Laptop monitoring solution?
 

A thought;

What about running the firewire connection to a capable laptop with at least a 1280X720 resolution monitor and a firewire input? Screen size would be at least 15" or 17" which would be great for focusing.

I don't have the JVC, but I've done this with my Sony TRV20. You connect the camcorder to the laptop and I have to launch the editing program to view the camcorder output in real time.

I think the same should work for the JVC. Anyone have a laptop and care to try it? If anyone wants to send me their HD10/HD1 I can check it out for you. :-)

HP has a nice little laptop on the PC side that should work nicely. It has a 17" widescreen 1400 X 900 res monitor with firewire built in. The model is the zd7010us.

I'm sure the Apple aficionados here with Powerbook G4s may be able to do the same as well.

Troy

Yes that quite possible at least on my XL1s. I shot around 25%
of my Lady X episode with my laptop connected. The XL1s only
outputs at SD so that's 720x576 for me at PAL. The main reason
I used it was to see what is going on in the area of the image
the viewfinder doesn't show. Also it was handy on some occasion
for checking light levels and focus.

1. The JVC's bundled software does *not* allow for monitoring the footage, only capturing TS files to the hard drive. Anybody knows of the PC-based alternative solutions that do real time video monitoring?

2. 17" is too small to see the difference between SD and HD. You can as well use a *SD video monitor* driven by the cam's S-Video output: real time monitoring, no problem.

In my opinion, if the monitor is less than 22", there is no visible difference between HD and SD, because pixels are simply situated too close together.

Different opinions backed by experience are welcome!

(Do I need new glasses? :)

Any update in regards to field monitoring with a laptop?
Has there been any development in software to make this happen?
Ken

Not that I'm aware of. In doing some additional research I came across a software package that JVC offers for a network digital camera via firewire, but I don't think it would support video. I've got an email into them to see. I'll post an update.

Does Cineform capture video or does it just import video thats already been imported?

What about Premiere Pro? Anyone use that?

Troy

I can't believe that with all of the advancements as far as editing HDV that no one has designed an app for video preview. It doesn't even have to record, just give an actual view of what would be recorded.
How about virtualDub in preview mode?
Ken

Have patience. :) Connect HD and Aspect HD users will have ability to use their laptops as HD field monitors shortly.

Good points, Phil and Ken. I'm sure it will come soon.

heath

How do you know that Phil? I really hope this is the case. I figured if it was coming Mr. Newman would have posted.
Ken

Phil is another engineer at CineForm. All the engineers at CineForm simple like creating HD tools, sometimes on the side. Phil is the developer responsible for this new tool, so he will post again when he has a beta release.

Oh that is great guys. I was hoping that was the case. It will effect our buying decision in regards to monitors, therefor I appreciate the forshadowing. We all want the most out of our budgets.
Ken

If Cineform are developing a real-time, firewire connected, display program for a tabletpc, I am interested in that as a standalone program. Please enable a pen/button UI rather than requiring the keyboard.

If they want to add the option to capture to disk as well, so that I can turn my tabletpc into a 'firestore like device'. I would welcome that as well. Even if it requires an external 7200rpm drive on the USB2 or FW400 bus.

And if they are still looking for FEATURES to add ... an option for a 30 second lagged display. I video a lot of basketball and hooking up a computer and projector off the firewire bus to enhance the venue with an HD instant replay would be awesome!

Ken - As David noted I'm working on simple utility to take the firewire feed from an HDV camera and display it in a window your PC desktop. Noticed the activity on the thread and figured why not. Should have a beta available to current customers in a day or two.

John - Thanks for the input. The program essentially has no UI as you just connect the camera, run the app and you get your video in a window. So it should work fine in a tabletpc environment IF the tablet PC can decode the HD MPEG-2 video in real-time. The spooling to disk is possible and whether it becomes a feature of this new program, of HDLink or both hasn't been decided yet. The delayed display of the firewire feed is more complex. We'll have to think about that a bit.

Are we talking the same level of CPU/FSB that is required for AspectHD, or would we be able to get away with a lower system for this preview stream?
Ken

You need enough CPU/memory bandwith to decode and playback the full-res MPEG-2 stream.

Fairly straightforward test would be to load one of the M2T files that HDLink or the JVC capture utility can capture onto the system in question and play it back in MediaPlayer. Check your cpu load in Task Manager while it is playing. You'll want some breathing space so playback should be less than 90% load.

A 2GHz P4 with DDR seems to be about the minimum.

Any further word on that laptop monitoring solution? I'm a ConnectHD user and would love to try it. Thanks.

Scott - We are doing some limited beta testing at the moment. I'll contact you directly.

Phil

would this be limited to a PC or would a mac work as well?

would it have to be a super face laptop?

thanks

Phil is with AspectHD if I'm not mistaken, which means it's for PC only. I believe...

heath

It is for PC only and it needs to be fast enough to decode the full-res stream in real-time.

So if your laptop can playback one of the transport streams generated by the camera in VLC or some other MPEG2 player with at least a little bit of CPU left over it will probably work.

And that's correct Heath. I work for CineForm.

Any possiblity of getting software vectorscope and waveform while monitoring HDV on the laptop? We use FCP on a laptop for this with DV and it is great since we can't afford hardware scopes.

It looks like Ulead's HDV plugin will do monitoring also on the PC side, but I don't know if it will be fullscreen or not.

Troy

A real laptop monitoring solution available
 

Hi,

At this time, you can use Paul Glagla's Captureflux for incoming DV sources.

It's a freeware. And you can use live picture coming from the camcorder in fullscreen at full speed on a 2 GHz laptop


http://paul.glagla.free.fr/6.htm


In French and usable first for direct capture on Notebook.


Try it !

Saylvain Pallix

www.repaire.net

(French Site about video, more than 28 000 members)

Is that software DV only? HDV is a different issue, although the idea is similar. I sure that tool could be upgraded.

I just noticed that, too. DV.

heath

I think Paul Glaga has no access to HDV camcorder for a release. I will ask him.

Look in my post, i had precised in the first line for incoming DV sources. By waiting for the tool from Cineform, you can use Captureflux with Y/C câble from the JVC camcorder to a compact convert Box (analkogue to DV) like Canopus ADVC-55 (pocket size).


Message for David Newman, are Aspect HP and Connect HD PAL ready now ?

Sylvain Pallix


www.repaire.net

(French Site about video, more than 28 000 members)

Camera Video & Multimùedia (EMAP_ Monthly paper magazine about video)

Sylvain,

The CFHD codec can handle just about any format. HDLink -- the CineForm capture/convert utility -- will happily convert 720p30, 480p60 and 576p50 without any issues. However, converting the 576p25 is problematic today -- this will be adressed soon. With this one exception Connect HD is ready today. Aspect HD has many more real-time tools than Connect HD, these tools are being finalized to support the p60 and p50 modes that will be part of a free upgrade soon.

For the Mac folks (like myself) I ran across this on the iMovie page the other day:

I don't have iMovie 4 yet to test this function out with a different FireWire camera than it suggests (iSight). If someone has tested this, let us know. My new Powerbook should be here in time for my first weekend of shooting and I'd like to give it a try as a monitor.

Um....of course there needs to be a pretty long cable, too.

Patrick,

does this have to do with cutting via HDV (the new hi-def video format) from the JVC HD10 or HD1?

heath

Where are we at as far as the Cineform preview? How have the beta tests worked out?
Ken

It is still in testing Ken. Been very busy getting ready for NAB.

A live laptop monitoring mechanism via firewire sounds interesting but is a lot harder than it seems with MPEG HDV. HDV really is a different beast than DV through firewire.

I suspect that the best you'll accomplish will be a couple seconds delay.

I beleive that monitoring while recording in full 720p resolution today can be accomplished by hooking the cam to a DVHS deck via firewire which in turn displays the footage on HDTV. I haven't tried it, but I think that the delay is also of a couple seconds...maybe less.

I have seen the cam hopoked up to the deck via firewire then displayed on an hdtv monitor. The delay is 24 frames, as explained by the JVC rep, since each stage takes 12 frames to do the MPEG compression/decompression. 12 to get into the firewire from the cam, then another 12 to come back out of the decks hd outputs.

So the live image on a laptop would probably have the same delay time, (if not more,) since software on the mac has to do the same as the decks decompression was doing.

The image was VERY good by the way, until you moved the camera, then there was NOTICABLE smear on the monitor. The test target was a very well lit display of dolls. You could clearly see the individual threads of the stuffed animals, and the hairs of the dolls. This was right next to a JVC D550 camcorder, aimed at the same dolls. It looked soft but brighter, less contrasty in the shadows. No threads visible, hairs were all together, but more like pro video that one would expect. HDV looked more like a window into a darker room, clear sharp, (not over-enhanced,) and.. real. I was impressed.

Just my 2 cents. Your mileage may vary, don't go out too far after eating, and look both ways before crossing. ;>

Arick, a friend of mine points out that the new version of VLC gives you the ability to have live preview using "Open capture device". I just tried it and it works! Next I will try real time conversion to another format using VLC.

JVC HD7 live feed
 

I know it's a little less PRO than some cameras getting around, but one of the HandyCams we have been playing around with is the JVD HD7. We are trying to set it on a tripod, connect it to the PC via firewire and hit record so we can leave it to feed straight to the PC HDD (skip the HDD onboard). Do you think we can get it to do it? NOOOO...

We have searched high and low across the JVC website and can't find a solution. Basically, we can't get any PC to recognise the camera. Am I missing something?

We have gotten this live feed to HDD working on any other format camera (ie. a miniDV camera etc) but can't get it recording from the JVC.

Similarly, is it possible to convert the TS files to something Premiere Pro can read? Again I have searched online and can't find anything on it.

I'm sure I must be missing something!

Thanks for the help!

Regards
Mark

Hi Mark,

I will post a reply to your other stuff on the other thread shortly.

But I just though have you tried using OnLocation? (Bundled with Premiere CS3 or CS4).

I use OnLocation for live HD recording...don't know if you will run into the same problems as with Premiere though because they probably run on the same capture engine, but it could be worth a go?

Cheers

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

You know I hadn't even thought of that. Will definitely give it a try and let you know how I go.

Thanks for the idea!

Regards

Mark