I am wondering if anyone has experiencing recording HDV footage driectly to a Mac Book Pro? I am in the process of shopping for a Firestore for my Canon XHA1 and thought that for just a little bit more I could buy a whole laptop...

I am currently running FCP 5.1.4 but will be updating to FCP Studio 2 in the very near future. I am assuming you could capture HDV footage directly into a timeline with FCP just using it as a non-controllable device, am I right? Similar to pulling footage off of an existing VHS or DVD using a Pyro AV Link?

I'm just wondering at how complicated this whole capture/import process would be and if it would be worth it to invest in the Mac Book vs. the Firestore? A tapeless workflow will greatly streamline my abilities and this seems like it may be a viable solution.

THANKS!

I think yes it's possible.

Advantages: well you have a complete computer... and if you are going for a Macbook Pro, pretty powerful laptop, you will also be able to do basic editing on it.

Disadvantages: it maybe won't work in every situation... If you have to do follow someone, you can't drag the laptop behind you. If you are doing a tracking shot, you could do it theoretically, but you have to be sure the laptop doesn't loose the connection with the camera, and if it's a complicated shot...

A couple of days ago I got a beta tester request for ScopeBox 2.0, which will support HDV (!). I assume the price will still be ~$700, which I find pretty steep, but the current version has some nice features (including buffered pre-roll capture). I'll definitely be looking at it again now that I have an HDV camera.

I've been capturing SD footage into iMovie on an iBook, using a Belkin AirClick remote and Proxi to map the remote key to "space" to trigger import. You might be able to do the same thing with FCP, so you don't have to keep reaching for the keyboard. Proxi will also map button presses from the Apple Remote included with the MacBook Pro, so you don't need a new remote.

-Terence

I think yes it's possible.

Disadvantages: it maybe won't work in every situation... If you have to do follow someone, you can't drag the laptop behind you. If you are doing a tracking shot, you could do it theoretically, but you have to be sure the laptop doesn't loose the connection with the camera, and if it's a complicated shot...

Yeah mobility is my only fear.

The FSC-100 makes sense but the $1700 price tag is a little ridiculous. I'm not even going to bother with the Focus Enhancements FS4HD's and the problems they have have with specific Canon and Sony cameras.

I don't need a new computer system, but for the price of a FSC it's hard to not just get the MacBook Pro :/

Yeah mobility is my only fear.

The FSC-100 makes sense but the $1700 price tag is a little ridiculous. I'm not even going to bother with the Focus Enhancements FS4HD's and the problems they have have with specific Canon and Sony cameras.

I don't need a new computer system, but for the price of a FSC it's hard to not just get the MacBook Pro :/

I agree with that, I thought the price was like 800 dollars (what I still would find pretty much) but at that pricetage, it's maybe makes more sense to buy a MAcbook Pro which can serve you much more in the future.
Of course, depending on which project, again (look at the notes about mobility indeed)