Firewire link editing computer to laptop for video display?

Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)

Not happy with a Panasonic video monitor I have ("too" adjustable, no
easy way to get certainly-correct settings) I thought I'd have a look
at the (realtime) output from the editing computer on a Dell laptop
which happens to have a nice native 1600x1280 display.

Firewire from the editing computer to the laptop doesn't work by
itself because the laptop doesn't have a driver (afaik) that says
"Hey, look at me, I'm a DV device like a camera."

How-some-ever my ADS Pyro A/V Link does make that claim. That's what
normally drives that annoying Panasonic monitor. And plugging the
firewire cable from the laptop into a second port on the editing
computer, alongside the ADS device, apparently shares the glory. As
long as the ADS device is plugged into the firewire card along with
the laptop, "capture" applications on the laptop are happy to display
the video stream.

For reasons not important here I thought I'd try replacing the ADS box
with a DV camera. I've got several Sony cameras with DV in/out.
Connecting firewire from the editing computer to one of them correctly
displays the video on the camera's display, and passes it through the
camera's analog video jack to the Panasonic monitor, just like the ADS
box does.

The laptop, connected as before, does recognize that a video device is
present. However, the display apps I've tried complain about the
format of the video stream, and refuse to display it. The same
behavior happens with a VX700, VX1000, and PD150, my three choices for
the experiment.

(I actually think it worked once, but perhaps I'm deluding myself on
that one.)

If anyone really understands the situation, I'd be really glad to hear
from you. Software for the laptop that would make it stand alone in
this regard would be fine, too.