I’d like to purchase BoinxTV for my MacBook Pro to use to record a three camera production. I’d connect the three cameras via Firewire to the laptop and use BoinxTV to switch between them. However, I’m getting confusing statements from customer service that that may not be possible without additional equipment. I really just need to know if it’s possible or not. I can’t spend $500 on a program that’s not going to work properly. Could someone answer this in simple terms that a non-techie like myself can understand? Thanks.
The answer is no. That has nothing to do with BoinxTV but with technical limitations of the MacBookPro. It simply doesn’t have the ports that 3 cameras require.
As Rudi said: Without additional Hardware the answer is no.
But, as I wrote you via email, you can get Thunderbolt to Expresscard Adapters from Sonnet. These Adapter allow you to connect a FireWire Expresscard, that gives you an additional FireWire bus. You will need one FireWire bus per Camera, this is something we can’t change, sorry. The thing I said I am not sure is if it is possible to connect multiple Sonnet Adapters to one machine. You’d need two adapters (one for each additional camera). But this question can easily be answered by Sonnet. If your computer does not have Thunderbolt the answer is again: no.
I hope this makes it clear, sorry for possibly being a bit confusing in the email.
Thanks, that does clarify things. How about this scenario: 1 camera connected by Firewire 400, 1 by Firewire 800, and 1 by USB? The MacBook does have those three connections. Two of my cameras are pro-sumer grade cameras, but the third is a much simpler consumer grade camera that can connect via USB. Would that work? I’m most concerned about overloading the processing ability of the computer. Thanks.
OK, I’ve got all three cameras connected and I am seeing them in the switcher layer. However, I am only seeing them in preview. How do I get to “live” in order to record? Thanks.
An additional comment - I have two cameras hooked into my BOINX program, but when I switch between the two it is not a smooth transistion - there is a delay in the live feed
That’s bad to hear since the whole reason I’m considering Boinx is the need to cleanly switch between two or three cameras. If that’s no possible then I need to look elsewhere. I can’t even get the “switcher” layer to work.
And customer service doesn’t seem to be responding.
In general: Normally one Firewire bus can only hold one camera (at least from the same vendor). Cameras from the same vendor tend to have the same firewire ID baked into the system and it can’t be changed. Like this the two cameras collide on the same bus and only one can be used. So in most of the cases you will need a dedicated bus for each camera. This is also why e.g. Firewire hubs don’t work. On a MacBookPro you can add a firewire expresscard to get a second bus and on a MacPro this can be done with multiple PCI-Express cards to gain multiple additional busses. Both cards can be found at http://www.boinx.com/boinxtv/equipment
So if you enable the switcher layer, it defaults to “Layers below” in the sidebar on the bottom, you’ll find buttons to switch between the camera sources.
If you need timely replies, please always use the official support channel support@boinx.com as we prioritize these requests over forum inquiries.