Capture straight to laptop

iDV8

iDV8

Well-known member
I have a new HVX200 and no P2 card yet as I am waiting for the 16GB to come out. But I need to shoot before then and am wondering how reasonable it is to capture straight to a laptop (with extra battery)? This shoot doesn’t require a great deal of mobility and I have a very long cable. Plus I get instant playback (with my Avid). Sounds good to me but I’ve never done it. Am I on track?
 
Sure are.

But you need a utility such a DVRack 2.0 HD on a PC, or Scopebox or HD Monitor on a Mac.

Or a NLE that supports it, such as Final Cut Pro on a Mac.
 
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I don't remember for sure, but I don't think Avid supports live capture. I know EDIUS and Final Cut do. Otherwise, as David said, you will need DVRack, which is now a bundled package... part of Adobe's editing suite, as far as I know.

Jason
 
Works Great !

I capture live to my G4 PB 1.67 with the 7200rpm HD INTO FINAL CUT PRO not avid ....
and i can capture any flavor on the HVX for as long as I want... I have a 4.5m cable i use...

I dont know how it works with avid these days..but as long as u get something like ( David S). said above that will capture live to a NLE or DV rack or something you should be fine...

Good Luck !
 
I can capture to my desktop with Avid so I think I'll buy a laptop and extra battery and capture straight to it. I need to buy a laptop anyway to down load from the P2. I just wanted to know if it was as simple as I was making it out to be.

Man, when I pushed the budget to go HD I really pushed it big-time! And I'm excited about it.
 
Yep. If your NLE supports live capture, it's pretty easy. Just make sure you don't try to capture pn modes, as they can't be sent over the firewire stream 'live'.

Later,
Jason
 
iDV8 said:
[...]and I have a very long cable.
Click to expand...
That is not a good idea. The maximum IEEE 1394a cable length is 4.5 meters, and while cables longer than that are routinely used with DV and HDV cameras, they will not work reliably with the higher data rates of DVCProHD or other devices like hard drives.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
Just make sure you don't try to capture pn modes, as they can't be sent over the firewire stream 'live'.
Jason
Click to expand...

I'm glad you mentioned that. I was having some trouble the other day with that and I thought it was a wimpy laptop or something.

THoff said:
The maximum IEEE 1394a cable length is 4.5 meters, and while cables longer than that are routinely used with DV and HDV cameras, they will not work reliably with the higher data rates of DVCProHD or other devices like hard drives.
Click to expand...

It's funny you mentioned that because I just measured mine (IEEE 1394 cable) and it's 4.5 meters. Thanks for letting me know that's the maximum length.
 
Even when they stated that you can use max 15 feet cables only, I have used 20 feet without problem in DVCPro HD 100

I made a 20 feet working Firewire cable in DVCpro 100 (HD720 and 1080, 24p, 30p, 30i, varycam, etc, except PN, of course!)

Here the diagram to make the connections:

1173212315.jpg


I took a longer cable (50 feet, and shorten it), I have used it with VDRack and works perfect.

Note the cross-connection (Twisted pair) between TPA - & TPB + and TPB - & TPA +

Good Luck´:)
 
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I would just add, that if you're "capturing now" to FCP,
be sure to uncheck the "Dropped frames abort capture" box
in one of the preferences panes. Otherwise you might be in
for a very nasty surprise (namely, no file after a long shoot).

Les
 
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