I figured it would be useful to create a thread that can be used as a resource for those of you who may consider buying an external recorder in the future once mini dv tapes become exorbitantly expensive to the point where it isn't justifiable anymore.
For those of you who may not know, you can use an external recorder (tried and tested options below) as a way to bypass the tape recording deck in order to record footage. You use a firewire cable, which connects from the external recorder to the DV port on the camera. The VX doesn't have a "synchro" recording trigger type option, so you will have to press record on the external recorder itself, NOT on the VX.
This method will:
- Alleviate any and all glitches in your footage
- Allow for playback without having to worry about damaging the heads on your camera
- Prevent you from having to worry about a capture camera. You can use (some) of these devices as capture deck directly into FCP, or you can simply use a USB card reader to move the clips onto your computer
- Help keep your VX batteries alive longer, as the camera doesn't have to work as hard recording on and off to a tape
- Take a well known failure of point in the VX (the tape deck) out of the equation which will help keep your VX out of Kerrys' shop
Here are the tried and tested options that I'm aware of. I will likely update this list as time goes on.
1. Sony HVR-MRC1
This is the external recorder that I use, so it's the one that I will be able to provide the most information on. It's actually two pieces that connect - the HVR-MRC1 (the front plate with the button and interface, and the cradle that contains the firewire port (HVRA-CR1) but is typically sold as a pair. It uses compactflash cards (8GB-64GB), has a plugin directly for FCP 7 for easy capturing, takes the same batteries as the VX (I use the skinny profile NP-F570 batteries and it lasts probably 4 weeks or so), works flawlessly, and can cost any where in the range of $220 - $400. It can output to DV or AVI as the file format, I use DV. I have been using this for about 4 months now, and it has never failed me yet. I created a custom bracket out of a cheap piece of aluminum, and also use velcro to keep it securely in place. With the battery, it weighs about 13oz. A 32GB compactflash card will give you 146 minutes of recording time, which you can obviously re-format in less than 10 seconds.
2. Datavideo DN-60A
Maybe Al Hodgson can shed some more light on this one if anyone has any questions. From what I've read, it also takes compactflash cards, runs on 4x AA batteries that supposedly provides more than 3 hours of continuous use. I'm not sure if you can capture directly off it. Apparently you have to choose an option on the DN-60 called "make media files" before it will be readable by a computer. It seems like it has an intuitive user interface. Price varies $100 - 400. These look to be fairly rare.
3. Focus Enhancements Firestore FS-4 DTE Recorder
I really don't know much about this one. You can capture directly off of this, because it comes with an
internal 40GB or 80GB hard drive which is about 3 or 6 hours of recording time. Weighs less than one pound. Uses external battery packs. A single battery pack will last about 90 minutes according to the manual. Price varies from $90 - $350. This one is definitely the cheapest, but I'm not quite sure I'd recommend it considering it runs off of an internal HD and I'm not sure how easy it is to replace once that internal HD fails.
Hope this helps!