Capturing live HDV video

Is there a way to capture live HDV video from my Sony Z1U into FCP? For some reason I thought I could and had done it before, but I decided to test it now, and realized that it doesn't work.

Thanks!
Casey Petersen

Does the Z1U have an HD-SDI or HDMI output? Feed that into your capture card and capture as ProRes.



www.strypesinpost.com

The Z1U has component and firewire outputs for HDV video.

I did recently find out on another board that if you start recording on a tape, then you can capture the footage through the firewire...I guess since it's creating timecode, FCP has something to read and captures nicely (as long as the tape is rolling). Not the perfect scenario, but for what I'm doing, it will work fine.

Thanks!
Casey

>I guess since it's creating timecode, FCP has something to read

I'm not too familiar with the HDV capture settings, but can you switch to non-controllable device and record directly from FW?

>The Z1U has component

Use that! Try to avoid capturing to long GOP if you can. That only complicates issues.



www.strypesinpost.com

HDV capture will not work with non-controllable (thru firewire, as far as I know). I don't have any capture card in my Mac, other than the built-in firewire, so I can't do component.

Thanks!
Casey

Sounds like you found a solution that works for you. You may perhaps want to look into getting a capture card in future (you can use that to monitor your own work). BMD sells pretty affordable cards. Otherwise, yea, just make sure you have a back up plan just in case (in your case, probably the tape).



www.strypesinpost.com