FOCUS Enhancements and Panasonic Partner to Expand FireStore to DVCPRO HD Format

for making "films", wouldn't it just make more sense to use the p2 cards? short takes anyway....

hmmm i guess if the price is the same, 100 GB is a lot better then 4-12 GB, but how easy is it to get footage off a firestore to a drive? same amount of time as doing it from P2?
 
The Firestore *is* a drive, so you could plug it in and edit from it.

Copying from the FireStore to your internal hard disk would be as fast as any external USB2 or Firewire hard disk copy. P2 can be faster because it's an actual PCMCIA/PC Card 32 bus, capable of at least 80 megabytes per second (plus there's no "seek" time or anything like that).
 
Gary_McClurg said:
Barry,

Is it possible to record to the hard drive and tape at the same time for non P2 cameras?
Click to expand...
Certainly. You can record to the tape and the FireStore simultaneously on any DV camera. You also should be able to record to P2 and Firestore simultaneously on the HVX, or to tape and FireStore simultaneously.

Maybe (and I don't know this, but maybe) you can record DV onto the P2 card and also to the tape simultanousely; that might work or might not. But if the camera's in DV50 or DV100 mode, it's my understanding that it's in DV50 or DV100 mode, which rules out the tape. You could record in HD or DV50 to the P2 card and the FireStore simultaneously as well.

(and, in all above references when I said "firestore", that also includes live capture to FCP or HD Rack or Avid or whatever product you may have attached to the firewire port).
 
How about HD to FIrestore and dv to Tape, at the same time? (dv as archive sd?)

EDIT: I can see there's a thread about this. SOrry about the question. Don't bother answering it
 
Barry:

I've never owned a laptop in my life so here's my question in regrading to shooting the Hvx200 direct to disk:

How convenient is using a laptop for that purpose? Do I have to open up the laptop, run a capture program, press "record" on the keyboard and then begin shooting with camera? (Static situation)

Or can I have the laptop stay live, sit closed in a knapsack on my back, tethered to the Hvx, record/stop when I activate the start/stop button on the video camera? In other words, act like a pseudo Firestore? (Fairly mobile situation)

The Hvx200 will clean out my bank account, and while I may go for the firestore, I'm checking out laptops as a viable alternative.

Ofcourse, the ultimate would be the P2's... but I'll wait for prices to come down.

Thanks
 
You can use it either way. The ideal way to use it is to run something like Serious Magic's DV Rack. If you haven't seen it, run (don't walk) to www.seriousmagic.com and check it out.

They already have it working with HDV. With any luck they'll be announcing DVCPRO-HD support soon.

The knapsack idea sounds complex, I doubt that would be overly practical, I'd say you'd probably be better off just going for the FireStore in a situation like that (which stinks, because the laptop+HD Rack+a bunch of external hard disks would all cost less than one FireStore! And do a lot more!)
 
Barry, or anyone else that would know, do you think the firestore solution will support all the frame rates, not just the actual formats (i.e. DV, DVCPRO50, DVCPROHD)?
 
Also, is HDD recording that UNreliable. I understand solid state is the best way to go, but am I putting clientele footage at risk, especially live events, by going HDD?
 
The FireStore will record anything the HVX can generate. All modes, all frame rates. However, the frame rates will all likely be stored in a 60p or 60i data stream (unless Focus is really cool and drops redundant-flagged frames during capture). If you want to use the variable-frame-rate feature, you MAY (repeat, *may*) have to use a post-processing tool like Final Cut's Frame Rate Converter software to extract the valid frames and remove the duplicates.

Hopefully the Firestore will do it right when capturing.

Also, is HDD recording that UNreliable. I understand solid state is the best way to go, but am I putting clientele footage at risk, especially live events, by going HDD?
Click to expand...
The concept isn't unproven; FireStores have been around for several years now. Some products are flat out unreliable (there have been numerous unflattering reports about the CitiDisk/QuickStream) but that doesn't mean the underlying technology doesn't work. FireStore has probably the best name in the business, I'd venture to say that they should be producing a completely reliable product, but hey -- until we try it and get some real-world feedback, there are no guarantees!
 
This is really great news! I do believe we will now wait until March to go Hi-Def and pass up the HD100. Very wise move, Panasonic! Thanks for listening to the requests of the users out there!
 
(This may be alittle crazy but when neccesary I'll do crazy things)

These Firestore products use Hitachi's TravelStar laptop hard drives in them.

Could you simply buy one FS100 and swap out the internal hard drives almost like they were tapes? (Assuming you went thru the trouble of altering the FS100 case for easy access to the drive)

A Travelstar 7K100 (7200 rpm, 100gig, very shock resistant lap top sized and most likely the exact model they are using in the FS100) goes for about $200 and prices drop like a rock in HD's.

So possible? Or possible proprietary Hard Drive format issue?

If not - could save alot of money and space in the bag.
 
Will this be able to be used with the DVX100 and Andromedea setup? IE 4:4:4 out put or 4:2:2 via USB 2? Or not because Andromedea has its on proprietary software used for capturing on a computer?
 
Brett Erskine said:
These Firestore products use Hitachi's TravelStar laptop hard drives in them.
Could you simply buy one FS100 and swap out the internal hard drives almost like they were tapes? (Assuming you went thru the trouble of altering the FS100 case for easy access to the drive)
Click to expand...

We asked exactly that question at Panasonic's Press Conference at IBC.

No, this will not be possible, said David O'Kelly Focus Enhancement's Vice President Business Development. Given the fact that the FS100 will record 100 minutes of HVCProHD at 1080i60, IMHO this should not be such a big problem, at least for those very big productions with a big budget that really need to record 100+ minutes sans interruption.
 
I wonder why Focus Enhancements said that. After all isn't a hard drive just a hard drive? And if you buy one of the upcoming FS100 and then a handful of the same exact internal hard drives inside them why wouldnt work? The only reason I could think of is Firestore has some how uniquely formated these drives at their factory to only work with their hardware and any attempt to swap out the hard drive for a fresh one wont work. I'm not sure if this is even possible. I always thought that a hard drive is a dumb/passive recording media that will record anything its given as long as its within it's bandwidth and has the proper hardware to control it. Any techs here that can give this idea some thought and tell us what up? Thanks.
 
Jan also told me that DV Rack would likely develop a solution for the HVX as well. She joked that Serious Magic is probably just waiting on Panasonic to "get around" to sending them a DVCPRO HD deck for them to begin work.

I like DV Rack very well for the DVX100A. I hope this is a solution for the HVX200 as well.

Regards,

Cre8tive
 
don't void the warranty

don't void the warranty

Brett Erskine said:
I wonder why Focus Enhancements said that. After all isn't a hard drive just a hard drive? And if you buy one of the upcoming FS100 and then a handful of the same exact internal hard drives inside them why wouldnt work? The only reason I could think of is Firestore has some how uniquely formated these drives at their factory to only work with their hardware and any attempt to swap out the hard drive for a fresh one wont work. I'm not sure if this is even possible. I always thought that a hard drive is a dumb/passive recording media that will record anything its given as long as its within it's bandwidth and has the proper hardware to control it. Any techs here that can give this idea some thought and tell us what up? Thanks.
Click to expand...

i think they're just playing it safe. some of those firestore devices also contain displays and keypad buttons that could get displaced or broken in the process of voiding the warranty. i wouldn't want some guy opening up my device and shoving in his friend's cheaper hard drive just to save himself a buck. then when he breaks it or his cheaper drive runs too slow, focus enhancements has to deal with the tech support calls.

but i'm with you in spirit. i recall my first nle and their ridiculous drive requirements. so i went the cheap route and saved a few grand. of course frames were dropped so we each have to individually weigh the pros/cons.

in the end, if it's really that easy to engineer a swappable drive solution, someone will fill that market gap soon enough.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top