Recording Straight to Hard Drive in Vegas?
 

The other day, I had my HC1 out and was just doing some lighting testing, not actual recording. But I had it hooked up to my computer through the firewire, so I opened Vegas and hit the capture record button, and sure enough, it recorded. So I was wondering if there are any pros or cons to recording this way. I imagine it's not a good way, but I figured I'd ask anyway. I have a lot to learn about video production, cause I'm a computer animator by trade.

Have you compared the sound and video to footage captured by the camera?

I would think that Vegas might not be able to record as fast, and might drop more frames - with no way to get them back without original tape.

There must be numerous advantages offered by projects like DV RACK to do the same thing, so something must be left out when you record it this way.

Brian

Nah, you can record straight to disc with Vegas without fear. It's true that DVRack has some buffering, but not anything really worth mentioning. In fact, DVRack and similar uses greater resources than a capture app, because there is more code running, more display information, etc. There is also much more assistive feedback, however. With Vegas (or any other capture) you don't get the feedback, and therefore, less of a great experience. But the quality and ability of the two methods is effectively identical.

I did compare the footage, and it appeared to be just as good as stuff I've captured from tape. Is there a better way than just by eye to test it? Also, what about the whole 4.2.0 stuff? Or is it 4.1.1.? I've heard it's different between NTSC and PAL. I'm using an NTSC camera. Is it any different when recorded from the camera than from the tape?

Just make sure that you've optimized your computer, so it doesn't drop frames or perform any stupid non-real-time tasks in the middle of your capture. But you will want to do this anyway, regardless of your recording technique.

This is what I use: http://videoguys.com/WinXP.html

On my previous PC the thing dropped frames during capture like hot potatoes from Lucille Ball's manic conveyor belt. After I started tweaking my video/music PCs, they haven't dropped any frames since...

it's identical, bit for bit, to what is on tape. The difference is, tape is vulnerable to dropouts, where HDD is not.
If you're shooting NTSC DV, then the color sample on tape and on HDD is 4:1:1
If you're shooting PAL DV, then the color sample on tape and on HDD is 4:2:0
If you're shooting HDV of any flavor, the color sample on tape and on HDD is 4:2:0 (sampled differently than PAL DV)

What comes out of the Firewire port on *any* DV/HDV camcorder is a real-time clone of what's going to tape. It's also latent, just like it is on tape.

This could be huge.

Does this provide a viable alternative to the P2 cards on the HVX200 (not that I have one)?


Brian

We're already there, well past that. The Nnovia, Sony DR60, Firestore FS4, etc all record DV and HDV straight to HDD, most are between 40 and 100GB, and about the size of four packs of cigarettes. The new Sony DR60 is micro compared to the others. The new Bella system will allow you to use an iPod if you wish.
The advantage of P2 is it's very small size, their claim of non-moving parts (which is greatly open to creative debate), and that it's built into the camcorder. The excitement that some see is that it records DVCProHD to the card, but the cards are only 4, 8, and 16GB, so recording times aren't that great, and an HDD can record the DVCProHD datarate just as well.
For me, P2 is a waste of time, particularly in light of HDD's getting smaller and faster. I was initially really excited about skydiving and BASE with an HVX; turned out to be a waste. Unfortunately, no HDD system can be used for skydiving due to air pressure, so for my current "big" project, I'm having to record to tape, capture, and spend time messing with the "old" world. On the ground, I'm loving shooting to XDCAM and DR60, and of course my older, larger, but quite reliable Firestore.

DSE- Where do we find info on the Bella at this point, I was on their email list about a year ago.... Hadn't heard anything. Have you shot with it yet ?

So basically, the only pro to this method is not using up tape when just messing around, or if you're in a bind and don't have any tape, which would be an unusual scenario I would think.

DSE noted:

>>>>no HDD system can be used for skydiving due to air pressure, so for my current "big" project.....

Spot,

I read the article on Wild Weddings. You stayed in the plane, didn't you?

I cannot imagine having clients who might require you to JUMP!

Brian

Actually, I'm a skydiving coach and videographer.
This article has some footage I shot. My aerial footage has been on a few major and several lesser networks.