tape transfers faster than real time....

[Red96TA]

Yeah...I know, take a dump, read a book, watch tv....but when will technology advance to the point where we can transfer tapes faster than real time? Think it'll ever happen before the format is replaced by mini hard drives?

[Karate Media]

The technology already exists (and has for a while) -- but only on professional equipment.

[edDV]

If that is your goal, buy one of these.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=292548
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=breadCrumb&A=search&Q=&ci=6544

Record direct to hard disk and tranfer the DV-AVI files at full IEEE-1394 file transfer speed.

[bugster]

If that is your goal, buy one of these.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=292548
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=breadCrumb&A=search&Q=&ci=6544

Record direct to hard disk and tranfer the DV-AVI files at full IEEE-1394 file transfer speed.

They look great for Pro's or a SERIOUS enthusiast, but at thos prices, I think I will wait!

[rsgars]

Has anyone tried connecting an external hardrive to their dv camera via firewire and capturing directly to the drive? If that would work what a great, inexpensive solution for us hobbyists.

[Karate Media]

rsgars -- no, because the drive is "dumb." An external firewire drive is just a hard drive in a box with a firewire connector instead of an IDE cable (well, also a different power supply, etc, but you get the idea).

Without some sort of OS (not "windows" or "mac" but just some sort of basic set of instructions) to control it and tell it what to do, it'll just sit there. That's one reason why a 30GB D2D drive costs $600.