I am a new member, and this is my first comment. I too am awaiting the AG-HVX200 - I am currently shooting with an AG-DVX100A. My question is, how likely is one to be able to record directly from the AG-HVX200 to a laptop hard drive via either firewire or USB-2 ? I would assume that some type of NLE program would be used in capture mode. Is the data stream too large for this approach ? Mark Donnell, M.D. Silver City, NM

I think it's possible, but you'll need a laptop with much disc space...
But I'll let other people give better comments on this thread, but if I'm not mistaken, it should be possible.

How much disk space would depend on the desired format and frame rate. The HVX can output everything from plain vanilla DV all the way to DVCPRO HD. If it has to be HD then that will require 1GB per minute of video.

I was planning to record DVCPRO HD, and I have a laptop with a 250 GB hard drive and 1 GB RAM. What might be a small software program that could be used to record DVCPRO HD in real-time ? Mark Donnell, Silver City, NM

I'm expecting my new Apple desktop to come in by midweek (2.3 dual core, 2gb memory, 500gb hard drive to start + Final Cut Studio)--there's nothing else I'll need to buy to run this camera into the computer and store footage directly, right? Just a big ass firewire?

But say....right this minute we have a high powered windows laptop with oodles of RAm and HD space. What program exactly would we need to capture HD (720 or 1080) directly to hard drive. I have Premiere Pro and Vegas.....I'm guessing neither will do the job as of now.

Neither would do the job as of now. On the PC platform you'd need Avid Express Pro HD or Canopus Edius with whatever plug-in options would be necessary.

I'm certain someone will develop a capture application, but as of now I think only DV100-enabled editing programs could be used for capture.

And with Avid Xpress Pro HD, you can mix resolutions on the timeline without the need for rendering.

Another beauty of the Avid program is that if you jam sync timecode from multiple HVX-200s (or other cameras with the same or different resolutions), you can group the clips from these sources and edit in multicam mode.

I'm doing all this and more on an off-the-shelf HP nx9600, and it works well.

Regards,

Joe Womble

Another dumb question. At work I have a Mac-Mini that I use for doing titles only. Primarily because we had a copy of Final Cut Pro HD with LIvetype. I conned the office into buying the Mac-mini so I could use it for titling and animation. IT does the job ok but is not very powerful or fast.

However if I hook up my external firewire drive to this and the HVX200 also can I capture HD directly? I know editing HD on a "lowly" mac-mini is not realistic. But would capturing be an option? I guess if it is I am still stuck as I can't edit on my more powerful PC with Premiere Pro or vegas. My only chance is we do have a copy of AVID express dv. MAybe there is a cost effective upgrade to the HD version....then again maybe not.

I am just trying to look for my options. Initially I will be doing SD projects only.....but I need to be ready.

Thanks.

If the Mac Mini meets Apple's minimum system specs for capturing HD, then it certainly seems possible. Capturing is a lot less system-intensive than editing, so I'd bet it's possible...

As regards the Mac Mini
Wouldn't you need to "Log & Capture" from Final Cut or iMovie to start the input of footage to a Mac Mini?
I doubt if you just plugged the firewire in from the HVX200 and walked arouund with the Mini in a backpack it would work.
I hope that I am wrong, because then we would have a 100G firestore for 700$

However,
If you are send ing footage directly through Firewire
(I know yo loos some mete data...but...) wont it compress the footage a bit more than
capturing to the P2 card (or HD that plugs into P2 slot) ?

Obviously you need software that "logs and captures" footage. The mac mini can't just work like a firestore. I can run final cut pro HD on the mac mini with an external firewire drive and it is very capable of DV. HD is what I am asking about.

And this is not as an alternative to a firestore.....I am asking for studio type work. If I had Avid HD I'd use it on my PC. But since I don't, and I do have FCP HD on my mac mini I thought maybe I could put it to use.

But for those of us who do have Final Cut, then perhaps the mini would be an option... hmmm... any way to plug it into a portable power source? I like your backpack idea:)

Yes,
Knowing these things I had determined to use my 17" Apple to pull in the Live Video with Log & Capture,

Along these lines,
Will Capturing Live via Firewire involve any extra compression than a P2?

& Betsy, I may resort to pressing Log & Capture, folding the laptop up almost all the way (with a towel in it) and throwing it in a backpack)
--Guerilla tactics, I know, but we use what we can

(and this is talking about getting footage in Not editing)

Cheers,

I think there is mass confusion over the issues regarding editing HD, especially by those who have never done it. It is not DV or HDV, it is a different animal. How are you guys planning on delivering HD? That is the REAL strain...real time HD output that in most all cases require a very fast RAID and a Kona or similar card. Also, if you are dealing with a project with lots of CC or effects you are looking at your render times quadrupling.

I just was hired to oversee a project shot in HD and we ended up having to spend almost $40k just for the post production tech upgrade. That is a FCP system, not an Andrenaline or AVID. $22k was for a DVCproHD deck, $10K on a big Fibre Raid, the rest was for monitoring, cabling and the Power-Mac set-up. This system will get us 4-7 streams of DVCproHD which should be workable.


ash =o)