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Looking to upgrade recorder next spring. Torn. Appreciate your opinions.


AudioMTL

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AudioMTL

 

Let me be the first to say that I've owned a PD606, DV824, and now a Nagra VI. I'm with Tom V., sold on the digital Nagra quality, functionality and easy of use.

 

The Dv828 was great as a cart recorder. I couldn't use it today due to its inability of using data hard drives and its pickyness with replacement DVD-RAM drives. If I was considering this style of cart recorder it would be the Pix260 or JoeCo

 

What i loved most with the PD606 was the ergonomics, I found these same qualities on the Nagra VI. Headphone monitoring, Digital capabilities, very usable mixing pots (if only four), best of all is the quality of preamp. The extension of this level of ergonomics would be the Cantar II/III, worth considering in my view.

 

If Nagra comes out with a fader controller, that would make our day and be an advancement in many areas! Until then a digital board like the O1V, AJA ADA, or a SD552 opens up all eight recording channels. I use the Nagra mic preamps, digital out to an O1V and return with the mix. It makes for a very flexible and excellent quality cart.

 

I have a lighter package for OTS gigs, but I do bag up the Nagra when I need multitrack capabilities. It doesn't work with the Audio organizers but works well with the OEM bag with some modifications.

 

There are drawbacks and benefit to all recorders, being so close to the Nagra distributer it Toronto (Audio Services Corp.) maybe consider renting a unit for a project to try it out?

 

Good luck

Eric

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Crew: " I don't care what recorder anyone uses if it makes their job easier. "

and neither does the client, as long as they get the results.

thus still using the PD-6 works for the OP)

and as Vas concluded: " Manufacturers make money from us and we make money using their products. "

after all this is business.

 

Mirror: " The Deva, operated as the manufacture suggests, relies on hardware that is not being produced by ANYONE..." 

and

" It is not manufacture sanctioned.. "

incorrect facts, as Zaxcom now suggests and endorses making alternate drive options using newer hardware than was available when the DEVA was originally introduced. This is one of the advantages of mass produced technology being included in specialty products;  DEVA's have actually aged very well particularly in this regard.

 

Audio: " I can't see the "benefit" other than the weight and size reduction from not having those internal drive options. "

no moving parts is generally considered a benefit

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 Zaxcom now suggests and endorses making alternate drive options using newer hardware than was available when the DEVA was originally introduced. This is one of the advantages of mass produced technology being included in specialty products;  DEVA's have actually aged very well particularly in this regard.

 

 

 

Please provide a link

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Please provide a link

There is no link because Zaxcom does not officially suggest or endorse making changes to the standard time proven configuration of the Deva recording system. Senator was not actually correct in his statement. What Glenn Sanders has said, un-officially here and to Deva users individually is: "Use of CF cards in the place of the Deva hard drive is a perfect way forward for any customer that wants to set up their Deva that way." Any customer (Deva user) who wants to do this, and there are a handful of Deva users who have done so, are perfectly free to do this but Zaxcom is not going to supply them with parts or modification instructions. In reality, the vast majority of Deva users are quite content to "get by" (as you said) with standard configuration of spinning hard drive. Lastly, I will correct you once again, Mirror, that PATA drives are still being manufactured by several of the usual suspects (Samsung, Hitachi, Western Digital) and are available even through such sources as amazon.com. I'm not going to take the time to go through your whole list of all the things that are NOT available, according to you, for the "ancient" Deva, for two reasons: one, the list is incorrect for most of the things mentioned, and two, it just doesn't matter! I have done probably 29 movies with the Deva and I am fully confident I could do another 29 with the Deva and no one, except possibly you, could care less.

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Kenny: " please provide a link "

GS recently, publicly posted here: " WTF?  Use of CF cards in the place of the Deva hard drive is a perfect way forward for any customer that wants to set up their Deva that way.

Glenn Sanders

President Zaxcom Inc. "

that is "official enough" sanctioning for most of us, and BTW, that recent quote is not the first time that the same sentiment has been publicly expressed by Zaxcom officials.

Zaxcom not supplying parts and/or instructions in no way un-sanctions it, but as the parts needed are OEM parts, such upgrading, as is hugely common with computer products, including special purpose computers like our recorders is a typical user refit. 

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<<Zaxcom is not going to supply them with parts or modification instructions.>>

 

Modification instructions: Well, i felt this could be nice if Zaxcom could do this. :)

 

it may run down the annals of technological history as a company that provided enough support to keep older equipment from reaching the recycle dump. 

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Modification instructions? To use Compact Flash cards as an internal drive in a Deva, you simply plug in a $15 adapter, and plug a CF card into that.

I wouldn't call it much of a modification. You unplug a spinning drive and plug in one that doesn't spin. So, if you prefer moving parts, don't try this at home.

I didn't change to internal CFs due to any shortage of PATA drives (that hasn't been my experience), I did it because It makes sense for several other reasons. One benefit is that I can start recording on cart with the Deva, and easily move the card to my Nomad for more mobility, and vice-versa. That way the entire day can be in the same directory, just as if it had all been recorded on the same machine.

Availability (and, like Jeff mentioned, they're still available) of PATA drives is a total non-issue.

And, yes, Crew rocks!

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 Lastly, I will correct you once again, Mirror, that PATA drives are still being manufactured by several of the usual suspects (Samsung, Hitachi, Western Digital) and are available even through such sources as amazon.com.

 

I was shocked when you stated this so I went and looked it up.  It is true that Western Digital still makes the PATA drive.  I stand corrected and humbled.  The information of there not being anymore PATA drives being made was given to me by a very reputable guy in one of our major sound shops.  I figured since he was the Deva expert in the place and ordered parts for the Deva that he knew what he was talking about.  I assume that the PATA drives that WD still make will work in the Deva; I don't feel like investigating any further.

 

Sorry to being the catalyst of such a stink. For the record, I never said the Deva wasn't a good machine (it's my favorite machine in fact), I was just pointing out that the end is near for the machine.

 

Also for the record; Sorry for saying that Jeff, Crew, John and Glenn had boners.  They have assured me that they don't have boners.

 

:o

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"The end is near" for all of us in some way of course. But to End-of-Life a machine which is in constant daily use and base this on false premises, that is what I was attempting to correct.

 

"The information of there not being anymore PATA drives being made was given to me by a very reputable guy in one of our major sound shops."

 

Well, he was wrong. People do make mistakes.

 

 

"I figured since he was the Deva expert in the place and ordered parts for the Deva that he knew what he was talking about.  I assume that the PATA drives that WD still make will work in the Deva; I don't feel like investigating any further."

 

I'm sure there is no need for you to investigate any further and more importantly, the original poster does not have to factor into his decision your erroneous reporting of some of the "facts" about the Deva.

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"The end is near" for all of us in some way of course. But to End-of-Life a machine which is in constant daily use and base this on false premises, that is what I was attempting to correct.

...

Exactly.

As a matter of fact, unless someone is dedicated to having the latest and shinniest, there's no reason a Deva or Fusion doesn't have the potential of lasting far into the future.

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Exactly.

As a matter of fact, unless someone is dedicated to having the latest and shinniest, there's no reason a Deva or Fusion doesn't have the potential of lasting far into the future.

 

I don't agree.  Hardware issues are still a factor in the near future with the Deva V. 

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I did worked with the 788, Deva V and Deva 5.8..  But I just bought a fusion and I'm  using it with the mix 12.  I love the setup.

My only negative point is the firewire output wich I don't use anymore since I had problems before with it.  Zaxcom should make an upgrade to usb 3 or thunder bolt available because it is true that the firewire (hard drive and flash card reader) tend to disappear.

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PP: "lots of Academy Big Trophies etc won by movies using them, "

8)

I'm going to get a major Steinway Piano, so I can write songs like Elton John.

 

Dij: "  Zaxcom should make an upgrade to usb 3 or thunder bolt "

it is just like with PC's... if you want the new stuff, you have to upgrade the hardware.

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There is a factor to consider regarding deliverable media. In the market I work in, if I were to introduce anything but a CF card or a USB thumb drive into the workflow, it would be quite unusual. I turn over a CF card to a DIT at the end of the day. If my clients want to walk with media, I will sell them a thumb drive with my files on it. This is the exception, and it requires only one extra step. The most efficient deck to buy is the one where you have the easiest path to an accepted deliverable.

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I did worked with the 788, Deva V and Deva 5.8.. But I just bought a fusion and I'm using it with the mix 12. I love the setup.

My only negative point is the firewire output wich I don't use anymore since I had problems before with it. Zaxcom should make an upgrade to usb 3 or thunder bolt available because it is true that the firewire (hard drive and flash card reader) tend to disappear.

My FireWire worked fine, but I just found it faster to mirror to a CF then use a laptop to make my backups. I used to hook up an external FW drive to my Fusion for my security backups, but found the laptop faster when using a FW CF reader daisy chained to the FW drive. Let FireWire work how it was designed to and it's fast.

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