Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

taubkin

taubkin

Veteran
So there was I , searching for a Deck to buy, constatly in doubt about buying a nicely built, audience choice, DSR-11 or just the cheapest possible solution, like the Famous JVC dual deck.

Then I started thinking, and thought: Why would I want to spend my money on a good, long-lasting deck, when I don't see myself using tapes for more than two years? And so I decided on the cheap JVC. Checking out the BH site, I thought I should check how expensive were the Direct to Disk options, and I saw that the Firestore system could be put togheter for the price of a DRS-11.

Then the most interesting thing happened. They are accepting preorders on the FS-4! didn't even know that existed. It seems to be an ipod for DTD capturing, with 40Gb for less than the price of the JVC deck, and the 80GB model should not be so much more expensive (at least not over 1500 dolars).

So I was thinking that instead of putting my money on a deck, it's already the time to invest in a DTD solution (considering I only edit footage I record). Am I forgetting something, or is there people who agree on this approach? Since the Firestore 3 was so raved in DV.com, I am thinking that Direct to Disk is already a pretty solid option, ain't it?

Well, I am pretty curious in hearing your thoughts for the matter...
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

I would LOVE to stop recording to tape!
provided the solution is light and low profile enough...
can you provide a link to this product you are talking about?
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

it will be the way to go for sure now. if you can attach the FS4 to the cam
/tripod so it is not in the way and if it works also in snow/rain/cold/hot then these devices will be all over the place soon.
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

Sounds good but it seems you will still need to capture, albeit four times faster, to get the pull-down etc. Also I wonder if finding the end of tape will work on the dvx. Also on a long shoot you will need to have a computer with a big hard disk to clear drive space.

jmf
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

you dont need to capture to use a pulldown on the footage. you just do a file transfer of the files to the editing workstation drive, and then open using your NLE. the pulldown isnt somthing thats "added " to the file. pulldown is performed by the NLE in realtime as it reads the file.
.. pending the setup time needed and the type of production, your not going to be getting more than a couple hours of actuall footage per dayif you kept it all, but the ability to instantly delete all your bad takes leaves plenty of more room for more recoding time. so a laptop with an 80 gig drive would be suficient for storing about a week or more of retained footage. so in the mean time you could dump it to your workstation NLE or if your not at that location you could use other external removeable drives off the laptop if you needed to clear it up for more space.
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

So, from FCP I would capture from the raw dv file to get the "DV NTSC 48 kHz Advanced (2:3:3:2) Pulldown Removal" into my NLE?

Also if I am using tape for a back up I'm not sure how the media would be coordinated. Is there something in the date stream that I could use to indentify a segment on the tape with one on the drive? Also will I need to check the FS-4 and the camera monitor to determine if I'm at the end of the tape/drive?

jmf
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

..the timcode should be the same on the drive  and on the tape . so you can get the same file by captureing from the tape from given timcode # to given timcode #-

..you dont have to capture to use a file in your NLE. (when you "capture" from a tape, all it is doing is transfering the data stream from the tape to the hard drive, but the data is already in .dv/.avi file format. think of the DV tape like a tape drive.. its basically just storing a .dv /,avi file on tape just like a tape backup drive for your computer would. ..when its on a direct to disk sytem you just transfer the file. to your hard drive in your NLW workstation and then import/load/open the file in a FCP project and then you just tell FCP to use whatever pulldown you want it to use (..the cadance may have already been selected in the project setup.. or FCP may detect the telecine cadance and default to using an appropriate pulldown cadence for it...i dont know if it does this, i dont use FCP )
 
Re: Buying a Deck, Really? (HD solutions)

Generally it detects automatically. But you can always select you clip and apply the advanced pulldown removal, I believe on the modify tab, not sure.

And it's not about not having to capture, but not about having to use a deck, since I'm not going to put much head use in my DVX in playback mode. Now, what I just detected as a weakness is the fragility of the firewire port. If I were to be plugging/unplugging a cable (or leaving one plugged in, and forcing the plug each time it touches anything like inside the bag), it would probably screw up pretty fast. Firewire 4-pin ports are fragile as hell.
 
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