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Shoot Review: Macrosystem HDV Recorder

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Tom Patrick McAuliffe

Records, stores, and plays back HDV content.

Until recently, there weren't any affordable HDV playback devices. Enter Macrosystem,maker of the Casablanca standalone NLE system, with a new approach to HDV recording and playback. The Macrosystem HDV Recorder provides many of the functions you'd expect in a standard VTR, but it goes a step further. It features realtime, full-resolution, high-definition display of HDV on inexpensive monitors — with support for all format variations (720p, 1080i, NTSC, and PAL) — and no compression of the HDV content it records natively to its internal hard drive. So far, it's the only solution that offers this technology at this price.

The new recorder can record up to 23 hours of HDV content on the included removable 250GB hard drive (a 300GB unit is also available), and you can mix and match different HDV formats within a single hard drive. As for I/Os, there are IEEE 1394/FireWire and USB inputs on the front and back of the unit. There are also realtime DVI, VGA, and S/PDIF digital audio outputs, as well as a DVD reader to round out the connectivity. Also included is a USB mini keypad with one-touch functions for record, playback, and more.

Perhaps best of all, you don't need a huge HDTV set to show and edit your content because the HDV Recorder converts the video to DVI and VGA in realtime. The recorder looks like a handsome stainless steel computer tower on its side. When powered up, a cool blue light adds to its look. Two large, but quiet, fans are on top of the unit, and the architecture offers lots of room for expansion.

Setup was simple. Basically, plug it in and load up the software — if it's not pre-loaded by a dealer that carries the product. When it comes to I/O, the recorder's functions are very basic: record to and from the HDV camera or deck via 1394. Use the recorder as a holding station for duplication and/or archive onto the internal hard drive.

The Macrosystem website lists the compatible HDV products, including the Sony HVR-A1U camcorder I was using. The newer Sony HVR-M15U deck wasn't listed, but it performed as expected. (See my review of the Sony HVR-M15U in the July issue or at digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/revfeat/sony_hvrmu.)

I transferred clips back and forth as well as the picture on an old Sony Trinitron VGA monitor. Videos transferred numerous times showed no differences visually, nor were there any differences on the waveform/vectorscope with SMPTE color bars.

I found a few things about the Macrosystem HDV Recorder frustrating: You can't use DV or DVCAM format content, and the composite and Y/C (S-Video) outs are on the back of the unit, but not yet active. Most importantly, though, you can't hook up the deck via FireWire and transfer the content to a computer's nonlinear editing program. That said, there is basic editing in the 1.0 version of the software.

You can organize your clips into the 30 bins on the hard drive and trim your HDV clips. This trimming is not destructive — set new in and out points and easily return to the original clip. Handy. The onscreen menu is too small, and users should be able to resize it. All the controls on the menu are super-responsive. You can turn the features menu on and off as well as control play, pause, and record functions instantaneously with one push of a button on the small, included USB control pad.

The Macrosystem HDV Recorder converts HDV material in realtime to DVI and VGA at full HD resolutions up to 1920×1200 pixels with instant aspect ratio correction and a progressive-scan mode that allows perfect playback of 1080i material on low-cost LCD monitors without annoying interlace artifacts. That's enough to get many users hauling out the checkbook.

From a technical standpoint, these are not small feats, and for some uses such as the feature set is solid as is. For tasks such as point-of-purchase display of HDV content, playback of footage, long-format HDV recording, archiving of footage to hard drive, and rudimentary in-unit editing, the HDV Recorder is ready, willing, and able. Sad to say, though, that without being able to hook the unit up to a computer for NLE editing it's only a shadow of what it could and in my opinion should be. But I wanted to use it as a transcoder and edit deck as well.

To get around the lack of a computer hookup, I edited my content elsewhere and transferred it in and out via HDV camera and VTR. Kind of kludgy, but it works. To be totally fair, nowhere in Macrosystem's specs does it say the recorder hooks up to a PC or Mac, but I think that will happen in the near future due to user demand.

The Macrosystem Recorder also can be used as a local HDV playback device (over DVI or VGA). You can order your clips any way you want, then play back up to 30 clips in a row and loop them. The unit is perfect for unattended point of sale and public presentations.

Macrosystem is first to market with an affordable HDV recorder, but the desire to be first has apparently come at a price. Companies must walk the fine line between shipping quickly and waiting until a product is perfected. Do you ship a product that's useful to a majority of customers even though one or two features haven't been “turned on” yet? Suffice it to say that this product might have shipped a bit early, and therefore has lots of room for growth. Macrosystem is one of the last companies doing both hardware and software on the PC, and it has a long history of standing behind its products with frequent software maintenance updates (bug fixes) and customer support.

I think it's only a matter of time before the Macrosystem HDV Recorder will be all it can be for the growing number of HDV users. The list of desires, for me, is three-fold:

1. Be able to hook the deck up to a PC or Mac computer and use it as a source and record deck with one of the many HDV editing applications, such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.

2. Turn on the composite and Y/C outs on the back of the unit and allow the unit to output a DV signal via the unit's IEEE 1394 ports.

3. Provide a YUV I/O option and maybe even a SDI I/O add-on for monitoring.

For now, I'll need to put this product on my wait-and-see list. For certain uses, the unit is more than ready to go at a very attractive price.

The Macrosystem HDV Recorder provides bleeding-edge features to HDV users. It's a cost-effective way to store, archive, and play back HDV content, and you can also perform rudimentary editing. With some refinements, the HDV Recorder could become an important solution for HDV users, but at this point, unless your main aim is to archive your HDV footage to the removable hard drives, I'd wait until the product matures and offers computer connectivity and a way to input and output other formats.

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bottomline

Company: Macrosystem
Boulder, Colo.; (303) 440-5311
www.hdvrecorder.us

Product: HDV Recorder

Assets: Costs a third less than its competition, removable hard drive for easy swapping and storage, compatible with other HDV products.

Caveats: Composite and Y/C outs are not active, can't use DV or DVCAM format content, Mac and PC compatibility not assured until version 1.1 of the software.

Demographic: All HDV users.

PRICE: $1,999

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© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.