John E. Walker Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 My first time with a Deva. I was just on a little industrial video recording an improvised sales pitch about an advertising company. Long takes (15-20 minutes) and three EX-1 cameras meant I was relying on up to 5 lavs to be used simultaneously. I had a rough time trying to mix 7 people down to two tracks on the last gig, so this time I convinced production to rent a Deva. It was beautiful experience. My partner and I got there early to set-up our little base in an office cubicle and got to work coordinating frequencies. I had 5 Lectro UM400s transmitting to 411As and outputting to a Deva V. Everything went swimmingly. I had been reading the manual all weekend, and practiced with this set-up at home, and no surprises or mishaps popped up on the shoot. We even had brought a back-up SD 744T, just in case. We had fun. The talent went to pre-fader iso tracks and I got to practice mixing in real time to a post-fader mono mix track. Analog out went to the 744, for redundancy... and to see who could set levels better! I love this machine, BUT As far as I can tell, there was no way to deliver the audio files except to mirror on a DVD-RAM. There was about an hour and a half of material which took 40 minutes to write. Everybody else wrapped and went home. The editor, my sound buddy, and I were the last ones in the building waiting for this thing. The FAT32 formatted DVD-RAM worked, but am I missing a slick way to copy files off of the internal hard drive? I tried connecting the Deva via Firewire to an external LaCie HDD, and a Mac Pro tower in the editor's office, but there was recognition between any of them. I couldn't find anything in the manual about actually delivering the lovely polyphonic wav files other than the brief section about mirroring to the internal DVD drive. Up until today, all the other digital recorders I've used either connect to a computer through Firewire, USB, or can spit out a CF card. Am I missing something or is that also your experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacysound Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 The Deva will export to any firewire device, but you can't (unfortunately) connect it to a computer. (Has anyone tried putting a Mac into target mode??) If your new to the Deva, you'll find that documentation is somewhat lacking... In order to get the Deva to write to an external device vs. the internal DVD-RAM, you have to go to the mirroring page and select "External Firewire Device" and turn firewire power on. Depending on the Deva software version, you will then have to restart the Deva to get it to actually make the switch from Internal to External. Make sure you format the drive or CF card to FAT 32 and away you go. BTW - Even on today's new machines (Fusion, 5., the USB port is ONLY a keyboard port. Unfortunately you can't plug in a USB drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Graff Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 For a job such as this I would choose the continuous mirroring option. This mirrors in real time to the DVD-RAM or external drive and there will be no waiting for the recording to mirror. As I see Stacy just posted, the Deva does not connect directly to a computer and you must choose the mirror device and restart after a change. I've had one day jobs such as yours where the client wanted to put the files in their laptop right away, so I bring a CF card reader and they just drag the files into their laptop like you would with a 744t. Many options. PG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jimg Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 The Deva will export to any firewire device, but you can't (unfortunately) connect it to a computer. (Has anyone tried putting a Mac into target mode??) Stacy, Probably not. Unless Devas can see and write to HFS+ formatted drives. SD recorders want to reformat HFS+ drives as FAT32, I'm guessing the same would happen with the Deva. Best regards, Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 For a job such as this I would choose the continuous mirroring option. This mirrors in real time to the DVD-RAM or external drive and there will be no waiting for the recording to mirror. As I see Stacy just posted, the Deva does not connect directly to a computer and you must choose the mirror device and restart after a change. I've had one day jobs such as yours where the client wanted to put the files in their laptop right away, so I bring a CF card reader and they just drag the files into their laptop like you would with a 744t. Many options. PG Does the Deva write to the DVDRAM continuously or only when it is not recording? I ask because I remember the Deva II working this way, and the OP had very long takes to mirror. Philip Perkins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbrisett Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 The Deva writes continuously now. However, there is STILL one bug that prevents the Deva from mirroring immediately. It requires that one take be on the drive before it starts writing. In this situation, where the takes are extremely long, your best option is to do a very short "false take", mirror that take, then you start doing the mirroring process, everything works. Jim/Stacy. It won't work putting a PowerBook/MacBook in the Target mode. Remember the Deva wants to format that drive to a FAT-32 and not just any FAT-32. I've found it very picky about that and to be safe it is always recommended to format the external drive using the Format option in the mirror page. Stacy - I haven't updated the Deva manual in probably close to a year or year and half. Part of the reason is because so many new features have been added to the beta software, but Zaxcom has been a bit slow in declaring a version fully "baked". ;-) Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry long Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 What is the most current STABLE software revision? I'm still running some version of 4. I would like some of the new features but I've read some counts of the machine not recording although it appeared to be in REC. That scares me to death. LL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbrisett Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 What is the most current STABLE software revision? That depends on who you ask. I try to run the latest version, and do so on productions. But I do give it a test run prior to the production. That said, for a lot of people and situations, that's not always possible. I would have to go back and reread the thread on the Deva list about the recording/not recording issue. I can't remember the problem there. Maybe somebody else can fill in the blank where my mind has gone blank. Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wbrisett Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 ah.... Found the thread Larry. It's not mentioned when it was implemented, but apparently there was some 'safety feature' that was a bit too strict according to Zaxcom that was causing the no record problem. Also not mentioned was when that was going to be relaxed. Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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