For those of you wanting a DV Rack solution for the Mac, Red Lightning Software has released DV Monitor Pro, which includes direct-to-disc recording and clip management in addition to all the goodies in DV Monitor (standard). So we've gone from zero to two software choices in a month (the other choice being Scopebox). Not bad! Still no HDV option, though.

http://www.redlightningsoftware.com/Home.html

Time to spend the weekend bashing on the demo.

-Terence

Finally had a chance to spend a few minutes playing with DV Monitor Pro. A few first impressions and observations:

1) Interface is a bit plain compared to Scopebox, but it works
2) It will NOT start/stop recording with the camera's record button (unlike Scopebox)
3) It WILL start/stop recording with keystrokes (a feature that is sadly lacking from Scopebox). For me, this is actually more important, because my VX2100 doesn't send start/stop record signals over Firewire if there's no tape in the camera. At least this way I could use something like a Griffin Airclick to trigger start/stop rec directly on the computer
4) There's no pre-record buffer (unlike Scopebox, DV Rack, Firestore, etc.)
5) The clip management system seems pretty good. I'd like a way to watch individual clips at full-size from within the program, but its easy enough to ctrl-click and watch them in Quicktime.

I'm a little disappointed that neither program has included the full set of basic features that I'm looking for, although I think I can live with what's in DV Monitor Pro. Guess they have to save something for version 2.

-Terence

3) It WILL start/stop recording with keystrokes (a feature that is sadly lacking from Scopebox).

I just got an e-mail update for v1.01 of Scopebox, which says they have now added a menu and keystroke shortcuts to start/stop recording. The unstoppable force of progress....

-Terence