CinePorter™ FAQ

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That is my understanding. Maybe I am wrong, though. You get the same pre-record buffer as you would with p2, and the cache is reminiscent of "anti-skip" on portable cd players. Meaning your CP, has a good shot at recording through shocks, vibrations, jolts, etc., without dropping frames, and so on.

Jason
 
Spec-Comm Guys,
Can I upgrade my 160 g order ( #80) for the 360 g when they start shipping.? The 360g was not available when I signed up.

Barry
 
bahodgin said:
Spec-Comm Guys,
Can I upgrade my 160 g order ( #80) for the 360 g when they start shipping.? The 360g was not available when I signed up.

Barry
Click to expand...

Sure thing Barry, you can go either way.

David
 
Spec-Comm said:
Sure thing Barry, you can go either way.

David
Click to expand...

Hey David, it's not that kind of a show! :eek:
Not that there's anything wrong with that! :)

Now get that darned thing released. I'm having to borrow a firestore tomorrow and I'm not happy about it. :(
 
I hope to have an update for you before NAB. This will include, whether or not we will be showing the CinePorter partially working, or just as a mock up and where you'll be able to see it.

David
 
Hi David,

Any chance we'll see any price changes or adjustments by the time the product is released this summer? As technology marches on and with the introduction of 'similar' products (Red's $900 320GB drive for example) over the past 14 months since pricing was announced, I'm curious to know if your costs/margins allow for a lower price point.

Re: the latter reference, I realize Red's a different animal (I'm still investing in both cameras), but can you share some insight into what goes into the $2600 difference in price? The proprietary interface? Hot-swappable drives?

Thanks,
David
 
Hi David,

Sorry it took so long to reply. It's been crazy here.

We are not looking at adjusting the price of the units at this time. With removable HDDs and the ability to use larger drives and SSDs in the future, you are really buying future-proof product and not just a storage device. The CinePorter is a very complicated device and uses the best of the best in parts, you can see that in the exploded view posted earlier. We understand completely the "marching technology" and with the price of the P2 cards dropping and larger cards becoming available, the CinePorter may not be the as attractive, and we are working on adding features to rectify that.

I hop this helps,

David
 
Thanks for the reply David. I'll be anxious to learn more about the added value features as you develop them, and I suppose we'll learn more about how Red's drive functions with their camera at NAB which might help explain more on the differences in cost too.
 
Are you guys going to be at the Panasonic booth or elsewhere?
I'd love to stop by, introduce myself and see what you are up to.
 
TedRR said:
Are you guys going to be at the Panasonic booth or elsewhere?
I'd love to stop by, introduce myself and see what you are up to.
Click to expand...

We are hoping to make the DVXUser Party, will you be there?

David
 
I guess I gotta go now! :laugh:
I've got tonight booked, Monday night booked and now Tuesday night booked.
I remember when I had time to play at NAB. :)
 
Wonder if somehow the RED DRIVE could be adapted for use with the HVX?

320 GB RED DRIVE $900
It has dual 160 GB 2.5” SATA hard disk drives.

http://www.red.com/store/product_detail/13

$3,500 for the 320 GB Cineporter versus $900 for the 320 GB RED DRIVE.

Are a lot of you others scratching your heads too?

The recent Spec-Comm admission:
...the CinePorter may not be the as attractive, and we are working on adding features to rectify that.
Click to expand...

When all is stripped away, the Cineporter is basically just a glorified housing for the removable drives, right? So, what possible features may be added to justify the extra $2,600?

I love what the Cineporter can do, but as time keeps ticking away i'm getting less and less happy about the price tag.

Storage prices have been dropping fast, and will continue to "free-fall" in the near future. I wonder how soon it'll be like laser printers... It's basically cheaper to just a buy a new laser printer than to buy an ink replacement cartridge. You get a faster (current technology) piece of equipment to boot. Go figure! By the time solid-state hits, i wonder if it'll be a similar scenario. You know, cheaper to ditch whatever storage HD you got to upgrade to current technology.
 
I have been scratching my head for a long time about the cineporter. I was very hot about getting one when the price for an 8gig card was around $1800, but now- with a 16gb becoming $900, the $3500 price tag for a product with no clear release date is becoming even more confusing.

I really admire the people at spec-comm for trying to resolve the issue of starved bandwidth for the hvx, but since I've become used to using 4gb this whole time, 16g for less than a grand seems totally worth it.
I have been doubting the cineporter because of its prolonged release for some time, and now- it just seems like it is dated technology. But hey, what do I know, Im just a small time video student- and the cineporter could be as awesome as expected. But yea David, 3500 seems like a pretty steep price gouge from a far less than reputable company than Panasonic.

And what about future uses, could you (David) explain that more? If I am using this drive for my camera, then how else would I use it? I haven't used my 4gig card any different than I did over a year ago.
 
911split said:
When all is stripped away, the Cineporter is basically just a glorified housing for the removable drives, right? So, what possible features may be added to justify the extra $2,600?
Click to expand...

Not exactly. The Cineporter is actually a small computer that has removeable drives and a custom and apparently difficult-to-make P2 interface (I say "apparently difficult" because you don't see anyone other than Panasonic (and Spec-Comm) even trying to build P2 hardware). A 320GB Cineporter at 3500 is still a lot less costly than 20 16GB cards. If you've recorded on 20 16GB P2 cards, you need to ingest them somehow before you can work with the material (with EXPENSIVE Panasonic hardware (P2 Drive) you can work with up to 5 cards at once); with the Cineporter you can plug into a computer and have instant access to all 360GB of material at once. Something simil;ar could be done, I guess by card-swapping with a P2 store (How much do THEY cost?), but of course those are limited to 60GB right now - 3 16GB cards! And for many types oflong-form shooting, the whole card-swapping thing is not so great; the Cineporter has a clear advantage there.

So, while I can't say if the Cineporter meets your exact needs, it certainly does (er, will do...) a lot, and adds a a lot of functionality to the HVX and other P2 cams that the cards still won't catch up to for a few years, at least...
 
I just wanted to say Thanks David for the personal chat at NAB and the DVX User party. It was great to meet the guys who took the time to get it right instead of getting it out. I know how much pressure you are under and couldn't respect you more for your decision.

Ullanta said it well. Having everything on one drive has it's own benefits.
We'll all have to make our own decisions when the time comes.
 
spec_comm_dvx_user_party.jpg


David and Andrew of SpecComm at the DVX user party. Very, very cool of them to show up after a long trip. Mikko got a picture of me licking the CinePorter, but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe that one didn't make it past the censors.

As for comparison to the RED drive, I hope it's not too difficult to see that this is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
 
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