Filming hdv straight to hard drive
 

Does anyone know if you can capture hdv footage straight from camera to the hard drive through firwire? i.e bypass the tape?

When I try in quicktime (through file:new movie recording) it only captures in dv even when ilink conv is off and vcr is in HDV. I am using the Sony HDV handycam (HDR-HC1E).

Can it be done in FCP? Or do I need specialist software?

Cheers

Daniel

VirtualDVHS will do what you want. It's not particularly user friendly, there's no live preview, and it seems quite buggy. However it's free, and will record a pure m2t file to the HDD.

Download it from here. Be aware that this is a directly link not a page - the page is here: http://developer.apple.com/sdk/.

I think there's a new version of you sign up to the Apple Developer Connection but I don't know what the differences are.

You could get preview playback by starting to record to the HDD, then playing the file, as you record, in VLC. However there'll be a delay in playback, and I'd only recommend it on a fast computer on with a lot of RAM. plus it's fiddly.

thanks dylan, i'll have a look. Will the m2t file be compatible with fcp?

No, you'd have to use MPEG Streamclip to convert it.

I've done a good bit of "live" capture from a Canon at 1080i60 using Final Cut 5.1.2 into a Powerbook with an extenal 800fw drive.

The only issue is that it takes 15-30 seconds for the recording to actually begin after you've clicked "capture now".

I think maybe you need a tape in the camera to do it?

Chuck

Thanks Chuck, what codec were you using?

My live capture was at 1080i60 and 30f into a 1080i60 project, set up using HDV 1080i60 Easy Setup.

iMovie will do this.

I Movie captures HD in AIC format not HDV. This is what I have found.

To get the cleanest picture capture using VirtualDVHS convert the .m2t file in MPEG Streamclip to AIC or HDV, edit in FCP.

This is correct, afaik. Is this an issue? IOW, do you prefer HDV to AIC?

I prefer AIC it's faster to work with when you do a lot of effects/colour in FCP. And converting .m2t to AIC seems a lot cleaner, However lets see what FCP2 has in store with Prores.