Laptop Schemes with HVX

good advice Ullanta,

I have an older 17 that will work - but I may not be able to resist a smaller MacIntel as a back up - depending on the specs nd the

however, the older 15 & 12 inch will come down in price too and that may be more worthwhle
cheers,
 
with a powerbook running FCP, and the HVX tethered via firewire for direct streaming, can you run FCP for capture, after you have it set up, with the laptop closed?

[at this pt i'm thinking of just going for a powerbook 17 as both a direct capture in the field near term, a p2 store later after prices come down, and editing station (as much as I would have liked a quad...but one new cpu is enough).]
 
you can potentially disable that function...but not as a standard option as you can with some dells. figuring this out isn't a small thing in that otherwise slinging it over your shoulder ain't gonna be easy!

Did some research and apparently there are fixes for just this issue! Chk out this discussion thread: http://www.appletechs.com/archives/00000082.html

Seems there are easy work arounds including taking out the magnet, blocking it or inserting a plastic coffee cup lid!? :) See: http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/ibook.html

But doing this can lead to extra heat as usually some escapes through the key board (though tests seem to indicate this is manageable). BUT, if you put this in a booq bag you'd block the vents and really be in trouble. so perhaps a mesh sack, something nice and airflow pourous?
 
There may be a hack to keep it from going to sleep. But not that I know of.
I did a test where I put a piece of fabric on the keyboard to keep it from closing and threw it in a shoulder pack.
The thing is that you want it at your disposal so that you can turn on/off the Loga nd Capture...

What would be great is if the camera could start and stop the log and capture process.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/images/smilies/thumbup.gif

I have been playing with the idea of strappin a small laptop in a chest harness so that I can use the log & capture,
but also throw a P2 card in there if need be (I think that the P2scene files will be a better way to go)
but also use the display of the laptop as a monitor too
(both for steadicam work and for flippig the image with a 35mm adaptor)
 
could you expand on the Log and Capture issue. does this mean that you get the capture set up, turn the camera rec on, close the laptop lid and stick it in the (ventilated) sack, shoot for awhile, stop rec...and then have to pull out the laptop to set up the next shot?
 
Tim said:
could you expand on the Log and Capture issue. does this mean that you get the capture set up, turn the camera rec on, close the laptop lid and stick it in the (ventilated) sack, shoot for awhile, stop rec...and then have to pull out the laptop to set up the next shot?

yes, except I wouldn't close my Apple PB lid all the way (so it wont go to sleep)
I'd prop it open with something
a litlle laborious But as long as it's in a bag you can capture to another external drive hooked into (powered off of) the laptop.
take an extra laptop battery and you have unlimited recording

if you already own (or borrow) a laptop then you have unlimited recording for free.

I still opt for the P2 for a lot of shots though. I think it is very elegant.
But you better believe I will be using my laptop a lot in this manner
 
joining late here...

joining late here...

curious as my "hvx" del. is nearing (yeah right ;)).

do not want to be left w/o an easy way of stroring data off the p2's. (in the field)
(luckily i shoot short form stuff. so 2 4gig cards will work for me & i'll be switching 'em out)

so if what i'm reading is correct... simply buy a 15" pb w/ fcp & card slot & you're good to go (play back etc.)

:cheers: & tia for any feedback.

fwiw: i'll be cutting on a diff. tower g5, so the 15" pb would be used exclusively for data store... btw: anyone have a price in the panny "field card-store" unit & avails???
 
Yes a 15" powerbook will do what you want. You can import the P2 cards and convert them to quicktimes, and use FCP to view them after they've been converted.

A PC laptop may be more beneficial for this though, because on a PC laptop you can keep the data in its native MXF format and use the P2 Viewer program to view them. With the Mac, you'll have to convert them to quicktimes, which won't let you keep the data in its native MXF format (well, you could, but that would mean storing two copies of every file, cutting your potential storage time in half).

But, if you plan on doing any editing in the field, the Mac laptop would fit your workflow much better I'm sure.

The P2 Store unit is not really a direct replacement for a laptop, it's a special-purpose device. I think it's around $1800; I don't know about availability.
 
Barry_Green said:
Yes a 15" powerbook will do what you want. You can import the P2 cards and convert them to quicktimes, and use FCP to view them after they've been converted.

A PC laptop may be more beneficial for this though, because on a PC laptop you can keep the data in its native MXF format and use the P2 Viewer program to view them. With the Mac, you'll have to convert them to quicktimes, which won't let you keep the data in its native MXF format (well, you could, but that would mean storing two copies of every file, cutting your potential storage time in half).

But, if you plan on doing any editing in the field, the Mac laptop would fit your workflow much better I'm sure.

The P2 Store unit is not really a direct replacement for a laptop, it's a special-purpose device. I think it's around $1800; I don't know about availability.

So Barry,
by converting the clips to Quicktime there is some loss, some added compression that doesn't exist with PC's?
Hmmm.
 
No, there's no compression change and no image quality loss at all. What happens is that the MXF files get changed into quicktime files (losslessly). But this process does take some time, and it does discard the metadata.

However, it appears to be a very workable solution.
 
"and it does discard the metadata."

Is that after it make the conversion? So shoot overcranked (60fps) footage then for the QT conversion the metadata is read to create the slowmotion clip then discarded? Is that right?
 
Yes, sort of. It's not that the metadata is "discarded", per se, because it still exists on the card and in the original MXF's. But the Quicktime doesn't connect to it directly. You can do some sort of search function to find the metadata, I still haven't used FCP yet (I've got it, but no mac to run it on!) so I don't know exactly the process, but I do believe you could search and find the metadata to examine it...
 
thanks for the info. on this...

new powerbooks are out... will probably get my book before the cam arrives.

will go the mac route. :cheers:
 
I would Not get a new PB - there is no slot for the P2's (yet) I would let the ist Gen intel books pass.
Get a better deal on a 15" G4 Pbook
 
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