB portable hard drives (3.5" ATA HDD/7200 RPM/8 MB Cache) after formating it in Mac OS. Would that be any different than using the QuickStream?
I've see portable hard drives of 250GB for as little as $449
http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=271956
It is a little bigger than QuickStream but can be used I guess at your belt or pocket vest. Than any $500 laptop would do the trick of playing the recorded files.
I dunno :-/... ... just a crazy thought!

[ullanta]

The QuickStream is more than just a drive... it needs proper electronics and software to interact properly with the camera.

That said, can anyone influence MCE or someone to make either a QuickStreamy-thing with swappable drive modules, or that can connect to generic firewire drives?

[mark_pennington]

I received 2 new quickstream dv drives this week (6 hour version)
I recorded a program last night
and tried to load it on my mac g5 (10.3.3)
I located the clips in the media file but when I double clicked to open them they would not work (forgot the exact error message)
this clips did not appear in the mac mce streammanager

after ejecting the quickstream drive and trying to reconnect it to the computer
the computer will not recognize the drive at all

the computer will recognize my second drive and when I record video it puts the movie in the media file and the streammanager software.

the drive I am having problems seems will not mount on my powerbook either
it does seem to record when I hook it to my camera

this is very frustrating
it seems I have lost the event that I recorded

I tried everything I know to do
turning the master on and off

nothing I do will allow this drive to mount on any computer
I'm sure it is not a computer problem because the second drive mounts each time I hook it up
any ideas

[boo]

and i thought i was the only one having problems. *ok here's my experience...

i purchased two 4.5 hour drives in january for a 4 hour play in april. *i wanted to familiarize myself w/ the drives to make sure i was using them properly. *one drive seemed to be recording fine while the other could not record any clips onto the quickstream. *i called mce tech support and they determined that my drive was some how corrupted(loss in confidence for me). *they replaced the drive w/ a new one.

so i continued to test my drives shooting footage here and there and they both seemed to be working. *two days before the shoot, i wanted to make sure they performed reliably for a long period of time. *both quickstreams were fully charged and powered by the ac adaptor. *one connected to my dvx100a and the other to a sony trv-22. *one drive recorded 4 hours just fine but the other for some reason would stop recording and the record light would just start blinking. *

day of the shoot: *having lost confidence in the quickstream drives, i felt it necessary to have a tape back up as well. *during the show one drive seemed to be recording continuously as indicated by the red light staying on. *however, the other drive stopped recording somewhere in the middle of the show. *i tried pressing record again but the button wouldn't light up. *i had to power it down then turn it on again for it to record again.

when i got home that evening, i was surprised the drive that recorded continuously didn't didn't have any footage!? *that was it...i've been through 3 quickstream drives and none have been 100% reliable. *it's inconvenient shooting for 4 1/2 hours having to switch tapes 5x per camera but i'm glad i did. *i ended up capturing 9 hours of footage into my mac from these tapes. *i wanted to believe in the quickstreams but after spending over $1600 and not feeling i'm getting my money's worth, i returned the drives. *i feel it's just not reliable enough especially for someone who wants to shoot tapeless which is why you'd want to buy it in the first place. *any others have any positive/negative experiences w/ these drives?

[Barry_Green]

I have no experience with the QuickStream, but I've already ruled it out for my applications because there's no way to know what the drive may or may not have recorded -- there's no way to preview clips off it.

I'm currently looking at the Laird CapDiv and the ProMax DirectDrive (look physically identical, so I'm guessing they're actually the same product). Both look bigger and "clunkier" than the QuickStream, and have a large external battery, so definitely not as streamlined and convenient. However, the important thing to me is that they have transport controls right on 'em: you can play back files right off the drive, navigate an on-board menu system, see what you've captured and see that it's working. You could rewind and play a clip from the drive, you can single-step through frames (forward or reverse) or fast-forward or fast-reverse the clips. And, the sweetest thing is, when it's time to output your edited program back to tape, you could copy the entire file onto the DirectDrive and play it to tape from there, instead of from your computer.

If you've ever experienced dropped frames on playback from your computer, you'll recognize how delightful this would be -- no Windows XP or Mac OS interrupting playback, just pure drive streaming. I frequently have to output 28:30 timelines to tape, and one time out of three the computer'll hiccup on about three frames, and it's so irritating because that means I have to rewind and start all over. If the CapDiv/DirectDrive performs as promised, that should mean 100% reliable output to tape every time, no dropped frames, no dropped audio, no hiccups of any type. That right there would be worth it.

Downside is, these drives are much more expensive than the QuickStream: about a grand for a 3-hour drive. But they do more, so it's not a direct comparison. Puts 'em in direct competition with the FireStore FS-1 (which has come way down in price, btw). CapDiv/DirectDrive looks like it's more portable than the FireStore.

The other drive to consider is the Sony DU1, which is way more expensive still, but offers even more, including buffered pre-roll so the drive is actually recording even before you tell it to: it keeps a running buffer of 10 or 20 seconds of footage, so if you're standing around and you see something you want to shoot and you quickly press the button, it'll have already recorded 10 or 20 seconds or whatever before you knew to press the button! But it's a lot more expensive. And then even more expensive still is the FireStore FS-3...

[Zoomforce]

Just an update, and I should add this to the review.

My confidence in the Quickstream has gone alot lower, for the very fact that sometimes it misses a beat or has some wierd corrupt files. It is rather odd, because for the first 30 or so hours I never had a single problem, besides a Vegas issue that has been resolved by Vegas 5.

When you record You have no clue what is going on, it looks like everything is fine, but you dont know till you get home. Im on Windows so it was a pain in the ass reformating the thing (still no Windows manager yet) Sometimes now it wont even start when I hit the record button on the camera.

My last emails to them have gone un-answered, so I fear the worst after hearing many people have been backordered.

I still use it everytime I shoot, but more as a backup from tape rather than the other way around. I still think its a great product, but as a first version its not as good as it can be. Shining tech has a nice looking one that at least has a display so you can see whats going on, but whenever I talk to those guys (last time was at NAB a few weeks ago) they seem to have no idea whats going on.

Please if anyone has had any other problems speak up, so I can kill this deal arangement. Its nice to get a discount, but Im not gonna promote something here that doesnt work.

[boo]

i bought the quickstreams because i wanted to save, "capture time" and save headwear on my dvx. *after the first drive went down, i lost that confidence in shooting tapeless but was willing to forget about it because it's was probably just one drive and heck, i'll save *A LOT of time from avoiding capture from tape. this was not the case. one bad drive, ok it was just defective...but 3 bad drives is just unacceptable. *like i said in my earlier post, i tested the drives shooting a couple of seconds/minutes of footage here and there and no problems(except for the 1st drive that never recorded footage and then the second during the shoot). *but i suggest quickstream owners try to shoot until the hard drive space runs out. *but i bet there is a good chance that might not happen because something wrong will happen along the way. *give it a test and let us know. i just couldn't justify spending $1600 on 2 drives that weren't giving me 100% reliability. *i agree w/ barry that it's important to be able to preview footage. *i think i might try one of the promax directdrives. hey jarred, any chance you can get us a deal from promax? :D

[Zoomforce]

promax directdrives?

[Zoomforce]

ah nevermind, they look like they are just another brand-rebranded.

I looked at those, and they where just too big for my taste.

I really wish this thing would come out:
http://www.shining.com/products/totalsolution/citidisk_dv_pro/

At any rate, next year the Hard drive cameras start coming out... :)

[Guest]

I ran a 2 hour recording test on the 6.5 hour drive today
there was nothing on it when I mounted the drive to my computer

ran another test and it worked fine

too unpredictable for $2000.00 I spent
Mine are going back to mcetech

MP

[scottchapin]

Now ya all got me worried. I just got my first one in late April, the 360, and it had no buttons or master switch. I exchanged it, and just got to try it today. Everything went fine except that once or twice I had to start the record mode manually. I had the DV control set to "off". Not sure why Jarred says it needs to be set to "both".

It drives me nuts that the light on top is sometimes blue, and sometimes purple while recording. Makes me think something is wacko.

I know MCE said that they had a run in with some bad boards and that was the reason for the delayed shipments, but if recently delivered ones are having problems, thats unsettling.

BTW...my master switch is recessed to the point that I must use a paper clip to actuate it. I cannot get a finger nail on it. Are yours that way? My 4 pin firewire plug fits very very tightly into my devices as well, to the point I fear it will damage them. Am I paranoid here? They sent me a replacement, but it too is very tight.

[Zoomforce]

my master switch is recessed as well, cant get it with my fingure. I dont know what your talking about both DV control?

[scottchapin]

my master switch is recessed as well, cant get it with my fingure. I dont know what your talking about both DV control?

Hmmm... I think it is DV control that has the following options: {OFF EXT BOTH CHAIN}. I had forgotten that you mentioned using BOTH. I had left mine off. If EXT does not work, why would BOTH? BOTH would be a combination of EXT and the basic camera control. Since EXT won't work, why not just leave it OFF?

[scottchapin]

So I find out today that having the red record light lit is not enough to confirm that it is recording. The light on top must change to purple, which indicates that the disk is in read/write mode.

If the camera does not start the QuickStream and/or the light is not purple, then you probably have a bad firewire connection.

[Zoomforce]

so you are only recording to the drive and not to tape?

[scottchapin]

so you are only recording to the drive and *not to tape?

No, I was recording to tape as well, thank goodness. I am still confused as to why you need to select "BOTH", since the "EXT" part of "BOTH" is not supposed to work.

My first three of eleven recording sessions worked, and the last six.

[Zoomforce]

I think I lost you somewhere.

EXT means that when you hit the record button on the camera, it send a signal over firewire to start recording to the exterior drive instead of Tape. Both means it sends signals to Firewire AND to tape, and Chain means it sends the signal to firewire after the tape runs out.

[scottchapin]

I think I lost you somewhere.

EXT means that when you hit the record button on the camera, it send a signal over firewire to start recording to the exterior drive instead of Tape. Both means it sends signals to Firewire AND to tape, and Chain means it sends the signal to firewire after the tape runs out.

That's exactly my understanding, but I had my camera in "OFF" and the drive started 9 out of 11 times with tape in the camera. Your article said that EXT would not work. Evidently the EXT command set is not compatible with the QS. SOooo, if EXT doesn't work by itself, why would it when BOTH is selected? I am assuming that in BOTH, just the camera commands activate the QS?

I figure that in BOTH mode the command set in OFF and the command set in EXT are active. Since EXT doesn't function with the QS, it should behave exactly the same as when set to OFF.

The way your article describes it, it appears as though EXT doesn't work on its own, but does when BOTH is selected. That does not seem right, or I am missing something (quite likely).

[scottchapin]

OK, my bad. In re-reading the manual, it looks like nothing external should work in "OFF" mode. Why it worked 9 times out of eleven is beyond me.

[scottchapin]

I will waffle here. ;D

In OFF and BOTH, the camera deck controls should be active. Since EXT does not work with QuickStream, the camera should behave the same way in OFF as it does in BOTH.

[dvpixl]

No I didn't purchase this thing yet. I recently just looked into it. I saw the ad everyday on the corner of this site but i had no idea it was a firewire capture device. oh me.. and I was looking into the new NAB product FIRESTORE.

my real question is whether it be Quickstream, direct drive or firestore,
-well, I'm sure firestore has more features but how do I preview my edits on a monitor through these drives when I want to edit in external video mode?
I'm trying to think how it could work but it can't because these drives don't have A/V out... no? yes?
I'm trying to support tapeless aquisition all the way... and I hate my dv deck.. i hate drop outs... i hate tape. I hate my sony mini dv player...especially now that it's pulling on every tape I give it~!!!

thanks for any discussion on this.

[dvpixl]

ok.. I just realized that you can still use your dvx or any camera or even a dv deck to go external. but you still need that extra step to do it! Still good that you don' t have to wear and tear any equipment- just using it for a/v out... but....

is there a less clunky way to edit in external video mode? right off the harddrive? any technology out there? are there monitors that take firewire output? or some weird combination like that to make life simpler?

:)

why is this important?
because... we all know you can't see the effect of 24p in your computer monitors. ;)

[dvpixl]

dang, I'm answering my own questions today.
I realized how stupid my question was... it's irrelevant isn't it?
lol
because i still need my dv deck to output to tape for back up or.. whatever the heck i want to do it with.
my brain is way ahead into the future...
so, when are the tapeless mini-dv's 24p's out?
let's get them rollin!!!

[Barry_Green]

Hey Gomboy,

The plan with these drives is that you capture directly to the drive, then you plug that drive into your firewire card and edit the files directly on the drive.

But if you want to see your footage on an NTSC monitor, you'd need either a) a firewire monitor, of which I don't know whether such a thing exists, or b) a deck or camera that takes firewire in and outputs analog video.

So yes, you could go completely tapeless (except for archiving, etc.) But you'll still need a hardware device like a camera or deck or that Canopus ADVC-whatever-it-is to convert firewire data to analog video to display on your monitor.

[dvpixl]

thanks Barry for your response.

Just having a clunky moment with today's clunky technology :)
but it's all going to get better I suppose.

[DVX100percent]

Gee, sounds like some piece of equipment. $1000 and hours of lost footage doesn't sound too appealing. I guess I'll live with tape dropouts for a while. ;D Maybe by the time the tape mechanism and heads get worn out, these drives will become reliable enough to actualy be useful. And I bet they will knock off a few bucks off that price too.

[Bart_Boge]

I just wrote them, referencing this forum and laying out these issues. We'll see what they say and how long it takes them to reply to my email... Not holding my breath.

[scottchapin]

Jarred,

How do you format the drive without erasing the software, and why would you reformat? The manual does not address this. I was under the impression that you just deleted the files in the media folder.

Perhaps a windows checkdisk would scan and lock out bad sectors and eliminate your problems?

[Zoomforce]

I had to reformat because the drive came corrupt :( I had to use partition manager to make it fat32 )and just erased everything. The drive put back the needed directories if I remember correctly.

[Rogue Crew]

My God! Eleven pages that started off glowingly and ended horrifically. So in summary, if you want a portable DV/Firewire drive, what are the alternatives?

Quickstream (MCE)
Firestore (Fovus Enhancements)
CitiDISK (Shining Tech)

Any others I missed?

[Barry_Green]

Quickstream and CitiDisk appear to be the same product.

FireStore FS-1 is not really portable. The FS-3 is.

You missed the Laird CapDiv, the ProMax DirectDrive, the Sony DSR-DU1, and there are others... something called the DataBank, I guess, and I think I've seen more out there too.

[scottchapin]

Quickstream and CitiDisk appear to be the same product.

FireStore FS-1 is not really portable. *The FS-3 is.

You missed the Laird CapDiv, the ProMax DirectDrive, the Sony DSR-DU1, and there are others... something called the DataBank, I guess, and I think I've seen more out there too.

Yes, the citidisk appears to be the same, and they have more info in their FAQs and online pdf manual. They acknowledged earlier problems with Pannys, supposedly resolved with new firmware. They say to test the record button on the camera and look for drive activity. If there is none, cycle the camera power.

This is particularly true of the SONY DCR-TRV20, but my experience indicates the Panny is plagued by this as well. I have a DVC80 as a B-roll camera, and it does the same thing. Fail rate over 40 tests is 25%. Cycling the camera power does get it to work.

For those who have come home without video, you probably did not confirm drive activity prior to recording. The QuickStream probably is reliable, if you're willing to fuss and confirm a good connection prior to filming. No grab shots here.

To boot, some of my files show up in Windows Explorer without date and time stamps, which makes me think there is a communication problem.

I am impressed that MCE overnighted a regular 3' firewire cable in an attempt to help resolve the problem, but now they are ignoring my email and phone calls. Today I got through and they told me they would call me back in 10 minutes.......right.

Now I must decide whether to live with it, or return it. Fortunately, AmEx said they will work with me, if I have problems.

[scottchapin]

Barry, I though I had seen where the FS-3 weighs 2.5 pounds. That's alot of extra weight compared, and it is expensive too. The QS in concept is great for portability and editing speed.

[Barry_Green]

Yeah, the FS-3 is a different product design, meant to mount on a broadcast camera, and featuring hot-swappable quick-change drives. But it's also 3x the price of a Quickstream/CitiDisk as well.

Sony's DU1 is probably the overall "best" unit, but it's expensive too.

[Zoomforce]

I actually had Sony analize the Data stream of the DV file the Quickstream records because it would act up in Vegas 4. they told me there was alot of garbeled info in there, but they did update vegas 5 to accept the files. I think the Quickstream could become a great product with just a minor Firmware upgrade.

At any rate, I emailed them 3 weeks ago to find out what the hell was going on and nobody is responding.

[DVXFilmMaker]

Jarred,

I ordered one sometime ago and after mega e-mails & excuses (very vague comminuaction from them), I finally got the darn thing. They accepted Fed-X money from me, but 4 weeks later isn't exactly Fed-Xing. Know what I mean?

I also ordered one of the batteries. The Quickstream showed up, but no battery. Yes, it is on the invoice and I got charged for it. Sooo, I fired off another e-mail. We'll see how they deal with it.

As for the unit itself... I have only captured a small amount of footage, but it does seem to work fine so far. Time will tell.

[Zoomforce]

yeah I put a warning on the review page to contact them before ordering.. hopefully you got a good one :)