Hitachi Z-DR1 Professional Dockable Field Recorder

Hitachi Updated: 2007-09-24
Hitachi Z-DR1 Professional Dockable Field Recorder

The Z-DR1 tape-less field recorder is a dockable unit designed and manufactured by nNovia for Hitachi professional cameras.

The unit can be used with the following current line of Hitachi cameras:

SK-900, SK-888, SK-777, SK-555, Z-4000W, Z-3000W, Z-3000, Z-3500, Z-2500

The storage media employed are removable Hitachi 2.5 hard discs or SOLID-STATE Flash Memory chips packaged in a highly robust, portable and convenient package referred to as “Mediapac”.

Mediapacs are currently the most practical and lowest cost high-density recording media on the market compared to Optical and Solid-State.

Mediapacs are available with recording times between 3 to 9 hours. For those needing a Solid State alternative; these very same Mediapacs are available in a “Solid State” version offering much more recording time than competitors’ memory cards.

The Z-DR1 records .AVI or .MOV file formats using DV25 compression with MXF file support. These are common file formats used by a large majority of NLE (non-linear editing) software suites and content management systems currently on the market.

Popular non-linear recorder features are provided :

• Loop record
• Time lapse (animation) record
• External Time Code input
• Firewire and analog IOs
• HDD emulation mode
• Clip markers
• Camera Trigger/ Tally
• Camera VF video monitoring

The workflow advances made possible with the Z-DR1 are:

• Tape-less digital recordings. Substantial savings in tape stock and physical storage space.
• Media re-purpose. Mediapacs can be used for any other data storage purpose when not used with the Z-DR1.
• No capturing or digitizing needed for use with an NLE.
• No file transfers necessary as the audio and video can be edited using the Mediapac directly connected to the NLE.
• Low-cost convenient interface to laptop NLE PC via USB or Firewire.
• Scalable system by employing Mediapac Bays in larger networked ingest servers as used in for example Broadcast News departments.

The Z-DR1 avoids the complexities of other competitive recording systems by making it extremely practical and simple to digitally record and edit content with your Hitachi camera.

By leveraging existing IT-centric technologies, the Z-DR1 offers professionally sought recording quality and features at unmatched prices.