Please put my firewire back, Mac
Understood, but keep in mind Apple officially does not support, FW capture from the DV camera then to a FW drive. Even though it may be possible, especially from FW 400 to a FW 800 device....
I used to work at Apple on the FCP QA team, our official stance was and I believe still is today, Apple (and FCP) does not support FW capture from the DV camera and then to a FW drive.
Good grief! Thanks for this tip. What amazing news. I am flabbergasted that they don't support it. I thought it was what firewire was for. I do it all the time. (FW capture from the DV camera and then to a FW drive, that is)
My desktop computer is a 1 GHz eMac (2 Firewire 400 ports and several USB 1 ports, yes USB One). I replaced the original 60 GHz hard drive with a 320 Gb but even that is too small for storing much video. So I have 6 firewire 400 drives permanently hooked up to this computer via firewire hubs. Each drive is between 500 and 750 GHz.
I use Canon HV20 video cameras. I film in HDV at 1920 x 1080. I store these HDV videos as archives for when I buy a new firewire-port computer that is fast enough to capture them at something faster than 1/8th speed. This means my next computer will HAVE TO HAVE firewire ports. (Steve Jobs please note that last sentence).
In the meantime I capture my HDV tapes as SDV. I capture them via firewire through the iMovie'06 on the eMac directly onto an external 750 Gb firewire hard drive. Then I convert to Quicktime (Don't ask why, its what works) and use Toast 8 to make 576i PAL DVDs.
Note to the whole world the USB port on the Canon HV20s are for the still photos ONLY, i.e. those stored on the mini SD card. The video will only transfer via firewire.
Tape is not history. Most of today's video cameras that cost around 4,000 to 10,000 euros seem to use it. Some say the quality is better than using cards and MP4 compression, I don't know. But for me the biggest advantage is the cheapness and long life of tapes. The 1 hour cassettes cost 2 euros each and as all my old VHS cassettes are still good, even after 30 years, I expect the DV cassettes will last at least as long. And I can make direct high definition copies, camera to camera, apparently with no loss of quality.
But what I cannot do, without a computer with firewire ports, is to get them into a computer and edit them, either to
1 - make PAL standard definition DVDs now, or
2 - in future make high definition blue ray disks for my 1920 x 1080 HDTV.
I must have firewire.
I like my eMac, particularly for the subtle colour nuances of its CRT screen when working with the tens of thousands of photos I have scanned, but it is 4-5 years old and I am looking for another computer that will process HDV at an acceptable speed.
Dropping the firewire from the new Macbook has me worried. If Apple drops firewire from the next versions of its desktop models what do I do regarding video???
I have "thought different" for 23 years, always buying Macs (1 every 2 years), spreading the gospel, recommending them to others, for 23 years, ever since the Mac Plus and WYSIWYG meant I did not have to write my own programmes in "Basic" any more.
Now, all of a sudden the magic has dulled. I am thinking different alright but in a different, different way. This weekend I went out, put on dark glasses, turned my collar up, and bought some PC and Linux magazines.
I was surprised at all the ports they can offer, USB, Firewire, HDMI, express card slots...and the prices, and range of applications.
What I would buy if it came out by Xmas is a new desktop Mac with a separate screen. Something reasonably portable. Not as big as the present tower - I only need one hard drive in it, and one optical drive, but something more powerful and openable than the present Mac minis. I'd like room for lots of RAM. I'd like enough speed to edit HD video, real HD, like is now transmitted in France at 1920 x 1080, not that 720 stuff, and I want an excellent graphics chip that can show my video smoothly on a 24 inch 1920 x 1080 screen AND on an external 32 inch 1920 x 1080 HDTV.
It should have Firewire ports, and an express card slot, preferably 2, and an HDMI connector. A blue-ray optical drive is not necessary unless they become almost as cheap as CD drives (I can always buy a separate Blue Ray drive later, hopefully a blue-ray writer within 12 months). Why the separate screen ? Because computers become obsolete after a few years. Everything I've read about LCD screens claims they can last for decades. Shame to throw out a good screen with a past-it computer. Can you do it Mac?? If so I'm yours again.
