Bob:

Thanks, but I was looking for something more portable, and possibly powerable by an external battery.

Steve

Firestore said they'd have something 'real soon' at NAB 2005 and yet I still don't see anything.

I'm certain a big part of the problem is they still insist on using FAT32 and with HDV getting a seamless file split would take quite a bit of engineering. Heck they never seemed to get it right with DV.

Just why they insist on sticking with FAT32 escapes me, their excuse was it's the only format that Macs and PCs can read, to which I say BS!

Macs and PCs have been able to open one anothers drive partitions for several years now, to which they say "Well yeah OK, but what about those sorry souls with really old Macs?". To which Bob says, "Well Macs that old would be pushing it uphill trying to edit HDV anyway".

At that point I started to understand why our FS-1 is still an expensive paperweight.

Bob.

I just read about such a device, although maybe it was only 720p. It was in DV Magazine or Studio Monthly. Sorry I can't remember more.

I think Firestore have a unit targetting the JVC HD100 mob and it's only 720p. Which might say something, as 720p HDV is a lower datarate than DV or HDV.

What about this?

It also has the advange of viewing DVDs, running spreadsheets, getting email, playing games, writing documents, etc.

Using a laptop is certainly an option. With Vegas as the importing key, I can and have tried it. It works quite well! But again, the biggest problem is in the quantity of equipment needed to do the work.

I just did a 14 hour session in Gettysburg where I filmed out on the field for several hours. Tape was certainly the way to do it... however when having to then DUMP 14 hours to get a NON-LINEAR workable timeline it was just frustrating to think that there may be a way to record direct to HD and have already in place the NON-LINEAR workable timeline.

I would just love to be able to SLAP on the side of my SONY CAM a HD that via firewire would just record.

Perhaps I am dreaming of possibilities that have yet to be uncovered.

Thanks to all who have replied... I really do appreciate it!
Steve

There was a product announced at NAB this year that is supposed to let one record to an IPOD or 2.5" hard drive. I can't remember what it was called, but the price point was rather reasonable. $300 or so.

Here it is...

http://www.bella-usa.com/Catapult.htm

Or this:
http://www.shining.com/

Be VERY cautious about the Shining Technologies tools. They are so gunshy about them, they won't send out review units. I've met several people that have bought/returned. I'm one of them.

The Capapult looks interesting in that it is an interface between the DV/HDV camcorder and an external USB 2.5" hard drive. I've been wanting a device just like this for a long time.

In the case of a 14 hour shoot using any of the other available devices with built-in drives, you would, at some point during the shoot, have to dump the drive to a laptop. With the Catapult and a couple of external 2.5" drives, you could record all 14 hours (and much more.) 2.5" hard drives are up to 160gig now which would get you about 12 hours on a single drive.

The other factor is battery power and it looks like the Catapult has a built-in rechargable battery pack capable of "in excess of 3 hours." I assume that this is powering the Catapult and an external drive. If the battery pack is replaceable in the field, you could just buy some extra packs, if not, it does say that it can be powered by an AC adapter, so you could probably make up an external battery pack using something like a 6-volt sealed Lead-Acid battery and power it for a LONG time.

I'm really excited about the Catapult, I hope it's everything they claim it is.

John