Video Recorder for Live Show

[Petteri Evilampi]

My wild guess is You are going to use some sort of computer for editing?
So why not to use it for live capturing?
You can use computer as a video recorder, didn´t You know?

[Jeremy Wiles]

Sometimes the most obvious things can pass me by!

Can you go into a little more detail on capturing live footage with a computer? Please keep in mind we are shooting high-def. Does a firewire cable come straight out of the mixer into the computer? And what software do I need to use for live capture?

I really appreciate your help.

Jeremy

[Mark Suszko]

You could use the same software you edit with, to capture a video input live, however, there are some possible “gotchas”.

1: are you shooting in HD or standard def, what is coming out of the switcher, is THAT output HD or standard def, and using what format and connectors? If your switcher output is HDMI, you’ll need an HDMI input on the recording device, or some kind of translator (transcoder) in between the two. AKA and Blackmagic and others offer those devices, and AJA advertises a recorder module you might like caled the KI Pro, but they are pricey.

2: Yes, you can capture into, for example, Final Cut from a live video source, you just tell the capture module you are capturing from an uncontrolled device, and you can manually start and stop a recording. But, chances are you could get a momentary glitch in the signal that will cause the computer to drop out of recording, particularly the longer the amount of time you let it run without stopping, and it takes time to re-establish the capture. There is software that Adobe bought and re-branded as part of Premiere as On Location, this would be a better way to capture to a laptop, and you could edit from there with premiere or another NLE. Liekwise, I think Sony Vegas might be used for this, on a laptop or on a PC, i believe it has a specific interface for live recording but I’m not an expert on Vegas or Premiere, so you’ll have to get someone else’s input on the relative merits there. With most of the computer based recording solutions you are going to need a substantial outboard set of AV drives in a RAID array to get the thruput and speed and capacity for a long program, as well as redundancy against loss of data. That’s an added expense and figuring where and how to connect the drives and line up a signal flow is an added concern. And do you REALLY want to take your editing system out to the location for this?

There are stand-alone DVD recorders and some of them have multiple types of inputs, but I can’t recall one that makes a “high def” DVD on the fly. I would say as part of your church stewardship, decide first if the added complication and expense of an all-HD workflow and output is really worth it, or if the congregation is better served with a high-quality standard-def workflow.

[Tyler Ries]

I agree with Mark’s last statement, take that HD jump carefully. HD cameras can still produce a nice looking SD image. The important part is that all the white balance, iris, and other level controls match between the cameras; if they don’t, HD is not going to make the production any better. Once people catch on to the video productions, think about making the change to HD.

I assume that you are not making Blu-Ray disc copies for anyone who wants them, so having a good SD recording is the best way to go. Capturing straight into a computer will allow you to have some of the best image quality and edit straight out to a DVD.

[Richard Cardonna]

Try this

https://avtake.com/cutfoursd.asp

You can record and stream at the same time. Records avi 720×484 to separte disk, 4 cameras and desktop capture and send to screen at the same time. This and much more.

RC