rec.arts.movies.production.sound

On Sep 25, 6:26 pm, Noah Timan wrote:
> On Sep 25, 1:58 pm, jorigli...@ wrote:
>
> > I noticed it comes with a power adapter. I was under the impression
> > that it got power through firewire. Is this not the case?
>
> You can do it either way. Use the SD firewire filter if you bus-power
> it.
>
> > Also, if i were to make a cozy foam housing for it, does anyone thing
> > it would be rugged enough to work out of a bag with?
>
> The issue isn't the drive being hit by something, but rather that most
> optical drives don't write well when they're being shaken around.
> This is why I don't think this is a good idea (unless your bag is
> stationary). Of course, I may well be wrong. Have others had success
> writing to optical media while running and gunning, or problems that
> you knew about?
>
> nvt



I did a few jobs with the SD DVDRAM drive in a bag rig w/ the SD line
filter. It worked ok, but a few caveats: first, the drive makes some
noise when it is writing, and the noise isn't constant, the drive
spins faster and slower at different points. On a cart w/ a boom op
at some remove from the action this is no problem. In close, maybe
only a boom-length away from the talent I felt it was audible in some
situations. Another thing is that, according to SD, the drive really
doesn't like being operated with the "throat" facing upwards--it
really wants to be flat. Yet more good news--your SD recorder will
consume quite a bit more power when also bus-powering the DVD RAM
drive.
More: when you correct filenames etc on your HD and CF card, the
already burned DVDRAM does not reflect those changes. Last: moving
the drive around while it is burning (which it is doing pretty much
all the time you are recording) isn't a great idea. So: I like the
DVDRAM drive very well on my cart, but have pretty much stopped using
it in the bag.

Philip Perkins