I have done Direct to Disk Capture w/ Vegas quite a few times via Firewire.

It isn't set up like OnLocation but it works.
All clips are immediately available for edit via Vegas.


You'd have to figure your own route as far as Checking the 'Legal Limits' before/during capture though.

I have been doing a weekly half-hour TV show for five years and it has always been recorded direct to disc on Vegas Capture in 8.0+ Currenlty with 8.1 - 64 bit.

I shoot in my studio where I can control and use a 6' 4 to 6 firewire from the camera to the computer.

I have never had a problem with any of this at any time.

Direct to disk is fine.

Has anyone worked out a way to do "direct to timeline" in Vegas?

marks

it goes direct to the project manager once it's been captured, so All I have to do is click, drag, & release. I'd say we're getting pretty lazy if we can't do that much :P

Dave

I film school events and productions, sometimes several hours at a time. I capture direct to disk using Vegas 8 and my laptop via fire wire. I works great, no problems. I also capture on tape in the camera at the same time.

Jim

I have recorded hundreds of hours over the last five years direct to my laptop via Firewire using Vegas capture. I have a older 3.2Ghz P4 laptop dedicated to this task which has two internal hard drives, one for the OS and one strictly for video capture. I used to capture DV, but for the last several years, it's all been HDV. I have never had a single dropped frame or any other problem.

I also have a small-form-factor PC with a BlackMagic Intensity Pro which I can take on location to record directly to its drives via the HDMI output of the camcorder. It, too, has worked flawlessly and the video quality is far superior because the HDMI output is full uncompressed 4:2:2 1920x1080.

Of course, I don't have all the useful monitoring functions of a DV Rack or OnLocation, but it works well for my purposes.

I only record to tape on those rare occasions when I am shooting handheld.

You should take a look at this thread from two months ago:

Capturing to Laptop

That link takes you to the middle of the thread where JohnnyRoy talks about a Lenovo S10 for $399 that he uses for capture. I'm thinking of going that route because it is MUCH cheaper than those ridiculously priced dedicated capture drives (e.g., Firestor) and you get the ability to use it as a monitor, etc., regardless of whether you use OnLocation or just some generic software. The thing is small and you could easily rig it to a sturdy tripod, or if you are just capturing, put it in a small soft case on your hip (and disable the lid closure switch so it doesn't turn off).

The Lenovo S10 does not appear to have a Firewire port, nor does it have a PC-CARD slot to add a Firewire port. It does have a USB port, but very few cameras transfer full resolution video in real-time via a USB port. So, if you need Firewire, from what I have seen, it doesn't look like any of the Netbooks have it or have a way to add it. Even if they did, they don't have anywhere near the horsepower required to run OnLocation, but would probably run Vegas capture.

I picked up a Sony HC1 for about half price a couple of years ago because it's tape transport mechanism was faulty. I've used it as a studio cam and captured via firewire to an old laptop that my daughter had replaced with something modern. I even have taken it outdoors on occasion, using the still-functioning laptop battery. I capture with HDVSplit and have never had a problem - even when capturing to an external 2.5" hard disk powered by the USB ports. The old laptop is even fast enough to give me a (jerky) preview.

Hi John

How do you arrange it with laptop and camera? I assume that you use tripod of course. Do you put the laptop inside the legs of the tripod on some kind of stool or do you have something more fancy.

I am going to try a similar setup out with OnLocation and I'm glad that you have a good setup that works well.

/Ulf

John,

If it's possible, i would really like to have more details about the small-form-factor PC with a BlackMagic Intensity Pro setup . Could you list the major hardware parts?

I'm just thinking about this kind of setup to output straight in HDMI from a Pana 150 or a Canon 5D to bypass compression (greenscreen work)...

BTW, did you try the Black Magic motion jpeg codec? Is the Black Magic capture app. reliable?

thanks a lot,

Bastien

This type of capture sounds very well suited to an SSD drive. Currenlty costing a little < $2/GB, and the field stability that only an SSD can provide. Info-tainment on SSD stability.....

I bought a barebones SFF PC from Shuttle that they no longer make. They have a few new ones that would work really well. Like this one:

http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/SG45H7.html

But this one looks really interesting with a 7" touch screen on the front panel:

http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/d10.html

It does not have a Firewire port, but it has one PCI-E x1 slot for the Intensity Pro and you could put something like an Addonics SATA trayless hard drive dock in the 5.25" drive bay and basically have the entire thing self-contained without needing a keyboard, mouse or monitor (although you could add a small wireless keyboard and mouse.) I'm going to look deeper into this one!

Yes, I use the Blackmagic 4:2:2 MJPEG codec and it looks very, very good, MUCH better than HDV. Their capture application works great, too.

Thank you very much for the feedback... very usefull for me.

One last question: can you edit the MJPEG files natively in Vegas? Is it sleek?

Best laptop for this is a Macbook. Because it's cooled by the case extra cooling can be easily achieved using dry ice. SSDs get you around the problem of high G forces.
Slumdog Millionaire used an SI-2K recording to a dry ice cooled laptop in a backpack for many of the shots. A SI-2K was used to shoot scenes for a local Navy commercial. Camera was helmet mounted, SSDs were used due to the kidney wrecking G forces.

Bob.

Yes, MJPEG files can be edited in Vegas.