Multiple video capture to a Mac OS X

M

Mike Thompson

New member
(I am not sure if I am posting this to the correct forum. If not, please excuse me and please point me to the correct forum. I am trying to do the right thing.)

I am looking to connect up to five video cameras (DV, say Canon ZR500) to a Mac OS X. All cameras must capture concurrent video feeds stored as separate files on the Mac's hard drive. The resolution has to be good enough for videos to be uploaded to the Internet (eg youTube and others).

My thinking is using a 6-port firewire repeater between the cameras and the Mac.

So, to my question, will this setup work? I saw somewhere that the driver on the Mac cannot handle more than one video feed? If so, are there other solutions? Going to a Windows or Linux solution?

Any help is good help.

Thanks.
 
This might be better in one of the computer forums here, but I can't say which would be an ideal match. To me, it sounds like a better way to accomplish this would be to simply roll tape on all the cameras being used and then capture that into FCP and use it's multi-cam feature to cut them. That's how I'd do it, but maybe that's not possible for the application you're trying.
 
D. Thanks for the reply.

The key in the application is that we should be able to automatically go from shooting, to download into FCP to finished video to upload to web, eg no human intervention at all. Therefore, in my thinking (where it simple might not be possible) the cameras should shoot and store video directly on disk. Then upon finished shooting and using a previously recorded audio file and an EDL, automatically (using apple script and events) load all files into FCP where the finished video will be created. Then, again using applescript, upload directly to either our web site or youTube or other.

It is a complicated thing to build but I think really easy to run, assuming all works as planned.... :-)
 
this will be difficult. I don't have any experience on the Mac side, but with PCs (which all use the same hardware as Macs..) plugging multiple cameras into a firewire card can cause all sorts of probelms as the voltage levels jump around .. I've seen firewire ports fried by dooing this before.

- Mikko
 
Mikko, thanks for the reply. (by the way, you have a fun web site).

I would assume that you can plug in more than one camera at the time in a firewire port. After all, it is just IEEE 1394. Do you know why the voltage level would jump around?
 
I don't know why the voltage would jump around, and it's only a thoery, but it's based on a nasty experience...
The only time I've tried it (actually it was a friend who did it, I was there), Costco got a returned camera due to a fired firewire port. Luckily it was the crappy JVC palmcorder, not the GL2 that died. Both camera's where running on power, it was a desktop computer, and they where hot plugged (I can't remember the order).

Give then cameras', like the DVX paticularly (and a lot of Sony camcorders too) firewire ports cna be killed by power spikes - especially in the ground circuity - when plugged into desktops; I cna see it very possibel that as a 2nd, 2rd, etc.. device is plugged into a firewire card, teh card adjust the power and causes this port-killer spikes.

I think if I was to do it again, I'd probably recommend using a separate firewire card for each camera - therefore keeping them on their own isolated power-management circuits.

Of course, I've yet to come across a camera I wanted to (Ok, there was an FX1, but it wasn't mine...:evil: ) sacrifice with this test.

- Mikko
 
Mikko,

Are you familiar with either Big Mug Software or outcast.com (Aupperle)? They both allow you to capture multiple feeds onto one hard drive. If you have any info on either or both, that would be tremendous.

Thanks
 
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