As for the fixed drive/removable drive FF, both were offered for sale at the same time. they were marketed at different folks, the fixed drive version had SCSI ports for additional drives(studio use maybe?), where the removable became a common on remote trucks. In fact FF's web site shows both still available. As for an EIC not allowing someone to bring drives, he would have to try to explain a lot if he did NBA or NHL or MLB, since most producers travel their own drives. I actually know some EIC's who do certain college shows every week and they have an "extra" set of drives where client A has their stuff at one TC, client B has another TC. This saves everyone time and hassle reloading the same elements every week.

[quote="Bill D"]I thought a lot of the older FFV machines didn't have removable drives? Or have most of them been replaced by the one's with removable drives?[/quote] There are still a handfull of ones without removable drives...most of those are dying or dead.

I thought a lot of the older FFV machines didn't have removable drives? Or have most of them been replaced by the one's with removable drives?

[quote="MM"]Is it universally acceptable for a TD to bring his/her own drives? Or, do some EIC prefer not to allow visitor drives? Also, since it seems that most operators run in "BVW" mode, if you're not doing repeated show packages, would it make sense to have your own drives? Am I correct in saying that in the "BVW" "24 hour tape" mode the DDR gets very cranky if you record over material without wiping the disc as a whole? Thanks![/quote] I've yet to have an EIC not allow drives, and I've found many an EIC welcome them, and ask if I have them. Further, many times my drives are more stable than the truck drives. Also have not had any issues recording over any of my material. I keep a specific set of timecode for billboards and record over that spot every show.

Is it universally acceptable for a TD to bring his/her own drives? Or, do some EIC prefer not to allow visitor drives? Also, since it seems that most operators run in "BVW" mode, if you're not doing repeated show packages, would it make sense to have your own drives? Am I correct in saying that in the "BVW" "24 hour tape" mode the DDR gets very cranky if you record over material without wiping the disc as a whole? Thanks!

[quote="tv9director"]Where did you end up finding your trays? Do you buy the spec drive?[/quote] Through Fast Forward, just had to wait forever.

Where did you end up finding your trays? Do you buy the spec drive?

[quote="Mongo"]That raises a question I've wondered about... How many of you carry your own drives?[/quote] I have since they came out. It's made life tremendously easier. Since I work for the same people all the time I can have everything loaded/labeled in about 20 minutes. I've also got all my elements on XFile, never really saw a need to fool with Abekas ClipStore drives. Personally, I carry just two, one for Fill, one for matte. I've debated about putting different sports on different drives, but I know I'd be stupid and leave one at home, or think it's an EU show and get on site and it's the NCAA look. I paid about $200 for both of them, just Googled the model number, hardest part is getting the drive trays from Fast Forward. Most find it easier just to steal a set of trays from folks like the old NMT or MTVG. :) --KIDDING--

That raises a question I've wondered about... How many of you carry your own drives?

You know they sell different size FFV drives. I think the standard has become the Seagate Cheetah 73GB drive, but there are a few trucks out there with smaller drives. Through conservative loading I've been able to get ESPN CBB, ESPN +, ESPNU, ESPN NCAA and ESPNU CBB all one one set of 73GB drives and I still show only 65% used, you should be safe.

You should be fine, I've seen Fast Forwards used as replay decks and there's usually no problem getting through two games before the drives fill up at 4:1. They tend to get a little quirky if you delete individual clips and keep using the drive, however, so be warned. At one small station I worked at, instead of doing proper melts and formatting the drives before every shoot they would let it fill up and just delete enough footage to get by. They couldn't delete everything because they hadn't melted it yet! There were clips weeks, even months old still on there! After a while I refused to run tape for them anymore unless they started formatting the drives because it would frequently refuse to roll, freeze on air or even cue the wrong timecode. Just a complete disaster.

two 30 minute rips should not task the box if the drives are of decent capacity. Just make sure you clear the disks before hand.

Cool. Thanks! I'm looking to dump about an hour of goodness into one. Sounds like I'm okay? Is there a duration to a recording? Am I okay with 2 30-minute rips in there?

Depends on your compression ratio. At 4:1 I think you can get at like 6-7 hours out of it. More than enough for all but the most insane element reels.