AC160 Recording to Hard Drive on AC-160?

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bmcc87

Member
I am currently purchasing a camera and am strongly considering the AC-160 at this point, as it seems like the best camera available in its price range. I do have one more question though that I would like answered. I currently do a lot of work with a client who shoots many all-day, live events.

Due to the length of the shows he records, and to the fact they are live, he often records simultaneously to SD Cards and to a harddrive. He uses the NX5U, so the hard drive (actually I believe its flash memory) can mount directly on the camera. Since events run all day, sometimes we will even leave the camera rolling continuously on the hard drive (just in case), but start and stop the record on the SD cards.

I know that the AC-160 does not have a spot to mount a hard drive on the camcorder in the same way that the NX does, but I did have a few questions.

1. Is it possible to record to a hard disk somehow via the USB or firewire port?
2. If so, is it possible to simultaneously record to a hard drive and an SD card?
3. If yes to the above, is it possible to achieve something like my friend does, where you record onto the hard drive continuously but start and stop on the SD cards, or vis-a-versa?

I would prefer the 160 to the NX5U, but I am interested in this since, at this point, a lot of my business comes from live events, and particularly this client. Thanks in advance for any advice or answers you can provide!
 
I know nothing about NX5U - with that said--
Firewire is strictly for Standard Defintion footage. I use the Maxell iVDR VC102 with either a 250 or 500GB HDD. I'll let you google that. But similar devices can be used.
and yes I use it for simultaneous recording. You might have to adjust settings so the camera record button won't trigger the secondary unit if you do not wish to sync the two up. ie run secondary device 100% of the time vs camera is recording at select times.
USB port - I have never used but I suspect is only for transferring files to computer of video files on SDHC card in camera. (I think the USB port is useless on the camera and I am not sure why it is there)
For recording to Hard Drive when shooting in HD - you must use the HD-SDI output or HDMI output. Many devices exist for this. I personally use the NanoFlash for my recording-- but that is CF card recording not HDD. I think other people, on this board, mentioned using Ninja.

any device you do use should mount to the shoe mount.

I think people could give you a better answer if we knew which format you're shooting in SD or HD???
 
There is no provision for direct hard disk recording. You could use an external recorder like the Samurai to give you that capability.

Keep in mind that the ac160 has dual sdxc card slots. Load up two 64gb sdxc cards and you will have six hours of continuous recording in the highest quality mode, or, if you don't mind using a lower quality recording format you can get 8 to 12 continuous hours.

Lexar (and maybe others) now offers a 128gb sdxc card. Two of those would give you 12 hours of best quality recording time.
 
ELN614 said:
I think people could give you a better answer if we knew which format you're shooting in SD or HD???
Click to expand...

Thanks guys for taking the time to read this and reply. I should have mentioned this. It depends on the shoot as we do both. In most cases where this issue comes into play though, we are recording SD. If we are recording SD, I'm guessing I can use any old firewire recorder, but if we have to record in HD, I will need to buy a hard drive with a HD-SDI input. Is that correct?

Here is one more issue I may have, regarding shooting SD. The NX5U records SD in MPEG2, while the AC-160 (as far as I can tell) records .avi. This isn't a big problem for editing but there are some instances where we have to be able to load a file into encore and burn a DVD quickly. In this instance, the MPEG2 format is handy because it doesn't have to encode before burning to DVD, which saves time.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question...but is there a way of getting SD footage on the 160 to record in MPEG2, rather than AVI? Maybe a setting in the camera, or a way to do it via a recorder?

Hope this makes sense. I realize the answer maybe that the two cameras don't work well together for what we do, but was curious to see what you guys know!
 
You could use any DV recorder when recording in SD, yes. For HD recording, you'd need either an HD-SDI or HDMI recorder (and I always advise that if you have the choice, go for SDI).

And no, the SD on the AC160 is only DV mode, not MPEG2. If you were to use an external recorder like a NanoFlash you could record MPEG2 standard-def, but ... other than that, no.
 
Firewire is not strictly for Standard Definition footage, it includes HDV which is HD and those camcorders use firewire. My nNovia recorders use firewire and can record in HDV as .m2t files from HDV camcorders.

HDV-sourced video can be delivered on a Blu-ray Disc or a 20-minute DVD without re-encoding, can be converted to AVCHD and delivered on an AVCHD disc, or can be downconverted to DVD-Video.

Randy
 
Yes, HDV exists, but none of that applies to the particular camera being discussed here. The AC160 cannot produce HDV footage, its firewire port only transports DV, and therefore you cannot record HD through its firewire port. If you want to record HD footage from an AC160, you would have to use an SDI or HDMI recorder.
 
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