Capturing via firewire

rboucher · Post by **rboucher** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 5:44 pm

I'm using the VS9 trial version. I just popped in a firewire card and I'm able to capture using USB & firewire. I thought using firewire would save me time in capturing? Am I missing something, doing something wrong or just dreaming.

Anyone have the time to help a newbie. I did check forums, tutorials ect.. no luck.

Thanks

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 6:00 pm

All Video Capture from Mini-DV whether by USB or Firewire is done in real time - that is 20 minutes of video takes 20 minutes to transfer - no way round it with tape.

The difference is that firewire will not only give you better quality than USB but will also control your camcorder during the transfer.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:36 am

Hi

I haven't used this option as yet, but try out the 'Dv-Quick Scan Option'

If you use normal capture to DV, the footage is copied to your pc rather than being recoded. You get the full quality of your recorded footage.

This is only posible because of the fast transfer of data that firewire can achieve.

Firewire to DV is the best way to get footage onto your pc.

Trevor

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:00 pm

In Fact, Trevor, as I am sure you know, Firewire is not as fast as USB 2.0, nominally speaking , not by much but appreciably. But the problem is that not all that many cameras have USB 2 ports and even fewer of those that do will allow high quality video capture. It is mainly still streaming video (lower quality) or else wasting bandwidth on still images, just as the older USB 1 can do just fine.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 4:17 pm

On a side note, MiniDV (more accurately called DV25) uses only 25Mbps of bandwidth, which is a fraction of the peak bandwidth provided by either IEEE 1394a (400Mbps) or USB 2.0 (480Mbps).