[Richard Davis]

Hello Eric,
Eyetv3 looks like it might be a good option. I’m reading up on it.

Advantages as I understand them now – add hard drives as I like, versatile search options and even TV Guide data.

Disadvantages as I understand them now – Generally, I don’t like having even more wires running to my computer – in general I kind of like the idea of bringing the data and plugging it in to my computer, rather than something I’m using my computer all day long to do…

Thanks,
Dick, Jane and Spot

[Richard Davis]

Noah,
A quick search and i did turn up these DV recorders you mentioned. Sorry for being such a dunce. I’ll have to study these and maybe I’ll determine they are what I am looking for.

Thanks,
Dick, Jane and Spot

[Richard Davis]

Noah,
Maybe I’m just unfamiliar with a DVR device like you’re talking about. I will try to look them up. You know any name brands that would be good to start with?

Dick, Jane and Spot

[Richard Davis]

Noah,
‘Scuse me, I misread your reply.

Well, I use a Scientific Atlanta DVR now and it would be fine except that even though I added the only hard drive I know that is compatible with it, I’m always filling the capacity up. It is a constant job for me to move all the data over to cassette tapes so I can erase the drives and record something else. Keep in mind I want to keep the news for several months so I can compare what happened in subsequent events to what was predicted to happen – that more than a TIVO or Scientific Atlanta can handle.

The more I think about storing all that data the more it seems to me either DVD R or tape are my only options. Maybe DVD formats won’t be so slow to work with as I think – I haven’t tried DVD yet, I’m just trying to guess how easy or how difficult it will be to work with. Can anyone tell me a software DVD player that is more like Final Cut in terms of navigating large quantities of data?

Or anyone know a TIVO like device that you can keep ADDING hard drives to? I don’t think this is actually available because Scientific Atlanta and TIVO use hard drive add ons as some kind of array devices that no longer stand alone.

Dick, Jane and Spot

[Richard Davis]

Noah,
By the way, an advantage of using the DVD itself is I wouldn’t be filling up hard drives all the time and I wouldn’t even have to drag the files over, much less translate file fomats. So if there is a real flexible, fast and easy, DVD reader, especially if it is not very expensive, it would be worth looking into it. Right now I use IDVD to look at DVDs and it seems very cumbersome, slow and inefficient for these purposes.

Thanks,
Dick, Jane and Spot

[Richard Davis]

Hi Noah,
You asked why I wouldn’t just use the DVD. Well, I want to be able to navigate much faster than I think I could do it using a DVD reader. I’m thinking I want the files to be available to software that I can use to scrub back and forth on the video like can be done in FCP (which I already own, by the way, so its not something I have to go out and buy).

Say, I have 10 hours of video. That is a lot of video, even if you are fast forwarding in a dvd player. In my mind I may have an idea what I’m looking for is about two-thirds of the way through – I can zip to that beginning spot, then slowly rock back and forth until I see something I recognize. Or I might be looking for stats that were talked about that day, like govt unemployment data. I could just rip through at fast forward till I see a graph, then slow immediately down when I spot what I think I’m looking for and roll back a little.

I want everything to be as efficient as possible but I don’t want to have to do a lot of processing of data before I can even watch it (like translating file formats, etc.). For a similar reason, I’m thinking about switching video that I’m shooting at conferences etc, Going to MP4, rather than miniDV. I don’t want to have to upload and translate DVD ust like I don’t want to have to upload tape in real time. I’m looking for something to buy in a DVD recorder that would be the closest thing to saving in MP4s.

There might be better ways of doing it that I don’t know of. Let me know if you think there is. For example, there might be some inexpensive DVD player software that offers this kind of functionality on my computer that I don’t know about.

Thanks
Dick, Jane and Spot