Capturing from HDX-900 to macbook pro on set
by Brandon Parris
on
May 1, 2008 at 7:25:19 pm
Hi,
My company is making the leap to HD. Our clients own a HDX900 and shoot in DVCRPO HD 1080i. We're looking for a cheap way to incorporate this footage into our Final Cut Pro system. Buying a DVCPRO HD is out, as the cheapest one is over 20 grand. I have run a test here in the office, running a firewire 400 cable out of the HDX900 into our macbook pro. I used capture now under the DVCPRO HD 1080i setting, using a raid 0 firewire 800 drive as the capture scratch. It worked great. I selected non-controllable device and captured tons of footage without a single dropped frame.
My issue is this: I was using a 10 foot firewire 400 cable during this test. In the field we often use a jib or a dolly, necessitating a cable length of around 100 ft to be safe. I have seen firewire 400 cable this long, but I've also heard that firewire 400 craps out at 15 feet and that repeaters should be used for any length over 15 feet. Anyone have experience with this? I'm wondering if I have to hook 5 repeaters together to make this work, or if the loss in transfer speed with a 100ft cable is still strong enough to transmit a DVCPRO HD 1080i signal to the laptop without dropping frames.
Re: Capturing from HDX-900 to macbook pro on set by john sharaf on May 1, 2008 at 10:42:22 pm
Brandon,
A better solution for lengthening the run to your computer would be to install a capture card like a AJA Kona and run a digital coax from the HD-SDI output ay the Camnera to the HD-SDI input on the card. This method allows about 100 meters before the signal falls of.
Re: Capturing from HDX-900 to macbook pro on set by Brandon Parris on May 1, 2008 at 11:47:00 pm
I've looked into the AJA I/o box, and it would definitely do the trick. The problem is the $3,000 price tag. I'm just looking for a method to ingest DVCPRO HD using the equipment I already own until I can save up the money to do it proper.
