doubledrop Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 does anyone know if the Hi-MD technology is suitable for location sound recording on video shoots? i use a Sennheiser MKH416 shotgun mic on boompole. currently this feeds XLR into my Sony PD150 camcorder. however my boom operator needs long cable runs for both the XLR and monitoring headphones back to the camera. the expensive solution to this is a portable DAT recorder, but i can't afford that javascript:emoticon(':whatever:'). i stumbled upon Hi-MD and wonder if anyone's tried this in the field? Issues i can imagine are having to convert XLR down to 3.5mm minijack, doable but clumsy. Also is the recording reliably in sync with picture when slated with a clapperboard?. Are the controls friendly or fiddly? I'm excited about being able to upload the digital file through USB rather than realtime playout through line, but is this possible on a Mac? And finally, which model would best suit this use? cheers, dave@doubledrop.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhangraman Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 I'm sure others could explain the reasons more comprehensively that I can, but I would urge you to stick to DAT. Buy used if necessary. Hi-MD is not yet quite the DAT replacement that it seems to be at first glance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doubledrop Posted September 4, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 delving deeper into the other forums i'm disappointed to see that Sony have limited the uploading from Hi-MD to computer to a single attempt. that would make archiving a library of discs for future uploads of the recordings for other edits impossible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadeclaw Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 Sony promised a converter, so that own recordings can be exported into standard wave files. We're still waiting... To come back to your original question, any synchronization has to be done during edit of the video as none of the current Hi-MD recorders have a synchronizing input. With its rehearsal divide, the NH900 would allow to set a trackmark within 1/6th of a second on the clap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted September 4, 2004 Report Share Posted September 4, 2004 At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I'm going to recommend this again. HiMD does not have and probably never will have a sync'd version using SMPTE or anything similar. We'd have to wait and see what offerings companies like HHB bring us in the future. It's not like SMPTE sync is really necessary with something that has a fixed sampling rate, but it would sure be nice to do sync'd starts and stops at least. It is -not- compatible with Mac as far as uploading and downloading are concerned, and in true Sony fashion, it doubtless never will be. [edit: see this thread] I'm making the assumption that your shotgun is self-powered, but I'll still point out that HiMD does not have 9-48V phantom power as required by most professional condenser mics. The controls are also very small and I would say ill-suited if not unsuited to professional film use. It's important to keep in mind that these are consumer devices and as such lack certain niceties of pro equipment. On the other hand, if you're under a strict budget and don't mind 'making do' as far as things like sync'ing goes [i tend to do things like tap the mic visibly on camera as the sync source], and have access to a PC to do uploads+backups with, the recording quality with HiMD is the best I've ever heard from a consumer device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2cents Posted September 5, 2004 Report Share Posted September 5, 2004 u didn't say how long the recordings needed to be ! altho I have the n1 , I couldn't comment on the quality of hi-md recordings as of yet. but the lp4 setting, produced good music quality, 4 me, and thats 324 minutes... but no synchro not sure if that info is of any help.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMPlitude Posted September 6, 2004 Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 wow, i guess the hi-md platform isnt just simply as great as it sounded a couple of months ago Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dex Otaku Posted September 6, 2004 Report Share Posted September 6, 2004 wow, i guess the hi-md platform isnt just simply as great as it sounded a couple of months agoIt's not perfect, but for those who are willing to put the effort in it's a great solution for high-quality portable recording on a budget. Nothing that I know of achieves the same quality vs. cost. I wouldn't recommend it for daily professional use, though. Mind you, I also wouldn't recommend a lot of other things.. I have used pro, semipro, and consumer equipment for various kinds of recording and the needs and expectations of a professional recordist are simply not the same as those of the average person. I make do with less expensive solutions because I simply haven't the money to afford anything else. I'm also a consummate hack, and actually enjoy working the problems out of a system - but I realise that most people aren't like that, either. I know how to work out the details in order to get good results from it. Most people don't care to try. Which is why I also realise that HiMD in its current state is not suitable for pros. Unfortunately, I also realise that it's even less suitable for the average consumer. Sony have hobbled the format so severely that for those who want plug & play type ease of use, HiMD in its current incarnation will -never- be an option. I can see many people looking over the features and buying one, only to return it a few days later as Sony haven't nearly delivered on their promises to their customers. Which is unfortunate, because the format has great potential. I was explaining to my father yesterday bits of how Sony's DRM system work. He asked me, "Why are they bothering to sell them, then? Technically, they can't be used for anything." I pointed out to him that with the DMCA [and its equivalents in countries other than the US] in effect, all consumer audio devices that are designed and marketed as such are required by law to have at least some form of these limitations. He was disgusted to learn even a little of how Sony's DRM works. Most people, once they realise this is how things are basically going to be from now on, will be too. My hope is that once the average person has realised that our governments have created laws that are limiting what we can do with our own creations to the point that they're next to useless, people will say something en masse and try to get those laws changed. Which, after all, in countries with democratic governments at least - is how the system is supposed to work. The people are supposed to decide, and get the government to implement what they want. Not the government deciding and ramming it down the throats of the people, which is how the US administration seems to count on working for just about everything - and the rest of the world just falls in line, because [generally speaking] their economies depend on the US so much. I'd better stop before I start into the importance of voting. :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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