So here was the low cost solution (in case anyone finds themselves in a similar spot)
The tapeless JVC had no firewire out - so I used the A/V analog out (RCA)
plugged into the 80 dollar elgato video capture
http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Video-Capture/product1.en...
which plugged into the USB port of the macbook pro in DC
The software that came with it had a decent preview image capability (never used it to capture)
then from LA, I connected via ichat and asked to share the macbook pro screen
I could watch the compressed preview screen and when I needed to see more clearly
I used a nice freeware utility called SnapNdrag (on the macbook) which allowed me to capture a still of just the preview window and drag it to my desktop 3,000 miles away
It was a bigger, cleaner image than you got from the camera's flip out LCD
it worked!
