Record from Camera straight into Sony Vegas

[John Rofrano]

Yes, it’s possible record from camera straight into Sony Vegas but not with your camera. You would need a camera with Firewire output or one that outputs to HDMI while recording and then you’d need an AJA card that cost 5x as much as your camera to capture it.

So basically the answer to your particular question is No, there is no way to capture directly into Vegas with that camera.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Dave Turnidge]

I’d like the answer to a slightly different version of the op’s question – Why, if Vegas won’t allow us to use anything other than FireWire, doesn’t Sony put FireWire in their cameras anymore. Or, asked a different way – Why, if Sony won’t put FireWire in their cameras any more, doesn’t Vegas allow a different input other than FireWire?

I suppose I’m being simplistic – that is, the cameras I CAN AFFORD don’t have FireWire…

Dave o/

[Robert Mu]

Exactly this!

There surely must be some other way to feed video from camera to vegas. Maybe some sort of interface?

[John Rofrano]

[Dave Turnidge] “I’d like the answer to a slightly different version of the op’s question – Why, if Vegas won’t allow us to use anything other than FireWire, doesn’t Sony put FireWire in their cameras anymore.”

Firewire is the protocol used for capturing DV and HDV from tape in “real-time”. It had enough bandwidth to keep up with a real-time data flow of 13GB/hr. Since cameras no longer use tape… they no longer need Firewire and can use the much cheaper USB protocol to transfer files.

[Dave Turnidge] “Or, asked a different way – Why, if Sony won’t put FireWire in their cameras any more, doesn’t Vegas allow a different input other than FireWire?”

I didn’t say that Vegas will only allow capture via Firewire. It also supports SDI capture via Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme/Intensity Pro/HD Extreme 3D and AJA Io Express, KONA 3x, LH, LHe, LHi, LS, and LSe cards. HDMI capture is supported on the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme/Intensity Pro/HD Extreme 3D, AJA Io Express, and AJA KONA LHi cards.

It will also capture via USB as well. Unfortunately, no cameras other than web cams will record live out to their USB ports. So there are lots of ways to get a live feed into Vegas. Vegas is just software. You need to have the correct hardware to support live capture. If this is a hard requirement for you and you don’t have the money for an SDI card, I’d strongly recommend you pick up and old HDV camcorder on eBay for this purpose.

[Dave Turnidge] “I suppose I’m being simplistic – that is, the cameras I CAN AFFORD don’t have FireWire…”

It’s not a question of price. I’m sure you can afford to buy an HDV camcorder. They just don’t make them anymore so you’d have to buy a used one. As I said, tapeless cameras don’t use Firewire so unless you want to go back to using tape, you don’t need Firewire, you need a capture card that can read from your cameras HDMI port.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[robert mu] “There surely must be some other way to feed video from camera to vegas. Maybe some sort of interface?”

It does:

• Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme/Intensity Pro/HD Extreme 3D and AJA Io Express, KONA 3x, LH, LHe, LHi, LS, and LSe cards are supported. Please note that AJA XENA cards are now branded as KONA cards. For more information, see https://www.aja.com/products/kona/transition.php.
• HDMI capture is supported on the Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD Extreme/Intensity Pro/HD Extreme 3D, AJA Io Express, and AJA KONA LHi cards.
• Vegas Pro does not support analog video inputs for SDI cards. However, Vegas Pro does support component video output for external preview.
• For the latest information about supported hardware, see https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/io#sdi.

Unfortunate for you, the Movie Studio version probably doesn’t support these cards. The best you can do with Movie Studio is use a web cam via USB or buy an HDV camera.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com