Firestore vs Cineporter

S

spunknoid

Active member
I know that both CinePorter and Firestore will help in extended recording times, but I'm not sure I understand the major differences between these two.


Insights on the pros and cons of each,
Or
Is it better to get a P2Store and swap the 4 gig cards?

Thanks
 
Neither is on the market yet, and with all unreleased products you'll find a line that says "specifications subject to change without notice." So at this point in time you're asking for a largely theoretical discussion, some of which may not even apply when the actual physical products reach the shelves. I'm sure many will gladly share with you the announced features, but again, until it's a real product in-hand, we won't know for sure what each really really does, or what it really costs; already the CinePorter people have upped the capacity without changing the pricetag, so ...
 
Thanks Barry. I was trying to figure out if it was worth waiting vs. getting 8 gig cards and offloading to scratch hard disks.

I think the stock answer then is.... wait until after NAB? LOL...

Anyway, thanks again.
 
I'd say if you have a situation now that you need a recording solution for now, then cards are the only way to go. If you are in no hurry, wait and see what comes out, and whenever possible it's always good to let someone else be the guinea pig who tests the first-out-of-the-box unit.

That said, FireStore is on their fifth generation of hard disk recorder, and they had cooperation from the camera manufacturer to develop the FS-100, so I'm feeling fairly confident about it. The Cineporter won't be out for a few more months anyway, so it's going to be difficult to know for sure. On paper the Cineporter promises a lot of very interesting features.

To answer your question directly: if you have paying jobs now, get the tools that do the job now (even if that means renting; remember that EVS rents P2 cards and I'm sure other places do too).
 
First I wanted to go with the Cineporter because of the bigger capacity, but then I saw that it won't be out for several months. But I need to be ready to record HD for the lenght of a concert by end of April, so the Cineporter is out. The Firestore should be out then, and according to an e-mail I got from them, the will have enough for everybody. And have you seen the size of the Cineporter? It seems to have about ten times the volume of the Firestore. And the Firestore looks more like the size of an iPod, a device you can just clip to your belt or attach to the camera.
 
Pascal_Parvex said:
And have you seen the size of the Cineporter? It seems to have about ten times the volume of the Firestore. And the Firestore looks more like the size of an iPod, a device you can just clip to your belt or attach to the camera.
Click to expand...

They appear to be the same size to me. The FS-100 looks small in pictures (by itself), but when you look at the specs you see it is as thicker than many latops, and it is almost 6 inches long by 4 inches wide. Much bigger than an iPod. Both systems use a 2.5" HD so I would assume they will be comparable in size. An iPod uses a 1" HD.
 
My take on the citidisk is "I'll believe it when I see it, and when someone else has been the guinea pig on it for a good three months and can report flawless operation."

Because their prior products have looked great on paper and not been reliable at all. I would like nothing more than for the CitiDisk to prove to be a great product that does everything everyone wants for half the price, but... well, their track record is not encouraging.
 
Is the Firestore still a "it needs the 100mbs stream" recorder. I remember at first announcement you couldn't use th 24pN feature. You had to use the 24p feature and then apply the pull down in the editing system. Is that still the case? I love the extra space I get on the P2 cards when using the Native mode. For me, that's why the Cineporter seemed more promising, because I assume it could use all modes, and thus use the hard disk space more effectively.
 
I don't know for sure whether the firestore will remove pulldown during capture or not. I'm expecting that it won't, but until we see the final specifications we won't know for sure.
 
Until someone responds that knows for sure... I'll tell you what I think is correct... The Firestore doesn't do Native. The Cineporter is hoping to do Native, but I don't think they've cracked it yet. I am wondering if the Firestore will possibly be able to do Native one day with a Firmware update.
 
I talked to a Panasonic guy at a seminar and he said while Panasonic has been working with Firestore throughout their development, it will not support the native recording modes, which in my opinion, means it's just an expensive and semi-smart hard drive. Hopefully they will support native modes in the future, i dont know.

The big plus with the cineporter is , and i just confirmed it with them, that it will connect directly into the P2 slots and support all modes, including native modes/ variable frame rates etc. I think that is one of the strongest sellers of the HVX and if I'm going to plunk down a sizeable chunk of money on a hard drive, i want to make sure it's going to take advantage of the native modes. I think Spec-comm is working hard to get it out soon.
 
dglasgal said:
I think Spec-comm is working hard to get it out soon.
Click to expand...
I hope so. I'm just going to rent P2 until the prices drop another 25%. But I'll buy the Cineporter the minute it's READY and TESTED:dankk2:
 
Firestore vs Cineporter

Hi,

Just wanted to get some opinions on which drive is a better value?

The 100G Firestore is $1,899.95 at B&H
and the 160G Cineporter is $2,199.00

I realize that the Cineporter is capable of recording "Native Mode" and the Firestore is not. My question has more to do with workflow and flexibility.

Reading thru some of the other posts I have been noticing that the Firestore "will be" capable of converting the 1080i to 1080p which is a feature that the Cineporter doesn't mention. Also could I use the Firestore FS100 to record a mini-dv signal from any standard mini-dv camera?

Thanks
 
The cineporter will in essence, be a giant p2 card. So you will be do anything that you can do on a p2 card, and you will get all of the information that you would be able to get using p2. It connects to a p2 slot of the camera. that is the big difference to me.
That and You can use the same batteries for the cineporter and the hvx, meaning you can have as much battery life as you need by having enough batteries. The firestore battery life is an issue I have heard talked about

Jason
 
The upgrade of FS100 will support native recording (FS100 3.0). So at 100 GB's you could record 250 minutes of 720p-24p footage on the HVX200. Also, i believe when the fs100 upgrade comes out you will also be able to record footage shot in slow or fast motion to. Whats nice about the fs100 is that it is lighter then the cineporter and smaller; however, the cineporter runs of the camcorder battery.
 
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