firestore and xlr adaptor on DVC30

I'm about to purchase a DVC30 and I'd like to be able to attach two items: Focus Firewire HD and the XLR adaptor (and mic).

I know nothing! Does the DVC30 come with a handle and shoe (or are these the same thing)? Do I need an extender for the shoe if I want both on at the same time? Is there a difference between a hot and cold shoe?

Can one go on bottom and one on top?

thanks!!!

If you purchase the Panasonic XLR adapter, which I recommend, it is mounted under the provided handle and you still have a 'hot shoe' on top to attach anything else.

On my 30 set up I of course mount the XLR adapter where it goes on the bottom and my wireless mic received on the top, works great!!

Please post on your opinion and use of the Firestore, I have been thinnking about it for myself but I have a hard time with the $699 price for the FS4.

Jeff

If you purchase the Panasonic XLR adapter, which I recommend, it is mounted under the provided handle and you still have a 'hot shoe' on top to attach anything else.
On my 30 set up I of course mount the XLR adapter where it goes on the bottom and my wireless mic received on the top, works great!!
Please post on your opinion and use of the Firestore, I have been thinking about it for myself but I have a hard time with the $699 price for the FS4.
Jeff

I have the FS4-HD which I've been using with my DVC30. It's a simple device to use but gets some getting used to. I clip mine around a neck lanyard as to take the weight off the camera. Later, when my Steady Stick comes in, I'll have it mounted on that.

At first glance, you would have the impression that you simply hook the FS to your PC via FireWire and edit off of that like you would your video files of your PC's HDD after transfering it from tape to HDD. Well yes, but not quite the same.

The FS stores the video files in 2 Gig parts (FAT16 I think?) so I found the easiest thing to do was to transfer those files via firewire to the PC's HDD (10,000 rpm Raptors) and go from there. I tried editing from the FS a couple of times but found the previews too choppy to be workable. I didn't persue that method any further but I'm sure I should have been able to have it much better if I changed a setting or something. I had personally hoped that the FS would have been like a portable HDD device that I would hook up to the PC and do a straight up edit job just as if the device was the PCs HDD but it's not quite just that.

Setting up the device is very simple, plug everything into the right ports on the FS to DVC, set record pause on camera, press SYNC on the FS and when you start to record with the DVC, the FS captures it at the same time.. it's controlled by the camera's record signal. You still have to have tape in the camera, but the whole concept of the thing is that you can then pull the tape out, rewind it (external tape rewinder) and put it away for archives while doing all your editing from the FS.

Does it save time? Well when you think about the whole process, yes.

Old method: Take tape out of DVC and rewind it, put it back in DVC and transfer video to PC. 60 mins of video = 60 mins of transfer time. Then take tape out, rewind it, archive it (put it away in safe place). For me, it's that transfer time that slays me.. I have a dedicated PC for editing while I work on another PC for web and photos etc. (I have not tried the FS on the video machine yet, I just got it back from upgrades)

NEW method: Take tape out, rewind it and store it.. Hook FS to PC, transfer all files to PC's HDD. 60 mins of video files (I think) took about 25 mins. As these files are sequentially named, it's not hard to import to bin and line them up on the line. I have NOT noticed any frame drops between clips (2 Gig segments)

So to be honest, there's not much time savings in the work flow. And your work flow process changes a bit.

However I still use it for the one important factor.. redundancy! I've had it happen to me too often that the special video footage, the once in a lifetime never to be repeated footage got pooched by a 'glitch' on the tape that makes ya wanna gnash your teeth and say bad things. At least with the FS, no probs! it records faithfully.

I don't regret the purchase, but it just didn't quite live up to my full expectations on ease of function and useability. It works, it does what they say it does, but not quite the way I had envisioned it. I wanted to pull it off the camera, hook it up to the PC and edit away as if it were like the PC's HDD.. one video file in one big file.. not broken up into 2 Gig parts..

Keep in mind please that I have not yet worked with the FS on my regular video editing PC. That will come within the week. Once I've done played it to death I'll be able to let you know how the whole process fairs.

Seaking - Have you tried the FS w/o a tape in the DVC30, or it is definitely required? Also, when the tape is full - will the FS continue to record, or does the DVC30 think it can't record anymore and stop?

thanks for the input to both of you...

Seaking - Have you tried the FS w/o a tape in the DVC30, or it is definitely required? Also, when the tape is full - will the FS continue to record, or does the DVC30 think it can't record anymore and stop?


I haven't figured out how to get it to record without a tape in the device. There might be a way but I haven't found out how yet.

And when the tape is finally FULL, the camera stops recording, thus signalling the FS in SYNC Mode to stop recording. That's what SYNC does, it synchornizes it's functions between the two devices.

I would still put a tape in the camera anyway, even it's the same tape over and over again if you're shooting disposable video (stuff you don't care if it gets pooched). But for me, what I video costs money so I have to make sure I don't loose any footage. I already lost an hour of work when I got home after the shoot and discovered that the VideoMic hadn't been turned on and I had no audio. (only has to happen once and you'll never forget again ; )

I hope to get back to playing with the system again in the next few days. I'd been off my feet with the flu for the past 2 weeks and now looking for something to do.. soon! I'll let you know.

Great, please let us know if any new experiences with the FS - one of the reasons I want one is to record several hours continuously - so I'll definitely contact them and see if this is possible (it may vary by camera)...

Dear seeking

does the device give you a new file everytime you stop recordiing. alike the detect scenes on import. the reason why i ask is when i import from tape to pc using this method i usually get an error message saying cannot capture the rest of the scenes because of dropped frames. (not sure why i always get droped frames, i always treat everything with the upmost care and i am yet to record over a tape). so now i have to import the whole tape as one file which is a hassle to then divide into scenes manually.One i want to eliminate. bad news about the flu,....2 weeks! ouch

Dear Seaking

does the device give you a new file everytime you stop recordiing. alike the detect scenes on import. the reason why i ask is when i import from tape to pc using this method i usually get an error message saying cannot capture the rest of the scenes because of dropped frames. (not sure why i always get droped frames, i always treat everything with the upmost care and i am yet to record over a tape). so now i have to import the whole tape as one file which is a hassle to then divide into scenes manually.One i want to eliminate. bad news about the flu,....2 weeks! ouch

Hi Marquee.. The FS records a new file everytime. If you pause, it's the same file but appended.. if you stop recording, it starts a new file when you start recording again (2 GIG file sizes).

So for simplicity sake, I think 2Gig files equate to 10 to 15 minutes of video (uncompressed AVI). If you taped 40 minutes for example, you would end up with 4 files, 2 gig in size, sequentially named/numbered which you would then import into your NLE, just like you would after you've transfered the video to PC from tape.

Say you're conitnuously recording for 3 hours and all you want to grab is the video between the 1.5 hour and 2.2 hour time frame, you'd have to know which of the files this video is contained in. It could be within 3 files. When you import these 3 files into your NLE bin or work space, you then append them to each other in sequence and edit from there. All of this should be able to be accomplished directly from the FS but I still hadn't had the chance to get to this yet. I have a video shoot this coming wednesday evening and should be able to play with the set up more by this weekend.

If you suffer dropped frames on import, do you mean when you capture video from tape to HDD? The way I am reading what you're doing is that you're advancing the tape to say the 20 minute mark to grab the next 10 minute of tape? Since a tape is only 60 mins long, it only takes that long to import the whole tape, I wouldn't consider that much of a nuissance to avoid dropped frames.

The ONE thing I realized just the other day about this direct editing from the FS is probably how I was previewing the video.. I haven't got the prog in front of me right now (at work shhhh).. but when you have your video in Premier 6.5 for example, you right mouse click on the bar above the video to preview. The viewing quality is less than if you were to press the play button on the video box above but going that route you don't see the wipes, fades and effects, just the video from source. (does this make sense?). Next time I have the system hooked up I have to give this a try, it might make a whole world of difference..

Again, my apologies for the delays in getting to more work on this device.. I should have some more news after this weekend.

thanks for your reply.

regarding premiere i usually keep my footage on a usb external hd. and the playback in the source monitor is fine. when i edit stuff in the timeline and add effects audio etc this effects the playback in the project monitor. even when i set playback to draft. i am not sure about the difference in the speed of usb or dv devices i seem to recall reading somewhere that dv is a better connection. does it need external power.

on the drop frames issue i dont know whats going on. i just rewind the tape to the beginning and cature if i press scene detect it stops from time to time because of dropped frames. i use that super dvc tape. only record once.

i love the idea though of just editing direct from the fs. why do we need tapes

regarding premiere i usually keep my footage on a usb external hd. and the playback in the source monitor is fine. when i edit stuff in the timeline and add effects audio etc this effects the playback in the project monitor. even when i set playback to draft. i am not sure about the difference in the speed of usb or dv devices i seem to recall reading somewhere that dv is a better connection. does it need external power.

Well the USB hub, assuming you're using USB2 is only about 440kbs speed while your IDE or SATA HDD connection is tons faster and wider pathway. The dictum has always been to make access to the information as least resistant as possible by going to the fastest connection, faster hard drive etc.. In my case, I capture to a singlle purpose 10,000 rpm HDD on an SATA connection, I only use this drive for video work.. Once everything is done, I delete the drive and optomize it once in a while. While the PC it's in is mostly used for video work, it can do all these little chores while I'm busy woring on the other PC, so I don't suffer any downtime waiting for processes to happen. So the only slow down is through the firewire connection.. but since there is no bottle-neck to the hard drive, the data gets passed through quickly and without stoppage. In your case, you're making the video data travel through your firewire port, through the system, and out to the USB hard drive. I know it's nit picking but have you tried to do all this to an onboard HDD?

on the drop frames issue i dont know whats going on. i just rewind the tape to the beginning and cature if i press scene detect it stops from time to time because of dropped frames. i use that super dvc tape. only record once.

I'm guessing the USB might be your trouble child there..

i love the idea though of just editing direct from the fs. why do we need tapes

Well in MY case, I do need my tapes for archive purposes. I shoot anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes per tape, capture it to the PC and put the tape away. After editing and all that fun stuff, I export it to tape again with all the titling and cuts/edits and store THAT tape as archive also. I've got about 80 titles done this way and have had to go back to the source to redo some of the videos when certain scenes needed to be changed for accuracy of events or compliancy to regs, or to brought up to date on pertinent data within the video. What the FS does, is shorten my editing process time down by being able to edit directly from the FS instead of having to capture the whole tape (takes time). If you don't keep your original tape for archival purposes, and you lose your digital file (even if it's on DVD video) you have no fall back what so ever. I'm a creature of redundancy after having a few servers and backups go down at the same time as my archival hard drive pooched out. Stroke of bad luck but a little preventive excercise will keep you from pulling your hair out at a later date. I'd rather go through the expense of money and time than to have to cry over lost footage I can never get back.. it's happened before, hence why I do how I do things today..

but that's just me.. ; )