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General discussion

Broadcast Camera (no firewire out) to Webcast, Video Capture

by jimusick Mar 18, 2008 10:39AM PDT

Hello,

I am trying to figure out how to handle getting a video signal to a computer for making a webcast (say via WebEx or something).

Somewhat surprisingly the consumer-oriented cameras seem to have firewire output - which I can directly plug in and *surprise* everything "just works".

The more expensive broadcast camera, a sony DXCD50, only has composite, s-video, and component outputs (why no firewire??). So my assumption is that I need a video capture card - but I want to make sure I am going to be getting real-time video capture so that it can just be used to directly webcast (which is what happens when I plug in the 'cheaper' cameras)

Thus far I've found 2 products that seem like they might work
1. Creative Labs Video Blaster Editor for Windows
2. AJA Io LA External Video Capture Device

Ignoring the Mac/PC issue (I can use either) - why is there a $700 difference between these? Is it becasue the AJA puts uncompressed video into the computer whereas the creative hardware is compressed?

Presumably for a webcast I'd want compression, yes?

Any thoughts/tips/suggestions? I'm fairly new to the AV+computer+webcasting thing - so feel free to correct me if I'm missing something obvious.

Thank you,
-James

p.s. I can't use the 'cheaper' camera that just works because it needs to be at the back of a big room - thus the broadcast camera with the bigger lens is necessary.

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2 Posts

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These solutions work?

by jimusick Mar 19, 2008 3:07AM PDT

So thus far I've found a couple options and was curious if anyone can confirm they would work for video camera direct-to webcast

Mac:
1. Pinnacle Video Capture for Mac OS X ($100)
2. AJA Io LA External Video Capture Device ($1000)

PC:
1. Creative Labs Video Blaster Editor for Windows - USB 2.0 ($200)

What's a bit confusing/disconcerting to me is that the AJA is 10x the price of the Pinnacle - so what is the big difference? Uncompressed video capture? This would be good for video editing, but bad for webcasting, right?

And even though there is a 2x price difference, the Creative Labs & Pinnacle are (or seem) pretty similar...both take s-video/composite input and output a video signal to the computer.

I guess the Creative Labs outputs MPEG1/2 whereas the Pinnacle outputs MPEG4 - if I'm reading everything correctly.

Can anyone confirm I'm on the right track?

Thank you,
-James

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Same problem - no firewire on the camera

by Traci13 Jun 18, 2009 12:12PM PDT

Hi James

Am in the same pit as you - bought the camera without knowing the need for firewire still at this day and age. May I check if any of your solutions worked? I do need to convert that camera for webcast - live video streaming. Preferably for pc laptop.

Thanks

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