hdv real time capturing with final cut pro

Don't write with ALL CAPS people hate that and are less inclined to help. Just try it. See what happens. You may find, however, that running around with a heavy back pack will start to tear at all that hair on your back.

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First, never do the caps thing again. It is considered hollering.

Apple still sells the older version of the Macbook with a graphics update. I mention this because it is now the only Macbook with firewire that Apple sells. The aluminum ones no longer have firewire.

What to you expect to gain by recording direct to drive? Frankly, I would think you are asking for a failure. I believe all Macbooks have sensors that will lock the drive in certain cases when the OS X thinks something bad is happening. This is done via accelerometers. I can't imagine walking, running, dancing and especially jumping wouldn't trigger that at some point. This would likely cause you to lose video since it couldn't be written to the drive for a certain amount of time.

Also, I wonder if the camera will still output HDV through the wire and still require conversion upon the import. If the system can keep up, this will cause a lot of processing and therefore heat.

1. The FireStore is about the cheapest external straight-to-disk capture device available. You would spend even more money buying an external FW capture device like an AJA ioHD and the camera would still be tethered to everything with a cable. Not necessarily wedding friendly...

2. While it may be more convenient to record straight to disk, there's a fall-back with that as well. One of the advantages of recording to tape is that you have a master of your footage that will long outlast anything stored on a mechanical hard drive. In other words, you have something to go back to in case a hard drive fails. Also, let's face it. A lot of us still have to deal with capturing video from tape, especially considering how expensive solid state media for pro cameras can be.

As an owner of a firestore, I suggest you purchase one of these: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/580065-REG/Sony_HVR_MRC1K_HVR_MRC1_MEMORY_RECORDING_UNIT.html