fs-100 & hvx200 issues

W

wigby

Active member
has anyone shot and edited yet using hvx200 and the firestore fs-100? i just got mine and am having real issues not only recording but importing. i'm not a newbie but feel like one when i go through the poor documentation from both panasonic and focus enhancements. panasonic never mentions firestore so it's unclear what the settings should be. everything is about p2 so do i assume the cam sees the fs-100 as a p2 device? the firestore manual briefly mentions the hvx200 but says nothing about the p2 format that it gives the user the option to record in. but i'm not here to bash. i just feel like i'm the first one to use these two new products together. my questions are:

if i want to to capture 1080 24p onto the firestore, what are the hvx settings for 1394 control? ext, both?
for pc mode? 1394 device? host?

on the fs-100, do i capture in raw dv or p2? how do i import the p2 files? (i got this far but fcp says selected path does not contain a p2 volume)
raw dv was just a mess when i imported that.

any suggestions would be helpful.

thanks
 
It would seem that edius broadcast could edit straight from the firestore without the need to import. Is this the case?
 
here's a bit I copied from another post that helped a lot.

In your Firestore...
Go to the "Control" menu and choose "Tapeless".

On you HVX200...
Go to your Camera Menu>Other Options>1394 Control. Then choose "Ext".

You are now setup properly.

Make sure the firewire is hooked between the two.
Turn off the camera.
Put the FS-100 into Record-pause mode by hitting the RECORD button once.
Now turn on your camera and it should work properly.
 
ernie pretty much sumed it up. the only issues ive had is an ocasional drop out, during camera moves, while in dvcproHD. think its due to the firewire moving
 
One other thing is, I think, after you shoot you are supposed to Organize P2 in the Firerstore which breaks the footage up into Content and Audio. Still figuring out all the details myself with the equipment and workflow.
 
Letter_Boxed said:
the only issues ive had is an ocasional drop out, during camera moves, while in dvcproHD. think its due to the firewire moving
Click to expand...

That sounds like a big issue to me. I'll be moving the camera around a bit, moving handheld, etc on a feature coming up this summer and the idea of a firestore sounds nice, but dropouts on moving shots would kill me.

Before I purchased the camera I was basically thinking I wasn't going to do much until the firestore or the cineporter, but I have to be honest, I love working with the P2 cards and the idea of spinning drives moving around doesn't sound too good to me anymore.
 
Just shoot some composite work for a feature, given outside temp was 112*f, had 2 problems, HVX randomly said "1394 external disconect" verry strange, after rebooting everything and still having the issue it just corrected itself...

other problem with the drop out, this time we shot 720p, and had the drop out. now given the gear has less than 1 hour of shooting time on it, the first batch still had the drop out. Same as in 1080i. this time though, the camera and drive were stationary, no gitter to the firewire at all. so i am 100% perplexed as to the cause of the drop out, our editor thinks it may be in the software on the fs100 on on final cuts update patch, the last possiblity being on the firewire cables its self. even stranger the second batch of footage we shot same ext. conditions, came out fine, i did do a system reset on the FS100, reformat, and everything since then has been very clean. Causing me to wonder if thier is a "break in time" for the fs100. I have asked focus, so when i hear from them ill post what they say. 1 thing i have to say about the set up is a HD monitor is 100% needed for focusing HD, i have the marshal 7" and you can see a world of diffrence comparing it with the onboard LCD..
 
I am not having a good experience with the FS-100

I am not having a good experience with the FS-100

I too have had a lot of difficulty with the FS-100 and my HVX200.

FWIW, I have been extremely conscientious to be careful of the cable connections and movement of the unit.

While shooting documentary footage today, the FS unit seized on me a number of times. By some bizarre chance, it was always after I had captured my shot and was ready to put the camera down for a minute.

Unfortunately I was not able to get the device to react from any button input and was forced to shut the thing down by removing the battery.

This occurred while shooting 480i DVCPRO50 footage.

Then when I got a chance to offload the files to my Powerbook, it seized up 4 times (with the obligatory batter removal to reboot) before I was able to successfully get it to navigate to and utilize the mount as HDD command.
Imagine my relief when it finally worked and I knew that my weekends work was not lost.

To the FS-100's credit, all of my clips were preserved.

To say the least, I do not have much confidence in this thing. I am ready to return it and purchase some P2 cards despite my feeling that they don't really suit my style of working.

Additionally, last week when my whole camera package arrived and I was doing tests with the FS unit, I was having difficulty getting it to communicate with my camera. I called and emailed around 11 am Pacific time. Nobody got back to me until the next day at 2 pm! Thank goodness I wasn't stuck on-location.


Can somebody honestly tell us that they are having a great experience with the FS-100 and Focus Enhancements?

Christopher
 
<<<Can somebody honestly tell us that they are having a great experience with the FS-100 and Focus Enhancements?>>>


Well, I've not put it through all the scenarios yet, but I'm able to use mine with good consistency right now. The user experience of the FS-100 is not exactly intuitive (the Page 63 of the user's manual "Organize P2" step being one example). But Hey, it's allowing me to get a heck of a lot more than on my P2 cards. It works for me... for now.
 
1394 external dissconnect problem, for me, was the firewire cables fault that came with the FS100. I read somebody having the exact same problem too. So they maybe just sent out cheap firewire cables. And I do remember the manual telling you to turn off the FS100 when connecting to prevent static electricity which, if it was real touchy, could be the problem. (of course they say not to open your car dar when pumping gas because of static too. Has anyone actually blown up from static?)

BTW, I talked Focus Enhancements before I figured the problem and even though not a lot of help, they at least listened and say that they would have a more complete quick-start guide by Thursday.

Also, I still need to figure out the best workflow. I've copied and pasted previous post on the matter, and I am hoping to have tonight to play around with it. Would love to hear other people's workflow though, especially if they are PC Avid with FS100.
 
Just to reiterate, I had the problem of it seizing up when the camera was on a tripod and the FS-100 was attached to the camera. No movement involved. And it seized up again when I was sitting in a chair, trying to connect it to a Powerbook.

Also of note, I didn't even bother unpacking the cheapo FireWire (1394) cable that shipped with it and instead used my much nicer cables from the start.

Speaking of cables, has anyone found a right angle 1394 cable anywhere? It might reduce the chance of the cable getting budged or pulled out. It would need to be right angle on the 4 pin side.

Glad this forum exists so that I don't feel like I am the only one going crazy.

-Christopher
 
sorry but we are all professionals or aspiring to be one. TO shoot on a HVX and capture via a firewire that has no lock is so ridiculous -- I know there are no locks for firewire but Focus Enhancement should of been able to come up with something better than a flimsy connection -- Yes, options are very LIMITED, but the fact of the matter is that the people at Focus Enhancement DON"T GIVE A SHIIT!! They should of put more thought into the unit and theat screwed up manual! This is a 1600dollar plus unit not some cheap hardware -- or is it(?)

They know that when options are slim and far apart they could get away with murder; But not for long.

I hope a rep from firestore is on this board so he or she could listen up and put out a pro unit. I'm not here to ingratiate. 1 star out of 5!!
 
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Man, I agree about Focus' lack of seeming to care. i've emailed and left messages and gotten no reply yet, oh, 1 email that told me to look at a page in the manual which at best is some hirogliphic translation into english which makes no sense. I don't think they know how to use the damn thing. The reel numbering thing stinks, it IS NOT instantly available to the edit system, and the cell phone clip thing is a joke. I've done a lot of Velcro and Foam art to get this thing stable and safe from banging into things. I also had to send my first one back as the battery posts broke off inside the unit because the battery took a sledge hammer to get off. I'm disappointed but I need it. It's like a bad marriage (which I wish I couldn't relate to) that you know will end soon. I just wish and keep searching for someone who has a good workflow to get the Firestore stuff into a 24p FCP project properly. I'm about to have to change over to a 60f project and have FCP do the pulldown on output. PLEASE FOCUS OR PANASONIC, HELP US OUT. Their commitment should not end at the end of the shoot. We have to edit this stuff.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
 
Well at least I am not the only one being treated poorly, so that makes me feel part of the HVX community already:Drogar-BigGrin(DBG).

As far as my earlier question about a source for right angle Firewire cables, I found some. http://snipurl.com/ql7q
That should reduce the chance of knocking your camera end connection out. Yet I must reiterate that I have had Firestore hang-ups while everything was locked down.

In fact yesterday I attempted to start it up to get a quick vista shot in downtown San Francisco with some fantastic golden hour light. And the damn thing wouldn't work at all. The unit starts up, then hangs without even giving me the welcome screen. The only way to shut it down was by removing the battery. Don't get me started on how difficult battery removal is....:furious3:

After I get a replacement unit sent to me, anyone want to buy it?:)

Question: How many emoticons is too many? LOL.

Christopher
 
I hear you on the battery. Sucks. And user friendliness is not really part of the manual or user interface on the unit. But man is it better than tape importing. Sure is a lot of bleeding on the cutting edge of tech. The price we pay I guess.
 
So, my FS100 just came in and I a supposed to pull the trigger tomorrow...... you guys are not making me feel overly comfortable, I am to shoot a music video on Monday.
Better off with cards or going via firewire? I sure don't want to spend 2K for something that doesn't work????
 
cbdv,
I did tests with my FS-100 for 2 days and everything worked fine. Went into the field and everything went to hell.
It seems that some folks are having an okay go with their units. That being said, I obviously did not get one of those.
Use it as much as possible before you go out. Get used to the wonky menu interface.
Be prepared to have a backup solution.
Frankly, if I were shooting in studio or location situations where I could have someone downloading P2 cards between takes, I wouldn't bother using anything else.
Good luck.
-Christopher
 
Hello,

I Have been reading the threads on this forum regarding FS-100 and I would like to help where I can. Here is some answers for you from this particular thread:

1) As I have posted elsewhere on DVXUser, we are investigating the drop out issue now and we will hopefully have more information shortly. If anyone has additional information about what they were doing when the issue occurred (e.g. was it after deleting a clip? was it toward the end of the disk drive? was it in a shock environment etc. please email me at mmcewen at focusinfo.com. The more information we have, the easier it will be to find a quick resolution.

2) The FS-100 menu system is the same as that used on thousands of FS-4 units. I am sure that as with all things new, it may take a while to get used to. I am sorry it is causing you frustration. Regarding the manual, we do have a QuickStart document that will be available shortly. This should hopefully address some of the issues regarding setup with the camera.

3) We have noted the request for right angled FireWire cables and we have begun looking into the feasibility of adding these. Unfortunately, all the right angle cables we have had in the past have needed to be specially tooled and have been 6-pin, not 4-pin. But anyway, we are looking at sourcing one. As someone has already pointed out, the 4-pin FireWire connector is quite delicate and does require care when using FireStore. We will do our best to come up with a good solution.

4) Regarding tech support, I have passed this thread to our tech support manager and he will contact you all directly. Please send me your emails and phone numbers to mmcewen at focusinfo.com

5) Battery fit. There has been reports that some batteries have been hard to remove. These batteries are covered under warranty and tech support will replace them if required. Again, please pass me your details.

6) Workflow. We do have a Final Cut Pro workflow paper available on our FAQ page. You can download it at: http://www.focusinfo.com/support/faq_topics.asp . Select FS-100 and it is in the third FAQ in the list. Don Berube, one of our beta testers, wrote this paper. We are working on a version for Avid workflow now.

7) 24p and slow mo - there is another thread about this on DVXuser ... http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=57319 Hopefully, this can answer some questions. Our FCP workflow white paper does cover 24p issues as well.

Hope this helps,

Matt McEwen
Focus
 
Thanks Matt & Christopher for your insight & thoughts-, these are big decisions for us and we need to be making the right moves. We'll see what today brings...
 
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