i know of DV RACK and the FIRESTORE but is there anyway i can hook up my canon xl1s to record directly to my laptop?
thanks,
mike

Michael,

if your laptop has a firewire connector and if you have a capturing software installed, there should be no problem to capture directly from your XL1 to the harddrive of the laptop. Having said that, the harddrive should be sufficiently fast to avoid dropped frames.

My laptop has a 7200 rpm harddrive and I've never had any problems capturing footage from my XL2.

adobe premiere?? will it capture when i press the record button on the camera? any other suggestions for software?

also i hate to add more, but what is the suggested length for a firewire cable from a camera to a laptop for recording purposes?

Michael,

Adobe Premiere or any other capture software (DV Rack is very nice) will do. However, you have to click on the record button in the preview window of Premiere. I don't think the hard disk recording will start simply by pressing the record button on the camera, but I never tried that.

Usually the longest firewire cable you'll get is 5m (about 15 feet). If you want more than that you will probably need some sort of repeater so you can connect two or more cables.

adobe premiere?? will it capture when i press the record button on the camera? any other suggestions for software?

Without a tape?

i.e., you want to press the record button on the camcorder even if there isn't a tape and have it trigger the computer to start capturing?

no i will most likely always have a tape as backup so yes there will be a tape in the camera as well.

The camera will not trigger record on the computer whether there is a tape in the cam, or not. The only software that I'm aware of that will do that is DV Rack. But you can capture with your laptop by starting record in the preview window as another poster mentioned.

no i will most likely always have a tape as backup so yes there will be a tape in the camera as well.

We are adding that capability to our DV processor. i.e., start capture when you press the camcorder's record button. Should be available in the next release (within a couple of weeks).

so I would just press record on camera then on the computer??

would that mess up the timecode?

if I were to delete the files premiere leaves them as an offline file in the project....if I went to re capture these would it not have the same timecode as the tape where I would be recapturing it from.

No. You would just press record on the camera. It will signal the software to start capturing. (It will also do the reverse - i.e., use the software to start the capture and have the camera go into record mode).

This is independent of Premiere, though.

John,

Do you have any idea on pricing when you get to the final release?
Also, when you implement the ability to start recording from the camera, will it be able to autoname files upon pause and restart?

well I tried it in premiere but when I press record on the camera it does not start recording on the computer...when I press record on the computer is does not record on the camera...i have to press the record on the computer and then on the camera to record to both laptop and tape. when I do this it is a few seconds apart so my question is about that and how the timecodes will be out of sync if I were to capture the footage from the tape, the actuall clips would be off because it was the time code of the laptop....

I hope that makes sense.

I really just want something that will record to my laptop when I press the record button on my camera...but I can't fork out $300 for dv rack

You and a lot of people (including me) want the same thing! Unfortunately, DV Rack is currently hte only software that does that. John's DV Processor sounds promising, depending on the price.

John,

Do you have any idea on pricing when you get to the final release?


Not yet. We haven't decided on the licensing model and whether or not to offer different versions. Definitely less than DV Rack, though.

Also, when you implement the ability to start recording from the camera, will it be able to autoname files upon pause and restart?

I will certainly add it to the list of features to consider - if you have specific recommendations/requirements, now is the time to be heard!

so my question is about that and how the timecodes will be out of sync if I were to capture the footage from the tape, the actuall clips would be off because it was the time code of the laptop....

I'm a bit confused by that. Does that mean that you will capture once while recording to tape, do some editing with the captured version, delete the captured files and, at some later date, re-capture them for use in the same project?

I'd have to test it with Premiere (I have Pro 1.5). It should be able to re-capture and select the right portions of the tape based on the timecode from the first time around. It's really no different than a typical Premiere workflow - capture, create project, delete files to free up space, re-capture later when needed.

I like the idea that you are going to offer in different versions.
As for the auto-naming, I was thinking like Event 001, Event 002, etc. I have started testing the beta and I like what I see. I'm really glad to see an alternative to DV Rack being developed, particularly since Adobe has aquired Serious Magic.

sorry about the last post, i was doing it from my cellphone. this is what i meant.

i hook my camera up to my laptop through firewire.
i open premiere
since i cannot just press record on my camera and trigger record on my laptop under capture i must press record on the laptop after i press record on the camera. this way it is recording to the laptop and the tape in the camera.

now since i had to press the record button seperately on the camera and laptop, the time codes will not match between the files and the tape.

so i edit my film and finish, i delete the capture files to free up space and because i still have the tape to recapture if i need the footage again.

in premiere it has the files as "offline" because it cannot locate them. so i would have to select them and select "batch capture" to re capture the footage from my tape since the files were deleted. but now this is where it worries me. when i went to press record on the camera then on the laptop, they started at a different time. so the "offline" files have the timecode of the files capture when originally recording, not the tape timecode. so when i go to capture off the tape the timing will be off because the laptop and camera cannot start recording at the exact same time.

i hope that makes alittle more sense.

so the "offline" files have the timecode of the files capture when originally recording, not the tape timecode. so when i go to capture off the tape the timing will be off because the laptop and camera cannot start recording at the exact same time.

i hope that makes alittle more sense.

I understand now.

I was about to reply that you'd be okay - the timecode going on the tape will be the same as being sent via Firewire for capture.

But...

I thought I'd check and, to my amazement, the timecode on the tape is off by three frames compared to the captured version.

Here's what I did:

Set up my Sony PDX-10 to record to tape
Configure my capture program to capture to disk (our DV processor)
Hit record on the camcorder
A few seconds later, started capture

I pointed the camera at the computer monitor to record the capture program - it displays the timecode so I would have easily identifiable frames to compare later.

Then, opened the captured file in the DV processor - configured it to stamp the timecode on the video
In a second copy of the DV processor, cued up the camcorder with the taped version - again configured to stamp the timecode
Cued both versions to the same timecode and compared the frames

The result - see the attached thumbnail (click to enlarge).

Basically, the timecode recorded to tape is three frames ahead of that send via Firewire for the exact same video frame.

(There's also a latency between the camcorder and the computer. You can tell this because when the timecode written to the camera is 00:00:27;11, the camera sees frame 00:00:27;04 display on the monitor.)

Anyway - I'm surprised. I expect the camcorder is injecting the current timecode into the processed DV stream. The latter will be somewhat behind what's going directly to tape since the way DV is laid out on tape is rather different than the way it is packaged for Firewire. Perhaps it takes about 3 frames for the camcorder's firmware to do that...

There are options to get identical timecode on tape and disk:

1. Capture to disk only and then send back to tape IF you have a device that can preserve the incoming timecode (my Sony DSR-11 deck can do that)
2. Determine the timecode lag - for a given camcorder it's probably constant - and add/subtract in Premiere (you can tell Premiere to offset the timecode for each clip)

(The next version of our processor will have the "Embedded Data Processing" feature implemented and that will allow you to add/subtract values from the timecode etc during capture).

I wonder how different makes and models differ in this regard....

well thanks for testing it out, i am trying out the trial of dv rack. i just hate to have to spend that much for a program. ill test out your program as well. i geuss .03 of a sec is not that big of a deal. how long after pressing record on the camera did you wait to press record in the captuer program?

About 5 seconds or so.

I tried it twice with a different delay.

Both times, I got the same difference in timecode.

BTW, the current version of our software doesn't have the feature yet. It will do (it's a trivial addition).

John,
I just downloaded your beta to my new laptop. I won't be able to use it till my firewire card comes in. At work, I've been using DVRack for around a year, so I am eager to test your product. My laptop specs are a Turion 64, Win XP pro, 80gig 5400rpm HD and 1 gig of ram. I'll try to give as much feedback as I can.