Anybody tried firewire

I have an older Sony DCR-PC110 Camera that does live video without DV tape. I have ran it for several hours while connected to my laptop & had the webcast software running too. CPU load was very low, 20 - 30 range. The webcast software recognized it instantly.
The only other hurdle I can see is getting audio into the camera, would the line level out by the clerks desk in the chapel work? 75 to 100 feet away from where the camera would be.

That port was originally used to tape sacrament meetings right?

Camera to laptop via 4pin firewire.
Audio to Camera or strait to laptop? I am thinking camera to minimize audio sync.

I also briefly tried a Firewire connection with an older Sony camcorder. It worked with both Meetinghouse Webcast Software and PVC. Honestly, I wish more devices still had firewire - would make life easier in a lot of circumstances.

Definitely try the line level out audio port on the sacrament table. You are right - those were originally installed to connect to a cassette tape recorder. Hopefully it won't be a problem making a long cable run, if you have a well-shielded cable.

Couldn't one do the same thing with an HDMI connected camera?

rolandc wrote:Couldn't one do the same thing with an HDMI connected camera?

Sure can, but that takes a fairly expensive PCIe or PCI-X video capture card in a desktop PC to harness the HDMI video stream and this discussion was aimed at trying to avoid that.

Mikerowaved wrote:Sure can, but that takes a fairly expensive PCIe or PCI-X video capture card in a desktop PC to harness the HDMI video stream and this discussion was aimed at trying to avoid that.

Our Stake owns several laptops that all have HDMI, my personal laptop does too. I have 0 experience with HDMI so I was curious if it worked like the Firewire port. You correct, it is about not buying anything we do not need to make this work.

I have even wondered if there are some really nice webcams that would make this work?

Roland - check your stake laptops and your personal laptop, but I'd be willing to be that the HDMI ports they have are only for outgoing display and audio. I have yet to see a laptop with an HDMI port for incoming/capture of media streams.

Which is why Firewire was so nice - it was common on a lot of PC's, and provided high-quality capture of audio and video. It's unfortunate that Apple moved away from Firewire. Thunderbolt does have some potential, but seems to be a long way out from being adopted industry-wide on a broad range of products.

Webcams work great with the Meetinghouse Webcast Software - probably the easiest, most straightforward solution. Their disadvantage is that they have a fixed lens - no ability to go left, right, up, down, or zoom in and out (PTZ). There is a new webcam from Logitech that actually does offer PTZ - the BCC950. http://www.logitech.com/en-us/for-busin ... ferencecam

It may or may not fit the bill for a stake conference broadcast - you'd need to figure out where to position it (back of the chapel would be too far, given its limited zoom capabilities). But it would be very simple and inexpensive, and at least give you some camera control. I tried it with PVC and thought it worked very nicely, but PVC is more of an up-close application.

You are correct, out only.

ksolsen wrote:Roland - check your stake laptops and your personal laptop, but I'd be willing to be that the HDMI ports they have are only for outgoing display and audio. I have yet to see a laptop with an HDMI port for incoming/capture of media streams.