Capturing HDV footage without FCP
 

Hi all, i was wondering if theres any programs I can use to capture HDV footage through firewire, without FCP? I hate the way the capture process ties up final cut, so id like to be able to set tapes capturing in another program while i work away in FCP.

I need a program that can capture 1080i50, 1080p25 as well as 720p25.

Im not interested in mpeg streamclip route- i want someting painless that captures the hdv straight into quicktime wrappers so they are 100% fcp compatible, and i dont have to fiddle about with them

Would be so easy if I could just run two instances of final cut!

Would imovie work, purely as a capture tool?

any ideas would be great

Look into Quicktime Pro. I've used it for SD capture with no problems, but can't answer your HD question. You can set it up to capture (recording) in the preferences.

Simple answer, if you have one, use another Mac to capture with FCP and transfer the files with an external drive.

Next answer, use DVHSCap to capture the MPEG transport streams off the HDV tape and wrap the files with ClipWrap. However I wouldn't advise capturing and editing at the same time on the same computer unless it was a recent model (Mac Pro, perhaps) and you have tested it fully. There can be too many hardware resources being shared by the two programs to work properly.

More expensive option; get a FireStore or similar direct to disk recorder device and hook that up to your deck and make QuickTime HDV files that way. I use my FireStore to do this a lot, works great and saves time.

"Yes, it does". Concurrently.

VLC on Windows can. Given its cross-platform support, the Mac version may, too.

Would imovie work, purely as a capture tool?
Yes, iMovie captures HDV but it converts the files into AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec).

@William- please explain your process for capturing mpeg streams via DVHSCap- every time I try to capture from my cam, it tells me no device is present. I've been using AVCVideoCap, but it sends me into a kernel panic after about 20,000 frames...

Not sure where to take you with the info here. What Mac are you using? Have you updated the OS recently? Are you capturing to an internal drive or an external?

AVCVideoCap and DVHSCap are essentially the same program with DVHScap being the older version. Both are supposed to read and transfer MPEG video streams directly out of a connected device. I've never had a problem with DVHScap recognizing either my Sony HDV equipment or my JVC HDV equipment. Try running the tape first and then starting the record process.