CinePorter™ FAQ

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town said:
What would be really ideal is raid 1 paired with removable drives - Instant back up. I really don't think people realize how scary it is to have all your footage on a hard drive without any tape to go back to if it dies. If your $9 enclosure destroys your hard drive that's it. Fed Exing your only HD with master footage on it is begging for disaster. But sometimes you need to make the Fed Ex deadline and copying hard drives won't cut it.
Click to expand...

I'd feel even better oif the two P2 slots mirrored and I could use two Cineporters, each recording the same footage. Completely independent mechanisms would provide more safety than a single using the same interface and recording in raid 1...
 
Not that you need more reason to make the Cineporter with swapable hard drives but if you do so you will be able to extend the life span of your product even after the 128G P2 cards come down to a affordable price.

Why?

Because having instant client deliverable hard drives is something that P2 will never be able to do. Who wants to hand over a expensive P2 card when you can give them a cheap hard drive.

I know you guys are working on it so the best of luck to you.
 
"Testing 1, 2, 3, 4 . . . " Sure is quiet out here . . .

Hey David (Spec-Comm): I keep looking at this thread (every day) as it somehow rated a sticky in Hardware. I know you must have a lot of other irons in the fire but more than a month without an update . . . can you feed us the latest tidbits? "Inquiring minds want to know" (and we also want to keep the bean counters happy).
 
I too am interested in an update...

In regards to the much discussed issue of swappable drives, I think perhaps many here have missed a critical issue. It has been stated that the Cineporter uses a special file system on the hard drive, and that the unit itself "translates" this into a form that both a PC and Mac can understand. This would mean (as stated) that if one were to pull the drive from the unit (either through hacking, or some kind of drive sled), they would have no way of getting the data into their computer. Even if you were to put it in a USB enclosure, the OS on your PC or Mac wouldn't be able to read the file system, and therefore your data would be uselessly trapped in the drive...

I would like the removable drive option as well, but it doesn't seem likely.

How about this as an option: Offer a unit with two drives in a RAID 1 array. The user could have two options: record the same data to both drives for redundency, or record to only one drive. If the user selects to record to only one drive, they could then off-load the data from the second drive to a USB 2 Go device while they are recording to the first drive. When they're finished with the transfer, they could impliment an array rebuild command, which would copy the entire contents of the first drive onto the second one. They could then delete the contents of the first drive, transfer data from the second, and continue shooting, uninterrupted.

This method would satisfy almost all issues: it would allow for redundency for important shots, when required, as well as allow for an offloading option that would not require removing any hard drives, or a change in workflow.

Any thoughts?
 
Hi Folks,

I haven't forgotten you. I check this thread every so often and if there are no questions to answer I usually go on with my business. I am glad to see that some are looking at this thread. I thought that when it got moved to hardware it got lost.

The CinePorter™ is moving right along. After we have announced a drawing for filling out a suggestion form, we have received thousands and more keep pouring in every day. Thank you, everyone for all the suggestions. It is obvious that we can't implement everything, but we have been able to get a good cross section of the suggestions into the design. One of the reasons we don't have pictures posted yet, is that we have completely redesigned the enclosure to accommodate some of the suggestions and make it more ergonomic. Look for announcements and real pictures before NAB.

Thank you Cam-Ra for the recap of the removable drive issues. You have done a good job of verbalizing what I've been trying to get across in earlier posts. If you've filled out a suggestion form your advice is already in the hands of our development team. I know that we have been "playing" around with a number of possible configuration options, as you have described, and am not sure which ones will make it into the final build. The Mirror RAID option, however, will be available some time after the CinePorter™ ships.

I can tell you that, although it has not been settled, we are planning on releasing the CinePorter™ with only two options. 160GB and 320GB. This will allow us to keep the costs down and we are planning to offer the 160GB model for the same price as we have currently listed the 100GB model. The 320GB is going to list in the 3K range and the RAID upgrade will only apply to it.

With the late release of the final version of the HVX, which brought some new hurdles, along with the hard drive availability issues, expect the ship date to be late Q2 or early Q3. This is an estimate! The reality may be better or worse, depending on Beta Test results. We'll announce the ship date officially when everything is nailed down.

Thank you again everyone for the great response and your patronage.

You may also want to check out our PCI-CardBus Adapter which has been optimized for P2.

Best Regards,

David Linetsky
President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Drive
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
davidl@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com

************************************************************************
Now taking Pre-Orders on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camcorder.
Reserve today, and receive FREE Shipping and a FREE cleaning for your new camera.
Visit http://www.spec-comm.com/hvx200.php for details!
 
david,

i tried looking for that pci cardbus adaptor w/ no luck. do you have a direct link? thanks.

edit: ok i found it. is see it is only windows compatible? what's up w/ that?
 
Yes indeed... 160 gb and 320 gb versions? Great news! Even the 160 gb version should be enough for most users needs. However, I'm going for the 320gb version.

I'm a bit disappointed with the release date tough... I was expecting to be able to have my unit ready for April...

I sincerely hope the unit isn't going to unbalance the camera too much... I'm looking forward to use the HVX with the cineporter on a Glidecam smooth shooter...
 
David,
You might want to look at how the other half of production handles metadata, large files, digital format and sending it to post. What other half? Why the sound department of course! Zaxcom has the leading edge design in this arena with their Deva V http://zaxcom.com/audio/deva5.shtml#specs Note that they offer an OPTIONAL HD CADDY. Although most of the time mixers will ship the audio on DVDs some will elect for HDDs and for that Zaxcom provides it ported in a caddy. When the VIDEO goes from post to a secondary AUDIO house for the purpose of mixing the sound track the video is now ported on HDDs. And although the Deva V supports writing Zax FILES to a flash card (a process similiar to P2 MXF) it is rarely used.
They too have similiar engineering concerns about removable drives. See: http://www.zaxcom.com/audio/devas.shtml
However, they have resolved the issues.
 
Thank you SoundMaster for your suggestions. At this time we are not "manipulating" the files, so they are just as they are on a P2 card. In the future we will be looking at adding some other file manipulation features. We have even considered an HDV CODEC. We have room for many possibilities in our hardware design and we'll be working on them after the unit is released.

Thanks again,

David Linetsky
President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Drive
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
davidl@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com

************************************************************************
Now taking Pre-Orders on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camcorder.
Reserve today, and receive FREE Shipping and a FREE cleaning for your new camera.
Visit http://www.spec-comm.com/hvx200.php for details!
 
David,
We are not looking for you to manipulate the files. That is the job of the post production software suite. What we do need are two solutions 1) Is a solution to ship our P2 MXF content to post production. 2) Protection against field HDD failure. The best protection here is to ALWAYS start production with a BRAND NEW HD. We are very uneasy about using the same hard drive for 6-12 months of productions. At some point that repeated use will end in failure. Yes, mirroring helps reliability, but it still doesn't answer the content transport workflow - how does post get the files? Although, I could use a laptop to interface your box to an external HD that content movement will take almost as long as the production. Handing your box to post is not practical either, since I have to shoot again while post is thinking about transfering content.
A HD Caddy is what we are discussing. With a HD caddy the drive is contained, the specific HD selection is more controlled. Shock isolation can be contained in the caddy and a HD in a caddy would allow more of a P2 style work flow for transfering content and shooting at the same time.

Also, I have not seen any specific discussions as of yet about how this box will integrate to the sled of any camera stabilization platforms. A couple of rules apply 1) it must be on the sled, preferably on the opposite end of the gimbal from the camera. 2) mounting to the operators body will interfere with camera isolation. 3) Preferable mounting orientation so the operator can see time remaining.
 
I'm sorry if I misunderstood.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, we are likely not going to be able to have removable drives for this model. The data will have to be offloaded to another device for distribution. Just like the P2 Store we have periodic maintenance and checks that could be performed. I understand your concerns, perhaps the CinePorter™ is not the right solution for your work flow. We will continue to improve the functionality though.

We will have pictures posted of the new enclosure design soon. The new design has optional interchangeable plates that mount on the bottom of the unit with 4 screws, that will allow you to mount the CinePorter™ on the tripod or V mount. Custom plates can be easily developed for a variety of uses. You can even have one made yourself for your application. Zacuto also makes mounts that will give you great flexibility. www.Zacuto.com

David
 
Hey

will it be possible to use the cineporter with a rod-system and matte box. (as this one by cavision:) http://www.cavision.com/pictures/HVX200/HVX200_4x5hs_s.htm


Cavision also has a shoulder pad that goes with the rod-system.
It would be great if you could use the cineporter with these, or similar products.

great if anyone has tips on how to do this, og know other products that will work with the cineporter.
 
Hello Zorman,

We are finding that the options are endless. Some may work and some may not work with the CinePorter™. That is why we are making interchangeable mounting plates available and cables with varying lengths to accommodate as many of those options as possible.

Best regards,

Andrew Hoffman
Senior Operations Manager
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
 
A couple questions/ ideas

A couple questions/ ideas

Maybe this was covered, but...

Currently with the HVX you can only offload P2 files to an standard external hard drive, you can't record directly to one. You can't do this because there are no brains in the hard drive to communicate with the camera. I am wondering if the CinePorter will allow users to connect an external HD to it, essentially acting as the brains for the standard off the shelf drive?

This could allow for redundant recording, or if you are recording a hugely long event from a fixed position, it could allow you to record past the CinePorter's installed capacity.

Even further out there, maybe it could allow a "hot dump" (catchy huh?) meaning you could dump the cineporter drive off to an external drive while continuing to record to it.

Not sure I made that very clear.
 
willcprutzman said:
Maybe this was covered, but...

Currently with the HVX you can only offload P2 files to an standard external hard drive, you can't record directly to one. You can't do this because there are no brains in the hard drive to communicate with the camera. I am wondering if the CinePorter will allow users to connect an external HD to it, essentially acting as the brains for the standard off the shelf drive?

This could allow for redundant recording, or if you are recording a hugely long event from a fixed position, it could allow you to record past the CinePorter's installed capacity.

Even further out there, maybe it could allow a "hot dump" (catchy huh?) meaning you could dump the cineporter drive off to an external drive while continuing to record to it.

Not sure I made that very clear.
Click to expand...


I would even settle for the option of using the CinePorter to export itself to a USB or Firewire hard drive (no computer involved), just like the HVX. I am guessing you can do this now with the HVX in the middle of the chain, dumping the CinePorter as you can a P2 card. I wouldn't mind being able to cut out the HVX and let the CinePorter dump to a inexpensive hard drive for the client at the end of a shoot (preferably FW800 for faster transfers).
 
Will,

The functionality of recording to an external drive while recording from the camera would be a great feature. If there was an easy way to do that, we could deliver removable drives - certainly a popular request. We haven't given up, but for now we are concentrating on basic development. You do want it this year, right? :)

Now, for unattended offload to an inexpensive drive. This requires us to host an external FW drive, unless you want to use the slower USB OTG, which at this time is a working function. We are looking at adding the FW hosting in the future, that would be a field upgrade. We are leaving "room" in our FPGA design for some cool stuff, I just don't want to get your hopes up so early in the game.

Hope this helps and thank you for your support,

David Linetsky
President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Drive
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
davidl@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com

**************************************************************
Now taking Pre-Orders on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camcorder.
Reserve today, and receive FREE Shipping and a FREE cleaning
for your new camera.
Visit http://www.spec-comm.com/hvx200.php for details!
 
David,

Thanks for your patience and straightforward answers in this forum. It's exciting to see your support in evidence here, and raises my interest in your product. Be sure to let us know when you're accepting pre-orders, and keep us updated on your best guess as to "first-ship" date, ok?

Thanks,

Stephen Gagne
Westwood Creek Productions
 
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