Laptop monitoring solution?

[Phil Wright]

It is still in testing Ken. Been very busy getting ready for NAB.

[Frederic Lumiere]

A live laptop monitoring mechanism via firewire sounds interesting but is a lot harder than it seems with MPEG HDV. HDV really is a different beast than DV through firewire.

I suspect that the best you'll accomplish will be a couple seconds delay.

I beleive that monitoring while recording in full 720p resolution today can be accomplished by hooking the cam to a DVHS deck via firewire which in turn displays the footage on HDTV. I haven't tried it, but I think that the delay is also of a couple seconds...maybe less.

[Kevin Lawson]

I have seen the cam hopoked up to the deck via firewire then displayed on an hdtv monitor. The delay is 24 frames, as explained by the JVC rep, since each stage takes 12 frames to do the MPEG compression/decompression. 12 to get into the firewire from the cam, then another 12 to come back out of the decks hd outputs.

So the live image on a laptop would probably have the same delay time, (if not more,) since software on the mac has to do the same as the decks decompression was doing.

The image was VERY good by the way, until you moved the camera, then there was NOTICABLE smear on the monitor. The test target was a very well lit display of dolls. You could clearly see the individual threads of the stuffed animals, and the hairs of the dolls. This was right next to a JVC D550 camcorder, aimed at the same dolls. It looked soft but brighter, less contrasty in the shadows. No threads visible, hairs were all together, but more like pro video that one would expect. HDV looked more like a window into a darker room, clear sharp, (not over-enhanced,) and.. real. I was impressed.

Just my 2 cents. Your mileage may vary, don't go out too far after eating, and look both ways before crossing. ;>

[Paul St. Denis]

Arick, a friend of mine points out that the new version of VLC gives you the ability to have live preview using "Open capture device". I just tried it and it works! Next I will try real time conversion to another format using VLC.

[Mark D. Anderson]

I know it's a little less PRO than some cameras getting around, but one of the HandyCams we have been playing around with is the JVD HD7. We are trying to set it on a tripod, connect it to the PC via firewire and hit record so we can leave it to feed straight to the PC HDD (skip the HDD onboard). Do you think we can get it to do it? NOOOO...

We have searched high and low across the JVC website and can't find a solution. Basically, we can't get any PC to recognise the camera. Am I missing something?

We have gotten this live feed to HDD working on any other format camera (ie. a miniDV camera etc) but can't get it recording from the JVC.

Similarly, is it possible to convert the TS files to something Premiere Pro can read? Again I have searched online and can't find anything on it.

I'm sure I must be missing something!

Thanks for the help!

Regards
Mark

[Andrew Wheatley]

Hi Mark,

I will post a reply to your other stuff on the other thread shortly.

But I just though have you tried using OnLocation? (Bundled with Premiere CS3 or CS4).

I use OnLocation for live HD recording...don't know if you will run into the same problems as with Premiere though because they probably run on the same capture engine, but it could be worth a go?

Cheers

Andrew

[Mark D. Anderson]

Hi Andrew,

You know I hadn't even thought of that. Will definitely give it a try and let you know how I go.

Thanks for the idea!

Regards

Mark