Directly record to powerbook
 

Okay,
I know it's possible to directly record to a powerbook using the 'capture now' function in FCP5. Is there any software, or work-around to be able to have the powerbook (not asleep of course) in a backpack connected to a bus powered drive and your camera connected as well...being able to trigger recording on the PB without having to get it out of the backpack to press capture now? Thanks.

Nope. Sorry.

Shane

I don't think you can do that. Aside from the remote control aspect, how would you keep the computer awake while it's closed up?

But as an alternative to FCP for powerbook capture you might look at BTV pro. It has some nice features like full screen monitoring, it's cheap shareware and you can try it for free:

http://www.bensoftware.com/btvpro.html

There are hacks to make Powerbooks work while closed, but a huge part of ventilation for them is through the keyboard, so I don't recommend it. Going with a HD that records directly from DV input would be the way to go.

Yeah, and having it confined inside a backpack as well as closed would really present a heat problem. My powerbook runs very hot just sitting on my desk!

One of the features of BTV Pro is motion detection i.e. it will start recording when it senses a change in the video. Thus you might be able to kluge up an arrangement where you close the aperture of the camera when not desiring to record and open it when you want to start. You can adjust the threshold sensitivity and how long you want recording to keep going after motion stops so it would be possible to get static shots of some reasonable duration this way. None of this would help with the heat shedding problem though. Sounds as if the Firestore is a more practical, if more expensive, way to go.

Or maybe.... a tape in the camera? ;-)