Fostex PD6
Fostex PD6
Toshiba internal hard disk
Toshiba internal hard disk
Docking station EX12
Docking station EX12
This piece of news was expected for a year and has been, officially, announced on March 15, 2004. Fostex PD6 should first include an internal hard disk drive and, later, before the end of the year, should offer parallel recording on an additional hard drive or on a “full-size” DVD-RAM drive, thanks to the EX12 docking station that mates with the PD-6.

The PD6 internal drive (model 9056) is a Toshiba 40GB 1.8” hard drive, partitioned into twenty-six 1.46GB areas, which provides the equivalent of as many “mini” 8 cm DVD-RAM sides. It is possible to decide on which is the main recording media, hard drive or DVD-RAM, and to copy files one by one, or to duplicate a whole drive from one media to the other. If hard drive is selected to be the main media, it is then possible to mirror in background to DVD-RAM disc. In fact, the main media intended for post remains the mini DVD-RAM disc whose reduced capacity could force to reload during shooting day, until it will be possible to record on a “full-size” DVD-RAM disc with a three times larger storage size.

The EX12 docking station, which is expected later on during the year, should contain both an internal 2.5" 40GB hard drive and a “full-size” DVD-RAM drive. Conceived like a laptop docking station, it is battery or AC powered. Moreover it offers Firewire and USB2/1.1 interfaces in order to allow reading of internal hard drive or DVD-RAM drive from any PC or Mac computer.
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What they think about

A mon sens le gros handicap du PD6 est son support mini DVD-Ram. Il est évident qu'après plus d'une année, ce média n'a pas rencontré une grande audience, du fait de son coût, de sa relative rareté et surtout d'une absence totale de compatibilité avec la micro informatique actuelle.
Enfin la rigidité des configurations d'écoutes et de routing entrées/sorties, comparée à un Cantar, un Deva V voire Portadrive, ne plaide pas en sa faveur.
Seuls les férus du PD4 pourront se sentir à l'aise avec cette machine, apparue trop tôt sur le marché des enregistreurs multipistes portables.

Rating: 3 of 5 Stars!