FireStore DTE Solutuon for HVX200

[Brian Deviteri]

(sorry for all the typos in this one, it’s been a really long day and I wanted to share this news with everyone as quick as I could…)

[Emery]

Brian I whole heartedly agree. All we need is a simple interface to a hard drive. $2,000 for a hard drive is ridiculous.

[Lars Wikstrom]

They are more then likely going to charge that because they are the only kids on the block that will have that. I was hoping it was going to be around $1000 since their SD drives are $700 I think. Expect everything to be expensive at the start. Currently a 8.5 gig DL DVD is around $3.50 Prices will drop over time and the more competition they get. I liked the idea Panasonic said at a show, you could record to your iPod. That would be nice but I don

[Barry Green]

The current FS-4 Pro costs something like $1700 for the 80gb version. And then you have to spend another $299 to get it to be compatible with HDV.

So, presuming the new product is similar to the FS-4 Pro, them saying “under $2,000” would place it directly comparable to their existing product.

I really hope it isn’t an FS-4 style device — I really, really, really think it’d be more useful if it had user-swappable hard disks. But, we know nothing about it yet. All Focus has really done here is confirm that they will be developing a product for the HVX; I don’t think they’ve committed to any form factor or anything else yet.

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[Brian Deviteri]

The press release is now available on the Cow:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=105&postid=854930

Does anyone remember what the FS-1 was like when it first came out? Basically it was a small(er) box that you could plug “any” firewire hard drive into (as long as it was FAT32, under 120gb, and the firmware was rolled back on the drive) so you could record to your own drives. This has kinda been replaced by the deck-like FS-2 unit, which is not exactly portable unless you travel with rack units. But they did make just an interface unit at one time… and that’s all we need, and for me, that’s all I want – a tiny interface that can let my hard drive act as a really big P2 card.

I remember Jan saying that the reason we can’t just plug any old hard drive into this thing is because the camera cannot execute the “record” command through the firewire cable that is connecting the drive to the camera… sounds like a fairly easy engineering fix to me since the camera is already built on an operating system technology (Linux based I believe), but since Focus is a “partner” on this one, I think that’s why this functionality has been locked out. (Kinda reminicient of the Sony “InfoLithium Battery Only” problems…) It’s a real shame they did this.

Does anyone know about the possibility of using the USB 2.0 port on the camera to record to an external USB 2.0 hard drive? I doubt it and I’d rather use firewire, but if that’ll work, then it’s better than shelling out $2000… for that price I’d be better off buying a really small traveler lite laptop and record either to the laptop’s internal hard drive or to a drive connected to the laptop via firewire or USB 2.0.

Anyone hear anything on the possibility of using a “DVCPRO HD Rack” similar to the DV Rack software with this camera? That would have to be cheaper than the Focus solution as well.

[Donatello]

if it was only as simple as most think but it is not as simple as putting a drive in a 1394 case …

i do believe that DV rack is working on a sloution to use their software … so that will solve some shooting situations but not all.

just can’t please everybody .. P2 4gig card = $1700 and complaints about the cost & recording time … now we get80gig drive for $2000 and still complaints … perhaps those that have the tech ability should make their own portable external drive system ..like those that made a device like the mini35 for $1200. i see they are getting complaints about that price vs the mini35 at $6K+ … but then there are complaints on higher end DV tape that cost $6 vs. the $3 for the less expensive …

maybe what we have here is a McDonalds crowd ( hand size DV camera $$ 2000-3500) and now somebody is offerring a better burger for more $$ ( 2x-3x $$ ) …

[Nick B]

Our production company has just orded close to $1000 worth of DV tapes for 1 small project, so $2000 for a drive for us to go tapeless is good value and in basic terms it would make us $1k on the 3rd job.

These products are not aimed at the hobby market, if you realy cannot afford $2k for storage you are in the wrong business or not charging clients enough.

[Ed Dooley]

I’d hate to see what your tape ratio is for a *big* project! 🙂
First, I’m very excited about the camera, I just don’t know if I can afford all the extras needed for what will be a 2nd camera for me. It’s a bit too early to tell what the FireStore unit will actually be, but they *do* have products similar to their announcement, so I think we can assume the new product will be somewhat like them.
I shoot long-form documentaries, in the field a lot. The added costs to the tapeless solution are: extra batteries (the FS-4 batteries supposedly have a 90 minute charge, one’s not enough), at HD resolution, a way to dump footage periodically (and a place in the field, or nearby, to dump it to) unless I buy 2 or moreunits (now we’re up to $4,000+), some way to archive the footage (I use footage across multiple projects all the time, so without tape I need to spend the time and money for more drives to archive footage). If I go with Panasonic’s solution for P2 cards, I still need to spend a lot: Assuming that P2 cards come down in price somewhat, I still need to buy a couple (or more), *and* I need the expensive Panasonic hard drive solution to dump footage to.
I, for one, am hoping for a home-made solution that will enable us to have swappable drives in an enclosure that won’t break the bank.
Ed

[Nick B] “Our production company has just orded close to $1000 worth of DV tapes for 1 small project, so $2000 for a drive for us to go tapeless is good value and in basic terms it would make us $1k on the 3rd job.

These products are not aimed at the hobby market, if you realy cannot afford $2k for storage you are in the wrong business or not charging clients enough.”

[Barry Green] “The current FS-4 Pro costs something like $1700 for the 80gb version. And then you have to spend another $299 to get it to be compatible with HDV.

So, presuming the new product is similar to the FS-4 Pro, them saying “under $2,000” would place it directly comparable to their existing product.

I really hope it isn’t an FS-4 style device — I really, really, really think it’d be more useful if it had user-swappable hard disks. But, we know nothing about it yet. All Focus has really done here is confirm that they will be developing a product for the HVX; I don’t think they’ve committed to any form factor or anything else yet.
“

[Lars Wikstrom]

You are right about the firestore, I was thinking about this company.

https://store.mcetech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=MTOS&Category_Code=DV

Firestore wants $1700 and this company wants $1000 for the same recording times. but you can find them as low $600 (small drive). I will have to disagree with the comment made about the hobby market ver. Pro’s or charging clients enough money. No matter what you buy everything has a fair price and it seems most people feel $1700 is to much for what it is. The example above shows that 1 company is 70% (give or take) cheaper for the same size as the firestore that does the same task. People more then likely would not spend $40 on 1 movie ticket for the same reason, they feel it is to expensive. People have an idea of what things should cost. a 2.5 80 gig laptop drive costs $110 (macsale.com) and that is more then likly the same 80 gig drive inside of the $1700 firstore.

-Lars

[Nick B]

doka15

But doka15 the firestore has to handle DVCPRO 100 High def without dropping frames those drives you show are not upto the demands of High def.

re ‘hobby’ compared to ‘business’ yes hobby it is too expensive but for a hobby you dont need it you have to work with what you can afford, if it is a full time business then $25000 say would buy you a good HD shooting and editing kit that is no more expensive of an investment compared to any other small business in another area of work so instead of worrying about the price of diskdrives concentrate on the business of making more money in video production.

Why not rent a camera and charge the rent to the client that way you get to use the camera at no cost to you and build up your business that way.