I'm such a newbie when it comes to video cameras (having never owned one!) that I'm embarrased to post what is probably a simple question. But, guess I have to learn somehow! Anyway, we'd like to buy a camera that will be mounted high up on the wall of a church (i.e. out of reach). We have some tech guys that can rig it so it can be remotely powered on and off. What I'd LIKE to do is have the camera be able to start "recording", by sending its data through a firewire cable real-time. The other end of the cable would be hooked up to a DVD recorder, which would record the event. So here's the newbie question: can DV cameras do that? It doesn't work to have it record to some on-board DVD or tape since the camera will be mounted 20 feet above us and inaccessible. We need it to be able to "record" by sending a constant stream of data via a firewire port to the DVD recorder. If that's not possible, is there another way to accomplish what we want? Thanks to anyone who can help!
In prinicple that is possible. Almost any camcorder will send out the video data directly out through the Firewire port. The only thing that you need is to make sure that the DVD recorder has a Firewire connection that is able to accept DV streams. Be aware, there are many DVD recorders that have a Firewire connection, but which is intended for hooking up a satelite receiver. Howevere, you may have a problem. Firewire cable is limited in length. The Firewire specification calls out a maximum length of 32 feet, but in practice it is difficult to find cables longer than 15 feet and use of longer cable is not recommended. What you would need to do is install a so-called repeaters every 15 feet. These repeaters do require AC power.
