is this possible...Mac to PC? at DVinfo.net

Jay Voog · November 19th, 2006, 05:16 PM

Wondering if I can go straight from my Mac to PC by playing a sequence in FCP using firewire?

The setup I have now is connecting a firewire cable from FCP to my VX2100 camera (External Video>All Frames) and recording the video onto miniDV tape.
Then I go firewire from the camera to my PC and play the tape to capture it on my PC editing program.

Wondering if there is a way to bypass the camera and capture straight from the FCP timeline to my PC?

I am basically hoping to take out the step of recording it onto tape?

any thoughts, advice??? thanks in advance!

Nick Weeks · November 19th, 2006, 05:30 PM

Interesting idea... sound feasible.

I'd give it a try!

Jay Voog · November 19th, 2006, 05:45 PM

when i have tried going from my mac to pc with a firewire connection, it doesn't recognize my mac, so therefore when i try playing the sequence, the PC doesn't see it.

so i am just wondering if anyone has ideas how this could work...would i need another device? card? something?

is there a way to network the 2 computers through firewire?

hoping someone has an idea without needing some device to bridge the gap (skipping the camera).

Boyd Ostroff · November 19th, 2006, 06:02 PM

You could boot your mac in firewire target mode (I believe you hold down the T key and restart). Then your mac will behave just like a firewire disk. However, it will be a MacOSX disk which your PC won't recognize without some special software. And then you would have the issue of different file formats, etc.

Also, if you experiment plugging the mac and pc together via the firewire ports you might have some concern about blowing the port on one or both of the computers. I don't think I would mess with that personally.

If you use an external firewire drive you could format it as a PC disk and the Mac will recognize it without problem. Then you could plug that disk into your PC and copy any files you want.

Jay Voog · November 19th, 2006, 06:16 PM

thanks for your comments Boyd.

i was actually trying to think of a way to play the sequence and record it live on my PC instead of just transferring the quicktime movie file, but not sure if that would be possible based on your comments. i don't come across too much on the technical side of things, so thanks for pointing some things out to me, i appreciate it.

Nick Weeks · November 19th, 2006, 06:33 PM

You might could pull this off with 2 DV cams if you have them... just send the Mac output through FW to one cam, take the video out from that one to the input on another DV cam connected to your PC by firewire. I think it would probably look OK using s-video, but I wouldn't do composite.

William Hohauser · November 19th, 2006, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay Voog

thanks for your comments Boyd.

i was actually trying to think of a way to play the sequence and record it live on my PC instead of just transferring the quicktime movie file, but not sure if that would be possible based on your comments. i don't come across too much on the technical side of things, so thanks for pointing some things out to me, i appreciate it.

The answer is most likely no. While running the NLE programs both your PC and Mac are looking for a FireWire device that has the electronic signature of a DV (or HDV) deck to feed the video signal to or record from. This is why the programs don't mistake a FireWire drive for a videodeck. Neither of them are able to recognize each other as both are computers looking for devices on a firewire bus. I'm sure someone could (or maybe has) create a hack that overrides the signature. I'm not sure if you would want to use with it as I could imagine a lot of problems with a computer behaving as a proxy video deck.

Stay with the tape method or work with QuickTime files.

Chris Hocking · November 20th, 2006, 02:00 AM

IP Over Firewire may be another option for you. Mac to Mac it works fine. XP supports the protocol, however I've never tried connecting a PC and Mac together using Firewire. In THEORY it should work.

See: http://developer.apple.com/hardwared..._firewire.html

Chris Hocking · November 20th, 2006, 02:02 AM

Confirmed. Yes it can be done.

See:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...31112091634533
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/n...ire-173973.php

Greg Boston · November 20th, 2006, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Hocking

Confirmed. Yes it can be done.

See:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...31112091634533
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/n...ire-173973.php

I have done it without any additional programs. I have connected my Mac and Compaq notebook together via FW. Works great!

Jay's idea is an interesting one. On the PC, you would need to be running an application such as Scenealyzer which does A/V capture via FW. I'm going to give it a try and see what I come up with.

-gb-

November 19th, 2006, 05:16 PM	#1
Jay Voog Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minnesota, USA Posts: 86	is this possible...Mac to PC? Wondering if I can go straight from my Mac to PC by playing a sequence in FCP using firewire? The setup I have now is connecting a firewire cable from FCP to my VX2100 camera (External Video>All Frames) and recording the video onto miniDV tape. Then I go firewire from the camera to my PC and play the tape to capture it on my PC editing program. Wondering if there is a way to bypass the camera and capture straight from the FCP timeline to my PC? I am basically hoping to take out the step of recording it onto tape? any thoughts, advice??? thanks in advance! __________________ Jay ---------------------------- Sony VX2100 cam; FCP 5.0.4

November 19th, 2006, 05:45 PM	#3
Jay Voog Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minnesota, USA Posts: 86	when i have tried going from my mac to pc with a firewire connection, it doesn't recognize my mac, so therefore when i try playing the sequence, the PC doesn't see it. so i am just wondering if anyone has ideas how this could work...would i need another device? card? something? is there a way to network the 2 computers through firewire? hoping someone has an idea without needing some device to bridge the gap (skipping the camera). __________________ Jay ---------------------------- Sony VX2100 cam; FCP 5.0.4

November 19th, 2006, 06:16 PM	#5
Jay Voog Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Minnesota, USA Posts: 86	thanks for your comments Boyd. i was actually trying to think of a way to play the sequence and record it live on my PC instead of just transferring the quicktime movie file, but not sure if that would be possible based on your comments. i don't come across too much on the technical side of things, so thanks for pointing some things out to me, i appreciate it. __________________ Jay ---------------------------- Sony VX2100 cam; FCP 5.0.4

November 19th, 2006, 05:30 PM	#2
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Interesting idea... sound feasible. I'd give it a try!

November 19th, 2006, 06:02 PM	#4
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,800	You could boot your mac in firewire target mode (I believe you hold down the T key and restart). Then your mac will behave just like a firewire disk. However, it will be a MacOSX disk which your PC won't recognize without some special software. And then you would have the issue of different file formats, etc. Also, if you experiment plugging the mac and pc together via the firewire ports you might have some concern about blowing the port on one or both of the computers. I don't think I would mess with that personally. If you use an external firewire drive you could format it as a PC disk and the Mac will recognize it without problem. Then you could plug that disk into your PC and copy any files you want.

November 19th, 2006, 06:33 PM	#6
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	You might could pull this off with 2 DV cams if you have them... just send the Mac output through FW to one cam, take the video out from that one to the input on another DV cam connected to your PC by firewire. I think it would probably look OK using s-video, but I wouldn't do composite.

November 20th, 2006, 02:00 AM	#8
Chris Hocking Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 595	IP Over Firewire may be another option for you. Mac to Mac it works fine. XP supports the protocol, however I've never tried connecting a PC and Mac together using Firewire. In THEORY it should work. See: http://developer.apple.com/hardwared..._firewire.html

November 20th, 2006, 02:02 AM	#9
Chris Hocking Major Player Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 595	Confirmed. Yes it can be done. See: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...31112091634533 http://www.lifehacker.com/software/n...ire-173973.php