HVX200 and ipod

johnc said:
If the HVX200 will not transfer video data by USB2.0 then what is the purpose of having a USB2.0 port on the camera? Per the Panasonic website spec it has USB2.0

johnc
Click to expand...
The USB2 port is for connecting the camera to a Windows PC, and having the camera show up as an external hard drive on the PC's desktop.

The Mac can do that through the firewire port; the PC uses the USB port to do that.

The firewire port can also be used for live data streaming, and for controlling an external hard disk. The USB port can't be used to do either of those things.
 
stokestack said:
Add to all this the fact that Apple, the inventor of Firewire, has REMOVED it from their best-selling product and switched entirely over to an interface that was designed for keyboards, mice, and modems.

Basically, it's not going to happen.
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The reason Apple removed firewire was to reduce the space needed to implement the connectivity inside the ipod, and to reduce costs. They actually saved signifigant space by dumping the FW chipset in favor of USB2. I think that realistically, USB2.0 is really more appropriate for a device like the iPod. There is really no benefit to having Firewire on a device like an iPod, when USB2.0 is available. That being said, I still feel kind of bummed about it.
 
Actually, I think USB2 transfers at max 480 Mbps (megaBITS per second), while "regular" firewire (IEEE 1394a) has 400 Mbps speed. but firewire 1394b, the latest firewire spec, transfers at 800 mbps speed and is advantageous for cameras such as the ones mentioned here. This is the 9-pin firewire cable. Firewire has other advantages, such as longer cable length without attenuation of signal. Plus, firewire has the DV signaling standard/pinouts in place for camera devices, etc., communicating in a peer-to-peer relationship. so, why not ipod with 1394b connection?

Anyway, didn't mean to turn this thread into an ipod discussion...(;>}
 
USB2 has a theoretical maximum of 480Mbps, but CPU overheads are heavy and the best transfer rate you'd really see is somewhere between 320 and 360Mbps.

Firewire overheads are lighter and have less impact on the data rate, and a head to head between Firewire400 and USB2 would be pretty close.

Of course it's achademic because there's no way the HD in an iPod could come anywhere near that speed!
 
thanks guys,

I never tought that the IPOD could record the info in real time, i just tought it could be used as a temporary storage for the day, and then transfered to a "permanent" archive hard drive.

So i understand it is impossible.
...would have been great low cost and lightweight solution...
 
Antoine_Fabi said:
thanks guys,

I never tought that the IPOD could record the info in real time, i just tought it could be used as a temporary storage for the day, and then transfered to a "permanent" archive hard drive.

So i understand it is impossible.
...would have been great low cost and lightweight solution...
Click to expand...

But it's only impossible with the USB2 models of the iPod. The older Firewire iPods will do exactly what you describe, except very slowly. Certainly not ideal, but not impossible.
 
good point, but acceptable speed is also important to me.

Can we use Firestore just to transfer the data from the P2 cards "after" shooting ?
(just to keep the camcorder as light as possible)
 
I think you can connect a little external firewire notebook drive (like one of the new 7200rpm 2.5in drives) to offload from the P2 cards.

You'll need something with it's own battery, thought, as there is no bus power from the camera (not surprisingly).
 
Alex Leith said:
I think you can connect a little external firewire notebook drive (like one of the new 7200rpm 2.5in drives) to offload from the P2 cards.

You'll need something with it's own battery, thought, as there is no bus power from the camera (not surprisingly).
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You can definitely connect any off-the-shelf firewire hard disk to the HVX and offload the footage from P2 cards directly to the drive, without the use of a laptop, or the need for a Firestore.

For a battery powered drive, here's one enclosure that should work:

http://www.dvvideo.com/shop/storage/...rePortable.htm
 
jrv3034 said:
You can definitely connect any off-the-shelf firewire hard disk to the HVX and offload the footage from P2 cards directly to the drive, without the use of a laptop, or the need for a Firestore.
Click to expand...

No, you can't. To offload footage you need an interface device, Either some sort of computer or the Panasonic P2 Store. A HHD just attached to the camera will not work by itself.

If you don't want/can't use a laptop in the field then this is what they developed the P2 Store for. Panasonic does need to make one that will hold more then an hour of HD footage or maybe allow the user to easily swap out the HDD.

Cheers
 
No, jrv3034's right. The camera itself is an interface device for controlling an external hard disk. It can directly control a 1394 drive through SBP2 protocol.

You cannot record directly to the drive, that's what requires an interface device such as a firestore or laptop.

But you can record to the P2 card, and then use a firewire drive connected directly to the camera to offload the P2 card data onto the firewire drive. No other device is necessary in order to execute that process.
 
Really? I have been told the opposite. I will certainly trust your word Barry. Short of Jan, you are the definitive word on the HVX. :)

Opps
 
Right.
1) you record to a P2 card and a) put the P2 Card into a laptop & download or b) plug the camera into a computer and Download (it is fast if the HD is)
2) You could use a P2 Store if time is a huge factor and you have multiple P2 cards
3) a Firestore When They come out

but alas...

4) I am tempted to just capture to my 17" powerbook via Firewire
I can put a 100G 7200 HD in there and even strap it on my back (without closing it).
Certainly it is the cheapest option and it's in my machine. Then I can back it up on an external HD and carry that to a G5 at work to do the Heavy work...
Seems like a Pretty Awsome workflow though I will probably buy an 8G P2 or two as well to free myself up when more money rolls in
 
Couldn't you use one of the newer iPods to store footage off the P2 cards if you had an adaptor for USB 2 to firewire?
 
Or just put a 7200rpm segate drive in a battery powered firewire enclosure. A perfect 100GB dump for your days shooting.
 
wabbit said:
Really? I have been told the opposite. I will certainly trust your word Barry. Short of Jan, you are the definitive word on the HVX. :)
Click to expand...
Well, all my info comes from Jan, so... ;)

We clarified this quite at length during an interview with her for the HVX articles. Unquestionably, undoubtedly, no doubt about it -- you can plug a firewire drive into the HVX and the camera itself can copy the contents of its P2 cards over to the external firewire drive.

You cannot stream to that drive, but you can use any 1394-compliant external hard disk and copy the card data onto the drive. You can't copy from the drive to the cards, but you can copy from the cards to the drive, and you don't need any additional hardware -- the camera can handle it by itself.
 
Yeah, that feature would come in handy. Do they publish this somewhere? I have read through everybit of material from Panasonic I can find on the HVX. Never read that workflow anywhere. They should really brag about that more...well at the very least mention it somewhere prominently.

Best
 
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