Have a look at this video tutorial or read on for a text version – sorry about the less than optimal video and audio quality – this is my first attempt at doing a tutorial:

First of all you need to download a couple of components which I have collected in a handy zip file: DV screen capture components

Here are the links for the original sources of the components in the zip file:

• VirtualDV (in FireWire SDK 26)
• Quartz Composer Live DV
• v002 Screen Capture

Please be aware that as I have not created the software I have no way of making changes or helping out if this hack does not work for you.

1. Connect the two Macs with a Firewire cable.

2. Download the software and start up the VirtualDV app on both computers. This is to fool the computers into believing there is a hardware DV device connected

Step 2

3. Unpack the v002ScreenCapture.plugin.zip file and install the plugin into /Library/Graphics/Quartz Composer Plug-Ins

4. Start up QuartzComposerLiveDV on the computer that you want to capture video from.

5. Click apple+o and open one of the files inside the ’screen sizes’ folder – select a file that matches the area of the screen you want to capture.

Step 5

6. Now if you see a live screen capture in the window inside QuartzComposerLiveDV you’re up and running.

Step 6

7. Check that it works by going to the receiving computer and open Quicktime Player. Open the Recording tab in the Preferences pane of Quicktime to check that a new video source has been created.

Step 7

Things to note:
- I have only tested this on Leopard. Let me know if get it working on other versions of Mac OS.
- There is a visible delay as with other DV sources. This is because DV is a compressed format and so it also takes some CPU resources on both machines
- No sound is transmitted although sound is a part of the DV codec. I think this i because there is no sound included in the QuartzComposerLiveDV app.
- It’s only possible to capture the primary screen due to the way that v002ScreenCapture works.
- Keep the QuartzComposerLiveDV app visible – if you go apple+H the DV signal stops.

Other uses:
- You could also connect a DV camera and record the screen cast if that is of any use to you…
- Or you could load up any other Quartz Composer file in QuartzComposerLiveDV and send that instead. (I tried this and not all QC comps work. I am not sure why…)