HD recording the big picture

HD recording the big picture.

I have been following all the threads as time allows. I am getting
ready for the Deva V seminars in two weeks as well as completing the
move to our new facility. If any sound mixers find themselves in NJ
you are welcome to stop by for a Zaxcom tour.

Here are some current observations.

Film and television production sound equipment require 100%
reliability. Recording on DVD-RAM media by itself cannot offer this.
Bad media, physical media damage, disk contamination as well as
environmental conditions at the time of recording all are
possibilities that make a backup recording mandatory.

We have 4 years experience recording to DVD-RAM in the field. While it
is a good media for our industry it is fragile. There are reports of
dropped disks not playing due to damage sustained in the fall as well
as certain manufactures disk being more reliable than others. The Deva
II would never have made it without its internal disk recording system
to produce extra masters when DVD-RAM disks were lost or damaged.

The internal Deva hard drive backup recorded in Zaxcom (Mobile audio
recording format) MARF for short provides one of the safest audio disk
recording ever made as there are 3 directories on disk and none are
necessary to playback recorded audio in case of disk corruption.
Common disk file formats and operating systems can not provide the
necessary redundancy that is built into the Deva internal disk and
proprietary directory structure.

The Deva will directly power any Fire-Wire disk as previously stated.
I feel it is implied that it will only work if the Fire wire device
supports the capability.

The Next generation of Deva can directly record to external Fire wire
drives because the Deva processor controls the external drive and
transfers the data. It contains the driver's necessary and processing
capability to do this.
The PD6 as I understand it allows the internal drive to be
accessible to the external fire wire port without any intervention of
the PD6. This is why external PCs must be used to extract the data and
direct Fire wire recording is not possible.

As far as costs go I think the Deva IV is a good value. Its American
list price is within $100 of the PD6. Of course it offers 8 tracks of
recording at 96 kHz vs. the PD6 6 tracks at 48 kHz. But the real cost
here is the several thousand dollars a year extra that must be spent
on PD6 mini DVD-RAM media. On an on going basis the Deva costs
thousands less. Even the extra cost of the Deva V will pay for itself
in a year vs a PD6. It however has no equal at any price recording 10
tracks at 192 kHz. There is also the differnece of dynamic range.
Devas 123 dB vs the PD6 100dB.

I find the issue of a price comparison kind of silly. The features and
capabilities of the Deva should justify its price. The color touch
screen, multi disk record capability, sample rate conversion, digital
internal mixer, and processing power are a generation ahead of any
other recorder we are aware of.




As far as handing off material at a break point or at the end of the
day nothing is going to match Deva's multi disk, multi format, multi
sample rate recording system.
If you record 2 mini DVDs on both sides and then have to copy them to
a laptop there is no way that will happen quickly or automatically.


To sum things up, a recorder that will directly output a DVD-RAM
without a hard disk backup gives up to much. The reliability and
durability of the DVD-RAM format is not high enough to allow this type
of device to be 100% reliable. The loss of a full take in the event of
a power glitch while recording, having to use an external PC to copy
files and media costs 3-5 times current 9.4 gig DVD-RAM media is a
giant step backwards from Deva II technology.




A multidisk, multi format recorder like the Deva allows you to "have
your cake and eat it too".

With the Deva II the industry got away from any need to wait for
sound. It seems some of the new recorders take us right back to that.

Thanks to Frank, Charlie, Jeff and Mike for you kind input.

Best Wishes

Glenn