hard disk and/or flash recorders

I got it used...their consignment department is really good, and they check things out carefully before putting them up for sale. And, after I got it, I sent it to Denecke for a checkup and an update to support 23.976. You can also get them on Ebay for around the same price, and then I would definately send it to Denecke for a checkup. Coffey also has a great consignment department (I picked up a "brand new" B6 from them...saved about $100). Location Sound also has a consignment department, but I haven't heard anything about it (good or bad).

I think a lot of people are generally down on Fostex. It seems they completely dropped support for one of their really popular recorders (PD6?) and this really ticked people off.

So, again, I look at price/performance. $899 for the Tascam + ~$700 for a slate vs. about the same total for the Fostex with no slate.

(BTW, the reason I decided to go with TC equipment at all is that I lost 3 jobs because I didn't have it....and these were jobs with real budget...)

Also, I'm not including the cost of the media in the ratio above, because you have to get the media either way. BTW, why go with a 6GB chip? Get two 1GB's and then swap out, and burn your CD/DVD. Unless you know a really good deal on the 6GB, I think you will save lots of money on the 1GB's. I have gotten them here for $40 each (after a stupid mail in rebate).

And, if you're thinking about the Hitatchi microdrives, I will repeat here a post I added about a year ago...stay away from them. A close friend of mine worked in IBM/Hitatchi's post sales QA department (i.e. trying to determine why drives failed after the fact) and she told me she would never consider keeping anything critical on these drives...FWIW.

Phil
 
hey thanks phil. I think I am going to go with the tascam and hope I can find a used slate. also one other question. it says on the tascam specs on B&H it only has one xlr input and the other is for time code only. is this true. and how do you work around that. Do you have to adapt to go in threw RCA??
 
It actually has two XLR's for audio, and one for TC. But, since I always work through a mixer, I use line in through RCA's.
 
Phil,
We should get together and compare boxes. I just got the PMD671. I like it a lot and they seem to have fixed the noise issues from the 670. I use a mixPre in front so I wasn't worried about the Pre's but in testing they seem fine and certainly aren't noisy. However no TC so if you need TC then your SOL. THe 722 also does not have TC. WAV is the official and correct extension for BWave files. Some programs wont recognize files with the un sanctioned BWF extension.

Matthew,

You don't need TC to make the box work, but if your doing a TC show you do need TC. This is not as universal as it once was. A lot of films have gone back to the "dumb slate" method since in a lot of NLE systems it's just as easy to not deal with the TC and all the issues that can arise. HORITA makes a bunch of TC boxes including battery powered ones for jamming. They should be in your price range, but they aren't slates if that is what your looking for.
Scott Koue
 
Hi Scott,

It would be great to do a side-by-side on the two. I never worried much about the noisy pre's on the 670 because I always went line in from a mixer.

I'm taking my new kit out to it's first project this weekend, so I will be able to report back next week on how things went.

I'm running a slate/recorder test right now to see how long they stay in synch. So far it's been a day and a half, and eyeballing it they still look in synch. I'll have to use the digital camera to be sure... (I'm also testing the slate to see how long the batteries last just for fun. I know this isn't real world, since the LED's aren't being used anywhere near as much as they would in real life, but still an interesting test.)

Phil
 
I'm using the Lexar 1GB chips (although I saw today Fry's has PCI chips for $49 on sale this week (no rebate even.) Lexar works for me. There may be better choices, but I haven't tested any others. My guess is that most CF chips at this point are basically good enough.

Also, I forget who was looking, there is a Denecke TS2-SB on eBay right now for $600...looks pretty clean.

Phil
 
FWIW, I have used the Fostex FR2 on many occassions with the time code card but no built in HD. For multi cam shoots, it was invaluable getting time code especially for editing purposes. One event, we had 8 cameras, Sony HVR Z1Us all sync'd. Too much to log.

Very good sound quality from the FR2. Bigger than the Tascam but they are very similar in design and function. I know what you mean about the eject button. I paid 850.00 from location sound in north hollywood.

The tascam for the price produces very good sound as well. 8 AA to make it portable.
I am very pleased with it so far and will use it to record shorts. This is the only time I will use this unit with a Denecke slate. Any other work like ENG or even docs, wont worry about Time code issues.

Did we find out if the HVX generates time code? probably not. I wish the Tascam had a LANC port on it as well. But I chose this over the Marantz 671 easily.

Location Sound accepts the BOE sales tax partial exemption form if use is for tele/film production. You only pay 3% tax rather than 8.25%,
 
marquee said:
FWIW, I have used the Fostex FR2 on many occassions with the time code card but no built in HD. For multi cam shoots, it was invaluable getting time code especially for editing purposes. One event, we had 8 cameras, Sony HVR Z1Us all sync'd. Too much to log.

Very good sound quality from the FR2. Bigger than the Tascam but they are very similar in design and function. I know what you mean about the eject button. I paid 850.00 from location sound in north hollywood.

The tascam for the price produces very good sound as well. 8 AA to make it portable.
I am very pleased with it so far and will use it to record shorts. This is the only time I will use this unit with a Denecke slate. Any other work like ENG or even docs, wont worry about Time code issues.

Did we find out if the HVX generates time code? probably not. I wish the Tascam had a LANC port on it as well. But I chose this over the Marantz 671 easily.

Location Sound accepts the BOE sales tax partial exemption form if use is for tele/film production. You only pay 3% tax rather than 8.25%,
Click to expand...

I chose the 671 over the Tascam because A I never use TC so that wasn't an issue (I'm doing 90% FX recording and all the other shoots have used a dumb slate), B I really did not like the DAP1 and the Tascam unit looked like a modified DAP1 And maybe most importantly the Tascam was not out at the time and I interpreted "soon" as probably six months away (turned out to be about a week and a half).
So the Tascam looks like a good deal and I might have gone that way if it had been available for trial (I had the 671 on a two week evaluation before I bought it).
The FR2 I did have some experience with and I can say that personally I hated it. It was a serious contender till I tried it out.
You can get the lower tax rate at anyplace you buy stuff for video and film- though most don't know about it and you may have to do some explaining to the manager. Leo's in Oakland is the place that told me about the tax break. On big purchases it helps a lot. You pay local tax but not state, so the exact rate varies with the location of the store.

Phil,
How long are you getting on batteries? I got new NiMH 2500's when I got the 671 and can get a bit over six hours record time using a CF Microdrive, probably 1/2 again using a CF memory card.

SK
 
Scott,

I haven't run the Tascam on batteries yet (it takes 8 and I'm not really that interested in burning them to find out.)

On the 670, I had their rechargeable installed, and I usually got about 5 hours or so using that. But again, most of the time I'm running on AC, so I'm probably not the best example of battery life tests. But yes, you will get better battery life if you use standard CF cards rather than microdrives.

Phil
 
Noiz2 said:
I chose the 671 over the Tascam because A I never use TC so that wasn't an issue (I'm doing 90% FX recording and all the other shoots have used a dumb slate), B I really did not like the DAP1 and the Tascam unit looked like a modified DAP1 And maybe most importantly the Tascam was not out at the time and I interpreted "soon" as probably six months away (turned out to be about a week and a half).
So the Tascam looks like a good deal and I might have gone that way if it had been available for trial (I had the 671 on a two week evaluation before I bought it).
The FR2 I did have some experience with and I can say that personally I hated it. It was a serious contender till I tried it out.
You can get the lower tax rate at anyplace you buy stuff for video and film- though most don't know about it and you may have to do some explaining to the manager. Leo's in Oakland is the place that told me about the tax break. On big purchases it helps a lot. You pay local tax but not state, so the exact rate varies with the location of the store.

Phil,
How long are you getting on batteries? I got new NiMH 2500's when I got the 671 and can get a bit over six hours record time using a CF Microdrive, probably 1/2 again using a CF memory card.

SK
Click to expand...


What was it that you hated the FR2? I have used it several times but always for stationary use and never portable. it is a bigger unit, but I got really good audio from it on many occassion. Very easy to use and set up in my opinion
 
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