richpeet wrote:
>
> I welcome a TOC update while recording. I lost a days work this
> spring from a battery discharge while recording. I am guilty for not
> watching my battery level and chasing to far a field after a
> wonderful recording when I already had a great one. Usually if my
> battery goes down the sony unit will power itself down and save the
> TOC then turn itself off. But using a 2 year old battery it died a
> fast death and took a whole days worth of recording with it. I have
> not yet gotten a class A replacement sound for that bird.
It's a lesson in stopping to write the TOC. I make sure the TOC writes
after every track I record. The HHb will remember the TOC through a
battery removal, however, so it's better off.
My old Sony's used Lion batteries, they seem to last forever, they are
all still good, my son is using one of my old recorders as, well, a
walkman. I also had spares, and never pushed my batteries to the end. A
advantage of Lion or NIMH batteries is that you can recharge when they
are partially down.
> I do look forward to the day when I can upgrade to pro-level
> machines. Now that one meg flash is available I agree that those
> flash recorders look pretty sexy.
I figure eventually they may be a way to go. I'm a little worried about
going to any computer item. The manufacturers seem to think we can buy a
new, incompatible model every year. So, just how long will flash be
around before someone invents some new sexy "standard"? It could be
tomorrow. I've got a perfectly good digital camera tied to the older
PCMCIA form. When buying I always try to factor in expected life. With
computer stuff you almost have to figure it's got to give you enough
return in a few months.
> I still think that the flash chips are looking better than the micro
> drives but time will tell on that.
I've got a bunch of PCMCIA Type 3 drives I use with my digital camera
and as file transfer to notebooks. I've not had any fail yet and they
are 6-7years old. It's a case of trying to figure what's going to be
around the longest. And playing the lottery is easier and probably safer.
> I trust Marantz products more than I trust either Flash chips or
> Microdrives. I experienced a grown man beating himself last friday
> when his flash chip died on re-format 15 mins before a meeting with 4
> people from his biggest client. The Flash was being used on a
> commercial sound exhibit sound system. It was my sound and I was a
> whole lot less bent then him. I suspect he will carry backups in the
> future.
That's one of the flaws in the idea that a couple chips will be enough
for field work. Spares are even more necessary there.
> I hope there is a easy way to check chip function after format as I
> sure would like that if I go CF recorders.
Most of the things using the compact flash assume it went ok and don't
really test or even provide a testing method. They really are not doing
much to the memory, so it probably will do most of the time. I think you
can forget having a recorder that can both play the recording as you
make it from the chip and record at the same time to the chip. The
programmers seem to assume perfect reliability.
Walt
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