Hey, guys, I have to shoot a convention; speeches and all, to be later edited in FCP and made into DVDs for organizational promotion and sales. I'll be using my PD-150 and an audio "Winterized" VX-2000 to shoot the speeches and some interviews.
Is there a way I can connect these cameras into hard drives and record directly there rather than have to worry about miniDV tape? Or can I do both?
Any suggestions to help make this more fail safe? I'd even think about getting a new camera that avoids miniDV altogether if that would make things more secure and facilitating editing later.
Thanks in advance for any comments offered.
Tom Ridenour (aka billyboy)

Mini DV is a tough format, but limiting to an hour makes long speech coverage hard. You can use a laptop with firewire to record it. Adobe CS3 comes with great software that is sharp enough to even adjust focus and white balance. You can use Vegas to do it too but it doesn't preview sharp enough to really adjust it.

The problem with most of the specific built for this application is that they are expensive and I am paranoid about harddrive failure in the field after I had some trouble with a fire store.

I'm not sure, but can the vx2100 and pd150/170 output firewire at the same time it records to tape?

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Thinking auto focus isn't really all that bad.

Capturing to tape and firewire may just work, but I can't be sure, as I haven't tried it. It seems likely to, since the camera will be in "video camera" mode instead of "VCR" mode, and that live feed DOES get sent out firewire, so there's no reason it wouldn't work well unless Sony engineered to not work that way at all. Give it a try!

Honestly, I feel the best inexpensive option for this shoot is to use the software you already have for video capture to HD, and just begin capturing live. Treat your capture software as a "virtual tape deck", and use what you normally do for monitoring. (i.e. EVF or LCD) It is an elegantly simple setup. You do it every time you capture your tape to hard disk, except then you're getting the video from the tape, not from the live feed. Connecting over firewire will show what's live or what's on tape, depending on what mode the camera is in. (VCR or Camera) Just capture away when in Camera mode, it's that simple.

Oh, and I'd use a laptop, just in case... they are more designed for durability in transport than desktops. Depending on how much HD space you have, you could record for hours on end.

I would always use tape. There could be a freeze with the computer and you'll lose the whole capture. Tape is cheap, and there's no reason not to use tape. That way you're not tied to the computer either.

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Willy Wonka

If you keep your laptop clean, for production use only, it won't freeze. That generally only happens under overheating conditions, bad drivers or other congestion due to garbage on the machine. Basically, you can black box it inasmuch as possible.

Having said that, youre right, Chadfish, tape is cheap and reliable... so perhaps doing both simultaneously would be the key. HDD for recording seamlessly for hours on end, but using tape as a backup, changed every hour, and hope you don't need them, as they'll be missing a piece while changing tapes. (Unless you do a multicamera shoot, then that's just about good editing, and changing tapes is less relevant of a concern.)

This is an interesting exchange for me to consider. I have two computers I could consider, as well as external hard drives. But if I ran the video firewire into the hard drive I'd need the soft ware to record it, right?
Right now what I have is Quicktime Pro. I'm shooting SD, not HD.
The two computers I could use would be a 2.8 gig intel iMac with 500 gig hard drive and 4 gigs of RAM.
The other is a Quad cord G5 with 13 gigs of RAM (2005). It's pretty much of a monster of a machines and the cleanest of the two. In fact, I don't mind doing a complete wipe of the machine for recording purposes.
The thing I note some processing issue. When I import the footage into FCX I have to render everything. When I import into FCP I only have to render audio.
My concern with tape is its dependability. Maybe I'm buying cheap tape, but I get glitches on some while other tapes record perfectly. Any suggestions?

I've used TDK for years and never get dropouts. I'm not saying you shouldn't capture to a hard drive. I'm saying you should keep tape running too just in case there is a problem. What if there is a power blip? Will the file be there when the computer comes back?

Also I say use the G5 with FCP. I don't know why you have to render anything after capture. When I capture it's all fine. But I am capturing DV/NTSC usually.

Chadfish

__________________
My Rig:
www.precisionintermedia.com/chadsVX2100pics/

My Work(Except for the 3D animation):
http://www.precisionintermedia.com/video_sample.html

My Music: http://www.humboldtmusic.com/chadjohnson

Fun Video:www.youtube.com/chadfish

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

Willy Wonka

Live event recording is my speciality. YES, it takes a lot of equipment to do it right.

I use S-Video for video input. It allows for much longer cable runs than Firewire. I hook my cameras into a video switcher. I send the video switcher out to an SVHS record deck. I hook my XLR microphones into a sound mixing board and send the audio out to the same SVHS record deck. I take the SVideo and RCA audio off the SVHS deck and send it to an A/D converter. The A/D converter sends out firewire to a PC capture computer running Premiere Pro 2.0. Since it is a deck top, I use an UPS to make sure that I don't lose power.

The SVHS is optional, but it gives a quick turn around and a six hour record media for playback on the government access channel that I shoot for. With a 300 GB hard drive in the computer, I can record even longer than that. With the video switcher, I can do a live mix. Throw in a Character Generator and you put titles and peoples names on as you go. I recommend a helper and lots of gaffers tapes to avoid tripping hazards.

If you take it up a notch, you can record both cameras independently to allow for a remix later as well.