Anyone used the FX1000 to record direct to laptop?

[Darryn Carroll]

Have an odd request from client, they would like me to record direct to their PC laptop. Anyone ever do this sort of thing? Will do plenty of experimenting but wanted to the guys/gals on the forum. They want the pro HD video with pro audio, but need to leave with the footage on their laptop.

[Noa Put]

I never done that but I recently sold my fathers fx1000 to someone who was planning to hook it up to a laptop to record icehockey games, the fx1000 does have a hdmi out so I guess any laptop with hdmi should be able to capture it with the right NLE?

[Adam Gold]

Prepare your client for disappointment. It won't work they way either they or you are envisioning it. Lots of threads on this already.

[Noa Put]

Interesting to know, I did not hear from that person that bought it from me and he also can't return the camera back to me anymore. He did say though they had another fx1000 they used amongst 2 other camera's, they where planning to use the camera in a multicam setup and a live mixer but he also said something about connecting it to a laptop so I have no idea how the real set up was, he was not planning to use any mini dv cassettes though.

[Leslie Wand]

if a camera has firewire out then it can record to a laptop. i used to do it all the time....

UNFORTUNATELY, the only way i know of doing it is with adobe's 'on location', which they stopped producing with cs 5.5

just realised my bm intensity can record from hdmi, but of course it's NOT a laptop card.

[Adam Gold]

And that's the point. A camcorder isn't much smarter than a disk drive. Just because you have a cable that fits -- maybe even at both ends -- doesn't mean you can just plug it into a PC and make it useful. You need more software (expensive), more hardware (very expensive) or both (really expensive). Add the laptop factor into the mix and you'll find it mostly not what you thought you could do, ranging down to impossible. You need a laptop that's three times as expensive as the best desktop, which sort of negates the point of a laptop for many people.

And, usually, the hardware that lets you do anything like this doesn't work with (or even fit into) most normal laptops, especially given that most clients who want you to do this are cheapskate pinheads who just happen to have an old Macbook laying around they haven't used since 2006 that they want to use to avoid paying you what you are worth to do this properly. My rule is, if anyone ever says the word "laptop" while discussing video, run away, unless they can show you their $5,000 Alienware beast.

[Leslie Wand]

unfortunately i have to disagree with adam for once....

i regularly used to record from a v1p and a canon xh a1 via firewire to a duo core toshiba laptop running adobe's on location. i had a firewire pci card, and recorded to both internal hd, and on other occasions external usb drives.

using this set up i recorded many long (2 hr+) projects without any problem.

of course, the problem now is finding a copy of on location, a laptop with / able to take use firewire, etc., but it CAN be done very cheaply....

[Mark Watson]

I've done this also. Using the capture feature in Sony Vegas and a laptop with a firewire port. Camera's video is recorded directly to the computer's hard drive. Many Sager laptops still come with firewire ports, and Fujitsu had them on many models but I haven't checked current models. If you have a PC card slot then an adapter can be had for cheap, like $14.

[Leslie Wand]

@ian - interesting, never even tried that approach! funnily enough it should have occurred to me cause i used to use my cameras as pass through for analogue sources at one time. duh!

[Adam Gold]

Guys, we're actually all agreeing and are all on the same page. Sager laptops and apps like OnLocation and Vegas are not typically owned by your average client.

*You* know how to do it, and *I* know how to do it, but I guarantee you the client in most situations just thinks you plug the cam into the HDMI port, push REC and that's all it takes.

Even the OP seems to think this, and does not seem to know that you don't get timecode over HDMI, which is useful if you plan to edit, unless you have hardware that provides its own.

I hope we hear back from Darryn so we can learn more about what's behind this client's request, what the laptop specs are, that sort of thing.

[Mark Watson]

He can get firewire on more commonly available laptops as well, I was just giving my input of what I've actually done, with the equipment cited. I would not advise anybody to connect their camera's HDMI output directly into a laptop. I've never seen a laptop HDMI port that was anything other than on OUTPUT only. On the other hand, firewire has the video, audio and timecode all included, as well as device control. I'm on an HP EliteBook right now that happens to have a firewire port. Many Dell's had them.

So, for the OP, find out if your client's laptop has a firewire port or not. You said "PC" so that means your client is on Windows and Windows MovieMaker can capture over firewire! What I haven't done with MovieMaker is try to record live like you're talking about. My guess would be that it will do it. Now, if your client doesn't have MovieMaker on their laptop, that could be because it wasn't included directly with the OS installation. For Win7 at least, you have to go to the Microsoft web-site and download it (free).
Firewire can be a little tricky to use sometimes. You may need to go into device manager and set the firewire driver to "Legacy" for example. Also, I would recommend you only plug in or unplug a firewire cable to your camera when the camera is powered off.

HTH,
Mark

Movie Maker - Microsoft Windows

[Leslie Wand]

+1 ALL mark's advice.

[Adam Gold]

Excellent point about HDMI on a laptop being Out Only, and my error in implying Darryn thought HDMI was all it took. That was from another post.

Virtually no current laptops come with FW but as Mark says, older ones did, and cards can be put in new ones if they have a slot (most newer laptops don't, though). But it would still be good to know exactly how the client -- and Darryn -- both envision this to work physically and what the goal is beyond just recording directly to disk. To what end?

And yes, absolutely, power off on everything before connecting or disconnecting FW on either end -- many threads on frying FW ports here and elsewhere.