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Zaxcom Deva V or 5


Joe Riggs

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Hi,

I'm working on a production where the sound mixer is using a Zaxcom Deva V or 5.

I think because it's an older piece of equipment and its usb/firewire port is broken the mixer has to burn

a DVD at the end of the day of the sound files, which we then have to transfer.  This process is painfully slow,

from the burning of the disc to the transfer,  and the disc is not the most reliable.

 

I'm so used to working with mixers that record to a CF, SD card or even plugging into a usb port on their recorder

that this is really time drain.

 

Any ideas on how we could transfer from this recorder or speed up the workflow? is it possible to pop out the internal drive?

 

Thank you

 

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You can always burn as you are working throughout the day. I believe it burns the take once you hit stop.  If your not familiar with the deva perhaps taking a quick glance at the manual might help. Its a great unit. 

 

I also believe there was a way to increase DSP for a slightly increased speed in burning. But I just burned after the end of every take when I had my 5.8

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What Glen said -- you can burn as you go and have a DVD-RAM ready at the end of the day.  No big issue there.  That's what I used to do back when DVD-RAM was the desired deliverable.  Even with national spots that wanted two copies at the end of the day, I'd just alternate updating them during the day.  There's a file written to each disk that indicates what the last file mirrored to that disk was, so it's pretty much a no-brainer. 

You could contact Bridgen at Zaxcom to see what the turnaround time would be to repair the FireWire port.  

Yes, you can pull the internal hard drive but it's in a drive carrier that you would either need to adapt an interface cable for or you can pull the drive from the carrier each time and use an appropriate IDE adapter.

Much easier is to use a Compact Flash card as the internal drive.  You can pop that out and transfer on a computer using Zaxconvert.  

There's a thread here on JWS in which I specify the CF adapter that works for me.  It can be used to replace the hard drive in a Zaxcom carrier, or for quicker and easier CF swaps, mount the CF adapter in a Remote Audio drive mounter system.  That's how I have mine configured, and it works great.

 

 

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Hey guys,

Thanks for the suggestions, either of those options would be much better than what we have going now.

Obviously it's not my device but I'll have a talk with the mixer and see if we can do and what he feels comfortable with.   

 

That "burn as you go" option is that "Mirror Drive"?

 

From the manual

Mirror Drive #
The Mirror Drive # button provides the options for mirroring the data off the internal drive onto other
media through the FireWire port or the optional Internal DVD-RAM drive.
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It's worth getting that Firewire fixed, even though it's Firewire 400. That's what I ended up using to turn in files at the end of the day. I was doing mocap dialogue for video games, and when I said I was going to turn in dvd-ram disks they looked at me like I had two heads. I said I could also transfer to a firewire drive, and they liked that. I mirrored to that all day, and only had to wait a minute or two after the last take for the Deva to finish. There was wifi right there on the MoCap stage, so I just plugged the firewire drive into my computer and uploaded the files directly to the client. Before I left the files were in 3 places; the Deva, my external firewire hard drive, and the client's server. 

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So is the process:

1. Select mirror mode

2. Select the folder you will record to at the beginning of the day, for example tomorrow 171606. 

3. Select the drive you want to mirror that folder to.

Now, anything you record throughout the day will also record to the DVD as you go?

 

Quote

I was doing mocap dialogue for video games, and when I said I was going to turn in dvd-ram disks they looked at me like I had two heads. I said I could also transfer to a firewire drive, and they liked that. I mirrored to that all day, and only had to wait a minute or two after the last take for the Deva to finish

dfisk, maybe you could confirm the steps to execute this process? Thank you.

 

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OK, so the mixer actually thinks his USB works but he says that the USB on his recorder

might be only for plugging in external audio devices like a keyboard, can anyone confirm if

the USB on the DEVA V can be used for transferring the files to a USB drive?  

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The biggest issue with the firewire port is using a good cable.  Tie it down so it can't wiggle and potentially short out and damage any connections, and you'll have a reliable CF mirror. 

As mentioned above, I also recommend using a CF for the internal drive.

I consider the Deva IV-V-5.8-16 series to still be among the best cart recorders available.  They're often available at used prices that are a "best-buy."

It sounds like the mixer using this Deva doesn't know his or her gear well.

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I saw that pic of Glen Trew's "180 shoot days!" cart--with Deva at the center, and Glen can have any gear he wants!.  Even though it's scary to take apart their main recorder during the run of a long job, maybe if they get a down day they could do the CF card-in-carrier swap--I'd sure be considering it vs. making long days even longer dealing with wonky DVDRAM transfers.  End-of-day DVD burning is up there with DAT as examples of technologies that I'm glad have passed away.....

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Only port available for transfer is the FireWire port. If that works then a good option would be a FireWire card reader. I had great success using a SanDisk Extreme CF FireWire reader. 

So with a Firewire CF reader he could record to CF cards (assuming the firewire port is good)?

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3 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

Hey--this guy is just trying to help, and he's a 2nd, not the mixer, it isn't his machine!  His boss might be a great mixer who doesn't know Devas very well!  Take pity on him for his long days w/ DVD burns and help him out!

We have been offering heaps of help with numerous options and workflow suggestions.  I'm surprised you didn't notice.

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We have been offering heaps of help with numerous options and workflow suggestions.  I'm surprised you didn't notice.

I appreciate the insight offered but I've never touched a sound recorder before, let alone one as old as this one,

so I'm trying to get specific instructions (e.g Step 1,2 and 3) especially if it's something like installing a FW400 card reader,

where one would have to open up the recorder.

 

 

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47 minutes ago, John Blankenship said:

We have been offering heaps of help with numerous options and workflow suggestions.  I'm surprised you didn't notice.

I did notice.  But he's not out of the woods yet, so needs more advice from experienced users.  Is that so tough to offer?  He didn't pick the recorder his boss is using, he's just trying to get through the job.

To the OP: don't be afraid to contact Zax directly--they have a rep of being very helpful to users in need.

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2 hours ago, Joe Riggs said:

I appreciate the insight offered but I've never touched a sound recorder before, let alone one as old as this one, so I'm trying to get specific instructions (e.g Step 1,2 and 3) especially if it's something like installing a FW400 card reader, where one would have to open up the recorder.

I wouldn't recommend modding a recorder in the middle of a shoot, much less so if you don't know the machine and  never done something like this before.

I would recommend you contact zaxcom or your favourite zaxcom dealer with the info you got from here and ask them if they can do those mods/repairs for you.

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