HVX200 via Firewire direct to Powerbook?

[Noah Kadner]

That is correct- set to DVCPROHD 720p or 1080i- whichever you’re shooting at and select uncontrollable device for Firewire device control. Then hit capture now.

Noah

[David S.]

It work pretty lickity split.

I was able to capture 720p.24 directly to the internal hard drive and not drop frames.

Not that I would recommend it.

[Bill Marcellus]

OK, I’ll bite. Why wouldn’t you recommend capturing directly to a laptop? More chance of dropped frames due to other CPU processes going on?

Bill

[David S.]

My advice is to never capture directly to an internal boot drive, particularly a 2.5 inch boot drive

I was just testing.

Get a second firewire bus using either a PC Card or ExpressCard/34, and attach cam to that, and external firewire drive to the other bus.

[Noah Kadner]

While I’d agree that in theory it’s a bit questionable I’ve found capturing and then moving media from the PB internal drive in practice is fairly reliable and less cumbersome in the field than tethering to an external drive. Just make sure you’ve got abort on dropped frames checked and leave plenty of space on the internal drive. And do many tests before going to shoot.

Noah

[Mitch Ives]

[Bill Marcellus] “OK, I’ll bite. Why wouldn’t you recommend capturing directly to a laptop? More chance of dropped frames due to other CPU processes going on?”

Because anything using the FW codec (especially twice) has the potential to have an unhappy ending. Some of us have been doing direct to laptop recording long before the HVX and it is generally only a matter of time until you have an issue. Where’s your backup for the lost footage? Correct, you have none… it’s lost.

P2 recording doesn’t involve the FW codec chips, which is why so many of us are interested in seeing the Cineporter.

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com

Apple Certified Trainer: Final Cut pro 5

[Bill Marcellus]

Let me say that I am not a big fan of direct to laptop recording. We are just looking for the most efficient means of moving data from set to edit suite while also creating a backup file of all material. This project has a six month shooting schedule which will result in 13 hours of finished program material- so we’ll be dealing with a lot of footage.

We are very concerned about losing footage, securing a backup, etc. We are still exploring workflow options including utilizing the P2 store or using the Firestore.

Even if we transfer to a P2 store there is a possibility of data corruption on its internal drive- or in transferring that data to another drive via Firewire, etc. etc.

All of that being said I am excited about using this camera. The initial euphoria of eliminating the capture/logging stage has been tempered by the feeling of working “without a net” due to not having the comfort of a tape sitting on a shelf ready for recapture at any time. It does seem that no matter our choice of workflow we will be working without a net at some point in the process which is one of the vagaries of dealing exclusively in the digital domain.

Thanks for all of the input- and any additional advice is welcomed.

Bill