OT Hard Disk DV Recorders

snicholshms wrote on 3/25/2006, 10:17 PM

Anyone have any experience with the Datavideo DV-Bank 120 GB or the Focus Enhancements FireStore FS-4 - 40GB portable firewire recorder?

I'm doing more events that want playback at the end of the event. Events are in remote locales (No A/C power) and I've got to playback on a laptop with a 4pin firewire connection then through a projector..

Comments

snicholshms wrote on 3/26/2006, 4:07 PM

HELP!

craftech wrote on 3/27/2006, 5:06 AM

Is the point of this to have random access to the video files?

Otherwise you can FireWire-connect small Mini-DV cameras to the main camera to use them as back-up decks.
They can record over two hours on 83-minute tapes in LP-mode if needed. The LCD panels would act as off-camera viewfinders. Plus they take relatively inexpensive rechargeable batteries.

John

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/27/2006, 5:26 AM

Well if you already have a laptop, why not just get Serious Magic DV Rack and capture directly to the laptop. This is how I do a lot of my recordings and it works great. You can even playback right from DV Rack fullscreen using a projector. I do this all the time in the Video Workshop that I teach. In fact, I project live while I’m recording so the students can all see what I’m seeing.

~jr

Chienworks wrote on 3/27/2006, 5:39 AM

Even SONY's own VidCap can be used on a laptop to record and play back. If you've got Vegas then you already have VidCap for free.

Spot|DSE wrote on 3/27/2006, 6:09 AM

I've got experience with the Citidisk and Focus Enhancements. I'm probably a little biased, but if I had to buy one or the other, I'd buy neither. Citidisk is a prettidisk that doesn't work most of the time. All you have to do is read many of the communities and you'll see complaints. The Focus is a nice box, worked 100% of the time I had it here for review, no problems whatsoever. But it's also at least 40% more expensive than it should be, IMO.
Nnovia's beta units seem to be working good, and we haven't seen any other disk recorders come thru here.

Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/27/2006, 7:55 AM

What type of shooting are you doing? Is it "run-n-gun" type or is your camera locked down in one position?

If you are locked down - then recording direct to a laptop would be a great solution. I've done that lots - just using the inbuilt Vegas Vidcap.

If you need to be more "mobile" then one of those portable DV hard drives is what you want to go for. However - buyer beware - I also have one of those ADS/Citidisk DV recorders... but it sits gathering dust in a drawer as it was just too unreliable.

Steve Mann wrote on 3/27/2006, 10:14 PM

I have recorded two cameras at the same time on my laptop using Scenalyzer.

Neat...

Steve Mann

richard-courtney wrote on 3/28/2006, 10:43 AM

I like my old Laird DV3 which I guess is made by Nnovia.
The DV3 has a small display that is hard to read for me but
you could use it for your loop.

Did you say your projector has firewire in or your laptop then using
the video out (such as S-Video) from your laptop?

snicholshms wrote on 3/28/2006, 1:15 PM

Thanks for all the info! We are located in Long Beach, CA and get requests to video events on large boats...fishing derbies, parties, weddings even. Gotta be free of wires and have to use our PD-150 with a rain cape! So we're looking for a small footprint solution to capture on board boat; go ashore and use the "brick" HDD with a laptop to throw on Vegas timeline, rough cut edit and add titles. Then play from laptop thru projector via s-video at a yacht club or private home. DVDs are produced later for guests.
Sounds like Focus Enhancement is the way to go (little pricey) but will it work with it's battery to input into a laptop via 4 pin port? Or does it require a 6 pin port?
Thanks all!