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[campgems]

Vividlogic has a software package that allows recording and playback of DTV over a firewire link to a DTV with firewire port.  Does Media center do this, or is there plans in the near future???

Don

[campgems]

Let me ask my question another way as no one has responded to my first yet. 

What can I do with media center and fire wire???  I see references to Ipod's.  What else?  Can I stream into Media center from a fire wire, especially video?  Can I stream out of media center to a firewire?

Don

[glynor]

FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394) is a connection interface and cable specification for computers and peripheral devices.  It allows you to connect your computer to other devices such as scanners, camcorders, printers, and hard drives.  It can also be used for network communication (by connecting two computers together with a firewire cable) but this feature is rarely used.

So, your question doesn't make any sense.  You wouldn't ever send any data to a FireWire.  You would send data through a firewire cable to another device.  MC may be able to interact with the other device, depending on what it is, but wouldn't care about the connection medium (the firewire cable) at all.

More info on the IEEE 1394 specification is available here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire

[glynor]

Do you have an example of a display that has a Firewire port?  If it shows up in Windows as a regular Monitor, then it would probably work by default.  If it requires special proprietary software, then it seems awful specialized for MC to support (especially since that's really not an accepted display technology).  HDMI and UDI are really the display interconnects of the forseeable future...

I'm not aware of any displays that do have a Firewire port (many high-end ones have USB ports that are used for color calibration)... That doesn't mean they don't exist, but they certainly aren't commonplace!

[Yaobing]

MC supports digital camcorder connected on IEEE 1394 port. It plays video from the camcorder (can control the camcorder from within MC). It also can load a DV file and save it onto the camcorder tape.

The functionality is in TV component (Drives & Devices -> TV Tuner).

Not sure if it will work with your device. You can simply try it.

[glynor]

Wow!  I had no idea that MC could do that, Yaobing!!!

I'd say it's pretty likely that if a display does exist that uses a 1394 interface, that it's probably just reading a DV stream like a camcorder would.  Actually, that could be pretty useful for me... Especially if it was 1394b (FireWire 800), due to the line length restriction of 1394a.  I'd guess that in all likelyhood these displays do exist for "pro video" uses, and you could probably find one here: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Now... You said that MC could load a DV file and save it onto the camcorder tape (in other words "Print to Video").  Does this only work with DV stream files, or can MC play back other formats to this "output" (meaning can I capture G-Force or an XviD AVI playing back onto my camcorder)?

[glynor]

Apparently Mitsubishi (and RCA) made some high-end consumer projection-style HDTVs a long time back that included a "FireWire" port.  However, it apparently is of very dubious usefulness.  Check this thread out:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3266.html%22%3Edebate%3C/t-6357.html

Even though they called it a "Firewire" port, and it used the vanilla 1394a connector, it apparently didn't follow the rest of the FireWire spec, and can generally only be used with similarly branded SVHS decks.  So basically it looks like they put a proprietary port on their TVs that was designed mostly to sell high-priced VHS decks to very early HDTV adopters (and then never developed it further), but threw a 1394a connector on it and called it Firewire to get the "buzzword factor".   

These of course have been long discontinued.  UDI and HDMI being the standards required for BluRay and HD-DVD playback, and VHS being long since pronounced dead.

[JimH]

I believe firewire was once thought to be the primary way that HDTV signals would be moved around the house.  Here's a history of the development of the standard:

http://www.ce.org/Press/CEA_Pubs/928.asp

[Yaobing]

Now... You said that MC could load a DV file and save it onto the camcorder tape (in other words "Print to Video").  Does this only work with DV stream files, or can MC play back other formats to this "output" (meaning can I capture G-Force or an XviD AVI playing back onto my camcorder)?

I think it will only work with DV formatted file in AVI container. I only coded this with camcorder in mind. MC actually instructs the camcorder to "record".

[glynor]

I think it will only work with DV formatted file in AVI container. I only coded this with camcorder in mind. MC actually instructs the camcorder to "record".

Hmmm... That's too bad, as I'll probably never use the feature then.  If it could use DV encoded MOV files (or raw DV streams) that'd be a different story.  Quite often I'm forced to create fresh Final Cut Pro files for projects when all someone wants is a VHS or MiniDV copy of something, so I can use it's Print to Video function.  Using MC (where I organize many of my media clips anyway) to do a quick "dump" to MiniDV and/or VHS could be very useful.  Even though you send the "record" control sequence, my ADVC-500 would just ignore it and convert the incoming DV stream to analog anyway, so I could use the feature to dump onto anything that'd take a Component/Composite/S-Video feed.

For us Apple-based NLE users though, dumping first to DV AVI is an extra (and otherwise useless) step.  I keep all my "final" projects and "source/b-roll/stock" footage in DV MOV files to be easily used in FCP, and catalog them in MC.

[Yaobing]

Hmmm... That's too bad, as I'll probably never use the feature then.  If it could use DV encoded MOV files (or raw DV streams) that'd be a different story. 

I took another look of my code. It does not seem to require AVI specifically. The only obstacle might be that the "Open File" dialog would filter file type to avi only. If you can get past that part, it may work. Try it and let me know. I may be able to change the code a bit.

[glynor]

I'll take a look and let you know what I find out!