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Need help with video to hard drive acquisition
Need your expert help. We have an emergency response communication vehicle that has basically to do with radio communications at large emergency scenes. However the main RADIO tech has decided in his infinite wisdom that we need to be able to record video also. We basically would have 3 acquisition sources 1: A video camera mounted on a 40 foot telescoping mast on top of the vehicle. 2: Television channels via a satelite TV set up ( to record news reports of the incident) and 3: A wireless downlink from the Sheriffs helicopter with a video camera in it. We have all three of these feeds – and all are analog. They will be run into a switcher of some sort so we can choose which camera we want to record. It doesn’t really matter if they are synched. It would not matter if there was a slight glitch at the switch point. There is no audio associated with any of these video feeds. However there is a fourth feed of audio from a scanner so that the harried voices of those involved will be recorded at the same time and can be put together. We want to record to hard drive in a computer (PC XP). The computer does not have fire wire. The radio tech bought a Pinnacle Studio Movie Box plus to run the composite video to and then to the computer via USB. The composite run from the switcher to the Pinacle will be about 25 feet. He does not want to run another wire! His idea is to capture the video on the HD and then do very basic editing (cuts etc) and burn to DVD to pass out to personel at the scene for updates on conditions.
Does this sound like a reasonable approach?
We are stuck with the analog sources but most of the other ingredients could possible be altered.
Any ideas would be gratefully considered.
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2 Replies
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Terry,
I would record all your “Switched Video” to DV tape. Then import the video you want to the computer. However, if you feel the Hard Drive is the best option you could use DV Rack by Adobe and record to a hard drive. I would use an external hard drive for capture. I have hooked up a switcher to DV Rack and recorded multiple sources to the hard drive. I used a canopus ADV-100 to convert from analog to digital via firewire. A firewire card cost about $30 bucks.Mark
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I say…
Recording all feeds to cheap mini DV cameras on tape in real time to not miss a thing. use the output firewire of camera in real time to a firewire switcher that feeds “DV rack” or “scenealyzer” then straight to external firewire hard drive for editing at a different location.
This way if the live edit is good then great but if you miss an important switch you’ll know exactly where it is on the tape. Go get it , pop it in the timeline and your back on . very little wasted time, if it all goes south (crashes etc. at least all is on tape. I say cheap miniDV cameras cuz your not using the lens part. only the converters and record transport. Save money !!
you can get 3 for the price of a DV deck.Zipedit
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