Is this even possible... if I connect two miniDV devices to a laptop (or a desktop really) and run two different capture programs and have them writing to 2 physically separate drives?

Will most capture programs choke when there's 2 cameras connected?

I guess I could just try this but if someone already has and know that only very specific software and/or hardware combinations will work please share you experience.

Thanks,
Kevin

I don't think that this is possible, for at least one reason. How do the capture programs identify which camera belongs to which program? The cameras don't have IDs.

The capture program I used under Linux, dvgrab, does allow for capture from multiple cameras at the same time. But, each camcorder must be able to reassign it's device number on the firewire bus. Many camcorders do not allow this. (FYI: DV cameras are usually device number 63). I have not done this as I only own one camcorder, but this information comes from the programmer who wrote dvgrab and he has done it.

From my experiences with capture under Windows, you would need a very high end system. Since you want to record to separate hard drives anyway, my suggestion would be to setup two indedendent laptops.

Canopus DV capture can do 3 cam at the same time, but you need Storm card.

via a firewire switcher may be the way to go if you consider doing it live.