Can a digital camcorder record and live feed at same time?

[johnny_boy]

Is it possible to have a camcorder tape on the minidv and send out a live feed to a television set at the same time? Thanks.

[zorankarapancev]

I guess you mean to record with camcorder and monitor the recording on TV.
The answer is: yes, it is possible.

[Sillyname]

It can depend on make and manufacture, too. A good program for laptops created to exploit this feature is DV Rack. It came out just recently and will allow you to run diagnostics on the video you are recording. It gives you many advanced features that you would normally have to setup after recording the event. It's cost is $499, though.

There are also Firestore harddrives that give you longer recording times than what miniDV tapes allow. They attach to the camcorder but their price is well over $1000. 'Sides, I think DV Rack will let you record to your laptop harddrive, as well.

[vhelp]

It would be even cheaper to just hook up another dv cam to your main cam
taking the video through firewire (firewire to firewire)

But this is impossible to do, as firewire will not record firewire (digital)
from a cam to cam through firewire. Becuase Cams only have 4-pin connectors.
.
I tried this already w/ my ADVC and dv CAM, and set my ADVC to digital, and
it still would not trasnfer my my DV cam's output to ADVC's firewire.

It just doesn't work. I posted a question here a few days ago, and it went
un answered. Casue it can't be done.

Your only option is that $1000 portable hd. that's really to bad. Cause
you can get dirt cheap DV ca for under $200 (I did)

--> and

-vhelp 3084

[Sillyname]

It would be even cheaper to just hook up another dv cam to your main cam
taking the video through firewire (firewire to firewire)

But this is impossible to do, as firewire will not record firewire (digital)
from a cam to cam through firewire. Becuase Cams only have 4-pin connectors.
.
I tried this already w/ my ADVC and dv CAM, and set my ADVC to digital, and
it still would not trasnfer my my DV cam's output to ADVC's firewire.

It just doesn't work. I posted a question here a few days ago, and it went
un answered. Casue it can't be done.

Your only option is that $1000 portable hd. that's really to bad. Cause
you can get dirt cheap DV ca for under $200 (I did)

--> and

-vhelp 3084

You could also just run it through to a laptop that has your capture software on it... Some camera's won't go to sleep if you have them plugged in to ac. Some require you to leave the tape door open. Try both.

[vhelp]

No. What I posted here (and my original thread on this) is like this:

DV cam 4-pin --> (ADVC 6-pin -from- ADVC 4-pin) --> PC

Or,

DV cam 4-pin --> 2nd DV CAM 4-pin --> PC

.. I don't have this working, because they don't make 4-pin to 4-pin
.. wires for this - that's my understanding. But this would be the
.. best method/approach to record in 'digital' and w/out recompressing
.. the DV source, because once the DV from 1st cam is sent over to the
.. 2nd DV cam's 4-pin, and because both cams are 'digital' (and they
.. would understand this) it would not recompress again, but just store
.. it 'digitally' onto the 2nd cams miniDV tape

This is the method I want to use.., and others here can too. But it does
not seem feasable (though in my head, it does)

So, I'm confused at the moment.

-vhelp 3085

[Sillyname]

No. What I posted here (and my original thread on this) is like this:

DV cam 4-pin --> (ADVC 6-pin -from- ADVC 4-pin) --> PC

Or,

DV cam 4-pin --> 2nd DV CAM 4-pin --> PC

.. I don't have this working, because they don't make 4-pin to 4-pin
.. wires for this - that's my understanding. But this would be the
.. best method/approach to record in 'digital' and w/out recompressing
.. the DV source, because once the DV from 1st cam is sent over to the
.. 2nd DV cam's 4-pin, and because both cams are 'digital' (and they
.. would understand this) it would not recompress again, but just store
.. it 'digitally' onto the 2nd cams miniDV tape

This is the method I want to use.., and others here can too. But it does
not seem feasable (though in my head, it does)

So, I'm confused at the moment.

-vhelp 3085

4-pin to 4-pin cables do exist. They were the first ones in production. 4-pin to 6-pin came later, when external firewire harddrives started showing up. Older 4-pin firewire capture cards could not run harddrives.

Why do you want to daisy chain cameras? Does one of them have a working video section but no working VTR? And does the second one have a VTR but no working video section? Please clarify what it is you imagine yourself accomplishing from wasting a 2nd camera by making it pass and therefore mimic the signal of the first. You're not making any sense. You can't go from 1st cam->2nd cam->PC anyway because there is no way to physically split the firewire jack on the second camera so it will go to both the 1st cam and the PC. And also firewire instructions for cameras only work in one direction at a time. Even if it were physically possible, the 2nd cam cannot "receive" from the 1st and "send" to the PC simultaneously. Only firewire harddrives are set for this, which is why the use 6-pin to 6-pin.

[vhelp]

Ok, I try and explain briefly.

On one of my cams, I have the ability to shoot progressively with very
good results (I believe the cam does an Hardware Area Based de-interlace)
and very good too. What I do is capture it to my hard drive through FW.
.
The problem arrises when you want to take your came away from the pc and
record to miniDV tapes while shooting footage. This feature of Progressive
video does not record to tape.
.
I can however, still work it, but only through the CAM's s-video out, and
record to my 2nd CAM's tape through s-video, because i found out that the
(Progressive video) is not limited to FW, but also passes across the s-video
as well. So, I can record to miniDV tapes this way w/ good results. But,
I want to eliminate the re-compression to DV. The s-video route is re
compressing the DV again.., though not so bad. I can also run the s-video
through my ADVC-100 with same results of Progressive video, but it's also
re compressing it to DV.
.
If I can pass DV cam A to dv cam B through firewire, and let dv cam B
record the footage from dv cam A, thought firewire (redundant) I could
have the best results, because nothing would get a 2nd re compression, and
the results would look as in the first cam's shooting.

If I can do the above, then I can add another alternatative receipe to
my video projects.

Hope that made sense now

-vhelp 3086

[Sillyname]

I think you were setting your PC to frame based capture and it was creating a deinterlaced picture from your camera. I seriously doubt your camera is going to have a progressive option you cannot record to tape, unless you are capturing through your camera's "photo mode". Is that what you are doing?

I take it cam 2 does not have a progressive mode either, otherwise you would've just recorded using it.

[vhelp]

No.

The cam (cam A) has a memory mode..

Video | MEMORY

While my dv is passing through my FW to my hd, and inside RsDvCap.exe 's
window, when cam B is switched (default) to Video, the source is pure
Interlace. That is the cams default mode of operation. Normal for any
cam. However.
When I switch to MEMORY mode, on cam A, it on-the-fly performs
a Hardware de-interlace (I believe its an area based deinterlace) and
passes this through the cam through FW and S-Video connections of this cam.
.
.. It's probably part of the photo feature of the cam.. I'm sure.
.
I've capture through FW and S-Video, all Progressive frames, and is a
29.970 fps, and all frames are progressive, not 15 fps, but 29.970 fps.

.. I'm amazed at the quality this form of HDI performs for this old cam.
.. I wish this feature was incorproated for other cams as well.
.. .
.. To my knowledge and vast experience in things (methods) of de-interlacing
.. (be it AVIsynth or vdub) there is simply no other method better than this.
.. Bar none.

It's not perfect, but much better than other methods I've seen and done.
* Done with my software scripting experience
* and done with my TRV22 cam (has this feature, under digital effect)
.. but the problem w/ the TRV22, is that you get a lot of stair-steps or
.. saw tooth effect, and its just not the same. YOu can see it very clearly,
.. that it's a poor job, in the end.. and no contents again my CAM HDI.

-vhelp 3088

[Sillyname]

No.

The cam (cam A) has a memory mode..

Video | MEMORY

While my dv is passing through my FW to my hd, and inside RsDvCap.exe 's
window, when cam B is switched (default) to Video, the source is pure
Interlace. That is the cams default mode of operation. Normal for any
cam. However.
When I switch to MEMORY mode, on cam A, it on-the-fly performs
a Hardware de-interlace (I believe its an area based deinterlace) and
passes this through the cam through FW and S-Video connections of this cam.
.
.. It's probably part of the photo feature of the cam.. I'm sure.
.
I've capture through FW and S-Video, all Progressive frames, and is a
29.970 fps, and all frames are progressive, not 15 fps, but 29.970 fps.

.. [i]I'm amazed at the quality this form of HDI performs for this old cam.
.. I wish this feature was incorproated for other cams as well.
.. .
.. To my knowledge and vast experience in things (methods) of de-interlacing
.. (be it AVIsynth or vdub) there is simply no other method better than this.
.. Bar none.

It's not perfect, but much better than other methods I've seen and done.
* Done with my software scripting experience
* and done with my TRV22 cam (has this feature, under digital effect)
.. but the problem w/ the TRV22, is that you get a lot of stair-steps or
.. saw tooth effect, and its just not the same. YOu can see it very clearly,
.. that it's a poor job, in the end.. and no contents again my CAM HDI.

-vhelp 3088

MEMORY=photo mode

[vhelp]

ok. I'll take your word for it.

But it still looks great.
-vhelp 3090

[redwudz]

Uh, vhelp, a six pin Firewire just has the two extra pins for power, + and - , not for any signals. Other than that, they have the same four signal pins as the four pin. I use the six pin to power my external laptop Firewire drive.

[Sillyname]

Uh, vhelp, a six pin Firewire just has the two extra pins for power, + and - , not for any signals. Other than that, they have the same four signal pins as the four pin. I use the six pin to power my external laptop Firewire drive.

I guess there are no external enclosures that have a 4-pin socket, though, correct?

[vhelp]

Ok. I have an update. With some success - finally.

I spent the afternoon combing the are for a 4-pint to 4-pin FW cable.
I finally came across one a 6' gold plated ($24.99 - got it at that
price because it was mislabled or something) It was one of those kits that
have all the different heads and you just use the ones you need. Anyways.

So, when I finally made it home (had to shop for food too you know) I
put the 4-pin adaptrs on each end, pluged in my DV cams to each other, and..
success. It worked perfectly.
.
Now I can finally do that experiment I've ben putting off for a year or so

To the topic at hand ...

@ Sillyname

Yes, you can do what you asked for. Now one does not need a $1000 ext HD
for this. Just find a cheap/used dv cam for $200 bucks (can get pretty
much anywhere's) run a 4-pin to 4-pin through each cams' DV connectors,
and you can now record to another DV cam. Course, that makes no sense in
this case, cause you could use your first cam for that BUT..
.
If your *other* cam has a special feature that can only operate in a certain
setting (as in mine) the above is the perfect solution vs. a $1000 ext HD
In my case, I'm taking advantage of a feature that my cam gives me, which
is 29.970 fps Progresive video footage - full frame. That's the bute.

Now, I have to post this answer to myself (note to self) in my other thread

Thanks all.
-vhelp 3091