CinePorter™ FAQ

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That would be great! - but will probably kill their higher GB models...as everyone will just get the lowest GB model and yank it out to put an off-the-shelf 300GB+ disks...

so i guess they would make it difficult to remove the HD :)

they already mentioned shockproofing.. so we might have to crack it open to get to the drive ..lol..

but swappable disks would be awesome... they can prolly sell shell-only Cineporter enclosure for $999
 
Considering the very high price they are charging for the 100GB unit, they should be happy and wealthy if many people buy these units and swap disks!
 
Hi Barry,

I know how strongly you feel about interchangeable disks. This is a popular request. This subject comes up at every development meeting. We would really like to have this functionality and think that it makes much sense.

This goes beyond the obvious concerns such as, handling bare drives, which would put your valuable data at great risk, or the cost and size increase if we were to implement some type of a removable cartridge.

The technical difficulties of implementing a Hard Drive directly readable by a PC or a MAC are in direct conflict with making it work in a "hard-wired" internal environment in the CinePorter™.

Also, if a RAID is implemented, then both drives would be required and be connected in some type of an external enclosure with a RAID controller.

Please be assured that we are continuing to look into solutions which will allow you to remove the drives, however remote.

We would love to hear any ideas about what would be your second choice to removable drives.

On another note, you should be pleased to hear that we have made the decision to add IEEE-1394b. We will be announcing this on our web-site when functionality is established.

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,

You said:

"The technical difficulties of implementing a Hard Drive directly readable by a PC or a MAC are in direct conflict with making it work in a "hard-wired" internal environment in the CinePorter™. "

Maybe I am reading this wrong but are you saying that the Cineporter™ will not be readable via a PC or MAC? If not then how do we get data from the Cineporter™ to our editing system? Surely we don't have to connect the HVX200 via USB and mount it as an external hard drive with the Cineporter™ attached? Or do we?

Let us know.

Thanks!
 
Spec-Comm said:
Also, if a RAID is implemented, then both drives would be required and be connected in some type of an external enclosure with a RAID controller.
Click to expand...
Certainly a RAIDed CinePorter would cause the interchangeable feature to become overly complex and not practical.

What I'm looking for is the ability to shoot for a day and then turn the footage over to the producer at the end of the day. That's the ultimate goal here. The ability to remove and turn over the hard disk is one way to do that.

We would love to hear any ideas about what would be your second choice to removable drives.
Click to expand...
Well, another way to do it, which would be less satisfactory but perhaps more implementable, would be to have a dub mode on the CinePorter. Give the CinePorter the ability to control a firewire or USB2 drive in the same way the HVX can. Let the CinePorter directly dub its contents over to an external plug-in (preferably bus-powered) drive. That would go a long, long way towards solving the issue of interchangeable hard disks. Heck, the more I think about it, the more I think is a brilliant idea worthy of royalties! :) :thumbsup: :laugh:

Give the CinePorter the ability to execute a high-speed copy with/without verify, and that will go a long way towards resolving the desire for interchangeable hard disks. At the end of the shoot day, while you're wrapping up the gear, you plug an off-the-shelf drive into the CinePorter and execute a "dub" command, and it happily whirs away, copying and verifying its contents so that the producer can leave with a fully-intact, fully-usable copy of the day's footage on that cheap external hard disk. And making it able to bus-power that drive would be just an incredible convenience.

It's still not a perfect solution, as I can imagine some clients may have an intellectual-property issue with receiving a dub rather than the masters (and turning over the original hard drive would settle that issue) but it'd solve most of the workflow/practicality issues.

Also, consider allowing daisy-chaining the CinePorter -- the FS100 offers that for extended record times, so if you could do it too, that would be nifty.
 
Barry,
if the CinePorter is seen by the camera as a P2 Card, can't you just plug in a HD into Firewire and make a copy of your footage?!

Bibo
 
Through the camera maybe (not sure, that's a question for Spec-Comm). But I'm talking about not requiring the camera to be involved.

As far as I understand it, some USB drives already have this capability -- called USBToGo or something like that. It's a totally stand-alone protocol. I'd want to have the CinePorter cranking away making its dub while I'm breaking down the camera, pulling the mattebox off, etc. Copying a hard disk will take a while, so I'd rather it not be relying on having the camera in there as a go-between; it'd be so much nicer if it could just do it by itself.
 
Barry's idea of having some kind of dubbing protocol is right on target. As for changing the internal drive, what's involved? If you look inside your computer, the only thing connecting the hard drive to the computer is a SATA or PATA connection. Is it really so difficult to imagine the hard disk of the CinePorter having the same hook-up? Pressure clamps on a lift-up case, exposing the hard drive and it's connection is not such a difficult thing to imagine. Think Battery hook-up, where the internals of the CinePorter are self-encased with a SATA or PATA connection (maybe both) as the only exposed aspect connecting the hard drive!
 
What will the rollout of the cineporter line be like? Will you rollout the whole line at once "100, 120, 200, or 240 GB shock-mounted" or one at a time?
 
you can bet that getting to the drive should not be an issue, there may be an issue with programed bios not accepting larger drives, that would be in CP best interests..however swapping out the same sized drive for a new one is the best idea yet...of course CP would want you to spend another 2 spot on a new set but i'm sure a hack is workable...

of course i'm sure that the warrenty goes out the window in ever case i described...
 
Barry,
I agree with you. As a matter of fact I signalled the USB2Go device a while back.

Skyonic,
Here we are talking about 2.5" hard disks. I am not 100% sure but I doubt there are many companies producing 2.5" hard disks beyond 120GB capacity. For example, Seagate's Momentus is up to 120GB. So, eventually, it would be a question of swapping hard disks to give to a client rather than changing/upgrading to a larger size.

Bibo
 
From what I've read, the CinePorter will use "100, 120, 200, or 240 GB shock-mounted" hard drives (no 2.5s at that size???) and 3.5s would be a reasonably priced media to hand over to a producer..... and if it were made swappable hard disk out/in ....that would be killer!
 
Hello folks,

I'm beginning to see that many do not read the previous posts, or at least not carefully. Forums are a new thing for me, so please, let me know what I can do to keep from answering the same questions over and over. We're are working on an FAQ for our web site, maybe that'll help.

Barry,

We have just added IEEE-1394b and the functionality you are requesting would require a good bit of extra code or IP to handle the host mode. You should be able to do it through the camera as bibo has suggested. Our goal is to have the "offload" capability. It may be a free update after the CinePorter™ ships. We'll announce it when the decision is made.

icicle,

You will be able to connect the CinePorter™ to a computer as you would assume. You see, for the unit to work it has to "appear" a certain way to the camera and a different way to the computer. we have to do different "translating" when you connect via the CardBus interface, the usb or the FW ports. Custom Drive formatting and file system are central to how this is possible. So, if you pull a drive out, at this time, you won't be able to read it with a computer. I hope I'm making sense.

dglasgal,

Q: Does timecode record into the footage captured into the Cineporter?

A: The simple answer is yes.

Q: What will the rollout of the cineporter line be like? Will you rollout the whole line at once "100, 120, 200, or 240 GB shock-mounted" or one at a time?

A: At this time our intent is to have the different HDD options available at the same time. Hopefully, we'll have the 160/320 available as well.

For anyone that wants to "hack" into the CinePorter™, we feel that when you buy it, it's yours to do with as you please. You will void the warranty, of course, but it does belong to you.

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!
 
Thanks David, it's really cool that you are so responsive to your customers like this.

-David Glasgal
 
Spec-Comm said:
I'm beginning to see that many do not read the previous posts, or at least not carefully. Forums are a new thing for me, so please, let me know what I can do to keep from answering the same questions over and over.
Click to expand...


Unfortunately, not much.
:)
Welcome to forum life, David!

:thumbsup:
 
Spec-Comm said:
Hello folks,

I'm beginning to see that many do not read the previous posts, or at least not carefully. Forums are a new thing for me, so please, let me know what I can do to keep from answering the same questions over and over. We're are working on an FAQ for our web site, maybe that'll help.


Now taking Pre-Orders on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camcorder.
(snipped for brevity)
Click to expand...

Hi David-

Maybe you could just post the question and answer with "AIPT" (answered in previous thread), or something like that . . .
Might encourage searching & reduce frustration for others -- we need another acronym anyhow, Jarred?

When do you think you will be taking deposits on the CinePorter and, will there be a DVXUser discount available for those of us that had already committed to purchase our HVX-200 elsewhere?

Thanks.
 
How about this question?

When shooting with the Cineporter, or 2 Cineporters attached to the HVX, how do you know how much recording capacity is left on the drives?
 
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