citidisk part deux

[dregenthal]

I received my HVX yesterday afternoon (thanks Rush!).

No P2 cards.

In my, as of yet, unsucsessful search for cards I spoke with one of the east coast compadres of a well known DVXUser supporter (thanks Rush . . . opps, I guess I already said that) . . . who told me he had heard that the citidisk for the HVX would be released in March.

I called and spoke with them (Shining Technology) . . . and was told they were still working on it but they expected to release it next month.

Now here's the fun part: 100gig . . . projected selling price $1200.00

http://www.shining.com/products/totalsolution/citidisk_hd/

sign me up!

 

[SPZ]

I received my HVX yesterday afternoon (thanks Rush!).

No P2 cards.

In my, as of yet, unsucsessful search for cards I spoke with one of the east coast compadres of a well known DVXUser supporter (thanks Rush . . . opps, I guess I already said that) . . . who told me he had heard that the citidisk for the HVX would be released in March.

I called and spoke with them (Shining Technology) . . . and was told they were still working on it but they expected to release it next month.

Now here's the fun part: 100gig . . . projected selling price $1200.00

http://www.shining.com/products/totalsolution/citidisk_hd/

sign me up!

Thre's also a 120gb option... Bigger than the firestore, it seems, and more bang for the buck...

If they could implement the new 160gb portable hdd's, than this would be a very interesting solution... (I believe that with all the problems with the first models, the sytem must be working properly now- I'm talking about the dv and hdv models- this is all from internet user comments, though)

 

[Milezee]

Nice!!!

does anyone know when these were first announced?

Oh, you're still here. I was hoping you'd get banned for messing up the forum so much!!!

I see your new strategy is large fonts.


Grrr.

 

[baquajim]

Thanks for the link. I have been following the development of this as I am sure everyone else who has trouble finding P2 cards has. I just hope this product performs better than their previous ones, which did not get glowing reviews.

 

[dregenthal]

Thre's also a 120gb option... Bigger than the firestore, it seems, and more bang for the buck...

Hmm, you're probably right--I saw that with some of their other models, although what they said we'd be seeing 100 gig for intro. I sure like the "pc and mac" compatible part in what I read.

If you view the brochure (pdf at the bottom of the page) you will see a picture of the belt pouch, and the optional v-mount . . . which will be really useful with my Flyer setup. The external battery option complements the internal one which is "supposed" to be good for 90 minutes.

Not saying I won't still be looking at the Firestore or CinePorter P2 device but at half the price I'll be jumping on one of these when the become available. I think the winner will be who comes out first with something that actually works.

 

[David Saraceno]

I may be wrong on this, but my understanding was that the CitiDISK isn't for capturing. It's for downloading.

 

[cinebuddy]

I may be wrong on this, but my understanding was that the CitiDISK isn't for capturing. It's for downloading.

Reads to me that its a direct to capture method...

connects directly to camcorders and captures footage to its miniature high-capacity hard drive and to tape simultaneously – directly from the camera's FireWire port into MXF files. When done shooting, set your camcorder to VCR mode to “QPLAY” the last scenes on the viewfinder or simply plug it into your computer’s FireWire port and edit/play directly on the digitized video at anytime.

Looks promising!

 

[dregenthal]

I may be wrong on this, but my understanding was that the CitiDISK isn't for capturing. It's for downloading.

Hmmm. That's why I provided the link . . . for educational purposes. ;-)

 

[Mr. Blonde]

I spoke with a rep. at dvexpo who stated that the citidisk only allows for streaming of dv not hd.

In the hd aspect of the device, it only works as an offloading device, not a live capture device.

 

[David Saraceno]

Reads to me that its a direct to capture method...

connects directly to camcorders and captures footage to its miniature high-capacity hard drive and to tape simultaneously – directly from the camera's FireWire port into MXF files. !

That was never my understanding. No direct capture like the Firestore/Cineporter of HD. Just downloading.

As Mr. Blondie confirms, "I spoke with a rep. at dvexpo who stated that the citidisk only allows for streaming of dv not hd.

In the hd aspect of the device, it only works as an offloading device, not a live capture device."

Every body here has to be careful about the "proposed solutions," and read the fine print.

There's alot out there that is not yet clear or proven. We all have to be careful about workflow and unproven solutions and products.

 

[Alex Leith]

It was my understanding that you could use the CitiDisk DV as a hard drive to offload any format from the HVX (but not capture live), but the blurb for the CitiDisk HD certainly reads as if you can use it to record as you're shooting.

CitiDISK™ HD automatically detects incoming MiniDV/DVCam/DVCPROR (DV or DV25), DVCPRO50R or DVCPRO HDR (DV100) stream formats and 2-ch-16bit-48Khz/2-ch-16bit-44.1Khz/4-ch-12bit-32khz audio sampling rates, and provides record/playback in either format.

It appears to be claiming that it can recognize the streams... in which case you should be able to capture them live.

 

[dregenthal]

As Mr. Blondie confirms, "I spoke with a rep. at dvexpo who stated that the citidisk only allows for streaming of dv not hd.

That was probably an accurate statement . . . back then.

That was never my understanding. No direct capture like the Firestore/Cineporter of HD. Just downloading. Every body here has to be careful about the "proposed solutions," and read the fine print. There's alot out there that is not yet clear or proven. We all have to be careful about workflow and unproven solutions and products.

David- I hope you don't mind my combining your two statements(in the second quote)? It just struck me funny that you are, essentially, warning that we need be wary of this untested device (all the while comparing it to the Firestore & CinePorter)? I don't think there are a lot of testimonials on either of those . . . so what's your point?

Did you even go to the link and read any of the material? Looks like Alex did. The new camera I have sitting here next to me (with P2 cards loaded) doesn't have a long proven history either, but I've got my fingers crossed that it will work out.

Hopefully we'll all enjoy some luck with one of the aforementioned solutions.

Best.

 

[Barry_Green]

I think what David's getting at is -- you're entrusting all your footage to this product. You'd better be darn sure (very, very, very sure) that it's going to perform the way you want.

Citidisk has, frankly, not that great a track history. They made the Quickstream, the ADS Pyro, and the Citidisk DV. Look up user reports. Not encouraging. Same reason a lot of people are very gun-shy about Iomega products.

Could they have righted their ship? Sure. Could the CitiDisk HD turn out to be a great product? Sure. Maybe. But I'll say this, I ain't gonna be the guinea pig on it.

Now, Firestore has also had a few complaints, but a lot of praise too. And they're on their fifth generation of product, so they've had quite a while to figure out how to do the whole firewire-streaming thing. And, they've got full cooperation from the manufacturer; in fact they're working as a partnership to develop this product if I understand what I heard at DV Expo properly. So that does raise the confidence level somewhat; I would expect that the Firestore would work.

Cineporter is a bit more of a wild card. Spec-Comm may or may not have developed products like this before, I don't really know. But I do know that I haven't seen the web flooded with bad/negative reports about their products, so in my book that puts 'em a huge rung up the ladder of reliability over Shining.

If we were talking about matteboxes or follow-focuses or even tripods, I don't think any of it would matter all that much. I mean, sure we're all disappointed when we get a product that doesn't perform like we hoped it would or thought it would. But -- the recording unit? That had BETTER perform, with absolute 100% rock-solid reliability in each and every circumstance every time no questions asked no doubt no room for error. Absolutely demand 100% reliability in your recording medium.

Which is why I'm a bit nervous about this CitiDisk HD; I mean, I'd love for it to prove to be a brilliant and inexpensive solution. But past history does not fill me with optimism, and I think that's what David was getting at too.

 

[dregenthal]

Barry- Thanks for the clarification. Somehow the way you put it made things a lot clearer to me--I'm a bit dense at times. David, if apologies are necessary please consider this to be mine . . .

Fortunately we're going to see a lot of solutions in time . . . and P2 will increase in size and go down, somewhat, in price. I will be looking at the Firestore & CinePorter as well. I've ruled out the P2Store as higher capcity cards will negate the value at its present capcity and price point.

Perhaps 100gigs (from this manufacturer) might be too much to hope for? Regardless of their history I'm not yet ready to entirely discount the possibilities. Just think of it and how if it worked *reliably* it would impact on the other two competitive products (in regard to their pricing).

It is not unlikely that I will own more than one of these alternatives, but you can bet I would be unwilling to entrust any of them to a paid projet without a whole lot of testing beforehand.

Best.

 

[Barry_Green]

The hard disk price shouldn't be that much of an issue; I mean, the difference between a 60gb hard disk and a 100gb is -- what, $80? Shouldn't drive up the price of the end unit all that much.

The question is one of reliability, as far as I'm concerned. That's absolutely paramount. I do wish Citidisk well, I would love to see them succeed. Who wouldn't? I'd love to see a 100gb product at half the retail price of the FireStore, I think we all would. I just think that caution is in order, because it's not like a mattebox or a tripod -- this is your FOOTAGE we're talking about. We just have to be really, really sure.

I've never understood the P2 Store pricing; I think that it's probably good for a very small market but not really aimed at "the rest of us." I'm hoping some enterprising engineer puts together a USB2 PCMCIA card reader with a USB On-The-Go drive and a battery, and makes a $400 "DIY" P2-store device with a 120gb hard disk in it. That, I do believe, would be interesting.

 

[David Saraceno]

Did you even go to the link and read any of the material? Looks like Alex did. The new camera I have sitting here next to me (with P2 cards loaded) doesn't have a long proven history either, but I've got my fingers crossed that it will work out.

Of course I read it.

And I've communicated about its capabilities through an associate who spoke with the reps.

That's what he was told, just as the other poster was told the same thing at DV Expo.

Guys, I'm not making this up. I'm just providing information.

As I said, the poster said, and my associate said, and Barry implied, right now I don't believe you can capture to it.

I hope that changes.

My point is similar to Barry's: be careful about products that are announced, but haven't shipped or been tested in the marketplace.