We will be using the video camera in our Church service. Is there a way to connect the camera to the PC and record directly to the hard drive? This would bypass the tape and save a step from copying it from tape to disk. I am sure I would have to get a video card with componet inputs and some type of recording software. Please let me know if anyone has done this or heard of anyone doing this. Thanks Thomas

We will be using the video camera in our Church service. Is there a way to connect the camera to the PC and record directly to the hard drive? This would bypass the tape and save a step from copying it from tape to disk. I am sure I would have to get a video card with componet inputs and some type of recording software. Please let me know if anyone has done this or heard of anyone doing this. Thanks Thomas

Actually, if you have the proper software for capture, the camera outputs real-time firewire data while in preview mode. So you you just point to the talents, and start recording the stream on the PC. Depending on whether you have a Mac or a Windows PC, the software will differ.

No need to go analog, though.

Hugo

I would advise using Serious Magic's HDVrack. Allows you to capture directly to a PC. If you are using a laptop make sure you have adequate disk speed and either an Intel, Nvidia or Ati video card. Same could be said for a desktop PC as well. Definately capture the video onto a seperate physical drive (not partition) then your Windows drive.

I checked out the price and if you want HD you need to buy another module. Total cost for both is $490.00 ( a lot for me). Is there any other software out there that will it to record to the hard drive?

Its great software and worth the price. It is almost a must have tool for getting pro quality results with the HD10, IMO. You can try VLC player
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
I'm am not sure how well it works for long form content capture. You will have to test and see. I would recommend a search in this very forum for an old thread where the software was used with the cam.

You could try CapDVHS.

Powerdirector 5 for $89.00. It comes with a bunch of video editing goodies too.

We're you able to capture HDV directly (not using tape) to your computer with Powerdirector 5?

Nothing fancy about it and you need a fast PC or Laptop (Big Hardrive too). In other words it does not give you a lot of option when capturing. But once we have it you can captured then the fun begins.

Thomas,
For a couple years now, I have been using VLC to capture HDV streams from the HD10 directly to disk. The application is filming a jam band.

I have a medium speed Dell notebook (PIII/1.5Ghz/512MB) running XP with a combo USB2.0/Firewire PCMCIA card. The cam is connected to the PC via the Firewire port and VLC recognizes the HD10 as the JVC Tape Device. VLC writes the MPEG2TS stream to a second hard drive connected via USB2.0. You should have a fairly fast, 7200RPM drive to write to. As long as you take the i/o load off the system drive, this setup works well. The only scary part is:
1) if the drive craps out while you're recording (combat this by recording to tape as backup at the same time)
2) VLC doesn't have any protection against overwriting previously used filenames for the output stream. I've overwritten a number of jams with my fat fingers this way. So you need to have your wits about you while doing this.

But..the solution is free..unless you're a good lad and want to donate to the VLC folks (www.videolan.org)!
:)
scott

- by the way, the Lowe CompuTrekker is an excellent bag that holds everything you need for this app: cam/computer/tripod. And no, I don't work for Lowe. I just like the bag.

HDV Rack is mega overpriced for a casual user like Thomas. Even for prosumers the lack of HDV timecode support makes it useless.

VLC Media Player is a great recording, framing/focus and playback tool and its free. The current version (8.5) will soon be replaced by a newer more HDV friendly version with more features.

I haven't tried it, but the import/export capture tool that comes with the GR HDs might capture a stream.

Hey Scott, I have been good! I donated to Videolan.

There is also free HDVSplit program. I have used it with my Compaq laptop, and USB hard drive.

(PIII/1.5Ghz/512MB)

P3 1.5. Huh?

Hey Scott, I have been good! I donated to Videolan.

You The Man, Jeff! Good job!
:)

Can you elaborate a bit on the HDV changes to VLC? I downloaded the latest build as of yesterday and do not see any obvious menu changes. Is this TBD future development or something that should be inherent in the builds coming out now?