[Len Feldman]

Although CompactFlash is faster and physically smaller than hard disc, the cost per gigabyte of flash memory is an enormous impediment, especially for non-HDV HD applications. That’s why Panasonic partnered with Focus for their hard disc drive. I applaud Grass Valley for using conventional CompactFlash rather than Panasonic’s proprietary P2 cards, but it’s no substitute for hard disc when recording HD.

[Len Feldman]

The big problem that I have with Infinity is the use of the Iomega REV drives. They aren’t close to being “industry standards”: So far as I know, the only company that makes and sells the drives and media is Iomega, which has already been in and out of bankruptcy. There isn’t really an industry-wide removable hard disc standard format, but Infinity should (and, for all I know, may) have a standard PC Card slot and open interface spec, so that any portable hard disc vendor can build compatible products.

[Len Feldman]

For what it’s worth, after installing Tiger yesterday, on system startup the Blackmagic Daemon goes into a crash/relaunch/crash loop. There appear to be two instances of the daemon running, one that’s stable and the other that keeps crashing and relaunching. The fix is to kill the stable instantiation, while stops the other daemon from relaunching, and then to remove the daemon from the Startup folder.

Best wishes,
Len Feldman
Riverbend Entertainment