camera>>>split firewire signal to dvd burner and fcp. possible?

I'm working on a project that entails shooting hour-long interviews and burning straight to dvd as well as capturing to a hard drive through fcp.

i can't list specs or details of equipment because we haven't purchased anything yet. but i'm doing research. essentially it would entail having camera with a firewire feed to an fcp setup with an array of drives as well as a dvd recorder that can burn direct to dvd with a f/w input.

my question is: is it possible to split the firewire signal from the camera so it's feeding into the fcp system and dvd recorder simultaneously? some kind of switcher/splitter? i can't seem to find much on this. or perhaps i can do it simply by sending s-video rca out from the camera to the dvd recorder and f/w from camera to fcp?

any input is greatly appreciated.


tchandler

Unfortunately, the FireWire signal isn't a single downhill flow. It's a dialog and a very fast one at that. Any splitter would also have to handle the reverse conversation that FCP is trying to hold with the other devices. It would get reeeeely busy on that wire.

I would be going with a straight FireWire connection from the deck to Final Cut, and then an analog (S-Video works fine) connection to the stand-alone burner. This is a cousin to what we're doing. If you play your cards right, you can cause the analog output of your deck to burn the viewfinder and thus the tape time into the analog output to the DVDs making them perfect screening tools.

Koz

Thanks Koz.

I realized after my initial post that trying to split the firewire signal would probably be more trouble than it's worth. Yours is a much more sensible solution.

On that note, do you have any recommendations for a decent dvd recorder under $600?

Thanks again,

tchandler

<<<On that note, do you have any recommendations for a decent dvd recorder under $600? >>>

No, but I do have a couple of things to look out for. Both of our stand-alone burners are adaptable to different black levels. NTSC uses a high black level of 7.5 units and Japan uses a lower black level at 0. If there is no menu setting for this, you may get either gray and milky shows or black and muddy ones, depending on which way the error goes.

Also our units tend not to work at the "High Quality" One Hour mode. That uses too high a data rate and not all DV players like that. The gently lower quality "2-hour" mode seems to work best.


Oh. One more thing. Our two units will not work through FireWire. I wish they did. they are analog video and audio only.

Koz