MCE Technologies announced Friday that it’s shipping its smallest ever QuickStream DV/HDV, a portable digital video capture and storage drive. It’s available in 6-hour (80GB) and 9-hour (120GB) models for $799 and $999 respectively.
The QuickStream is a small external hard disk drive, 3 x 5 x 1 inches and 10.5 ounces. Made with an aluminum enclosure, the QuickStream is equipped with FireWire interface. The special enclosure is designed to connect directly to an DV camcorder; it’s built with screw sockets that enable it to be mounted on top of, underneath or between the camcorder and tripod.
You can select file formats compatible with Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid, iMovie and other products, and you can switch to VTR/VCR mode to play raw footage back through the camcorder’s LCD display. (A free firmware update will be made available that will let the device play back HDV footage, in addition to recording it, which it can now do).
User-selectable file formats include QuickTime, raw DV, Windows AVI2 and Canopus AVI2. The device saves in MPEG-2 Transport Stream (.m2t) format. Included in the box are a hot shoe mount, 4-pin to 6-pin and 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cables, AC adapter and user’s guide.
System requirements for use with Mac applications call for Mac OS 9.2 or Mac OS X v10.2 or later.