BOLLOX !

My Sony dcr-340e has both the firewire and USB ports
being as I have not got a firewire interconnect lead, I use the supplied USB interface lead (full size USB > Mini USB) quite happily.

Andy

[Edited by Fuzz - 8/2/2003 7:01:02 PM]

 

doh! - edited cos don't know who's saying what!

[Edited by imlach - 8/2/2003 11:55:14 PM]

 

Having borrowed my mates digi camera I now want to upload video footage to PC. Went and bought a firewire cable assuming it fitted into the USB on my PC. Well it dosen't and from what I can gather it's an IEEE connection. Questions:

1. Are there USB firewire cables?
2. What is an IEEE connection?
3. I have a IEEE socket on my new PC case, do I need a new motherboard or a PCI board to take advantage of it?

Any help greatly appreciated.
Mike

 

wow... wow... wow...

usb and firewire are different connection! usb is only known as usb and firewire also known as iLink (as in sony videocam) or IEEE 1394.

for the usb connection, you get a full size connection which you usually find in your PCs, and you also get a mini-usb connection which usually in digital camera.

i have known digital camera that uses it's own usb connection on it's port but connect up to the normal usb port on the PCs.

 

USB and Firewire are two different formats for plug-in devices. They have different interfaces and specifications - that's why your cable won't fit.

Does you m8's camera not have USB? Most have at least USB with the more expensive ones supporting both.

1. You'd need a convertor of some type to go from Firewire to USB. Not worth the expense to be honest.
2. IEEE 1394 is the proper name for Firewire. IEEE are the body who determine electronic specs for these interfaces.
3. You may just have the socket on your case, but that needs to be connected either to the motherboard or a seperate PCI card.

A 3-port firewire card is around £15 nowadays.

What model of digi cam do you have?

Stefan

 

You say video footage so I presume it's a digital camcorder, not a digital stills camera which can take short (30 sec) video footage.

DV footage can only be transferred by FireWire. You will probably need a FireWire/iLink/1394 port adding to your PC. They're about £15 as stated.

You cannot get USB/USB2 to FireWire converters.

Just shout if you need any more help

 

I think the point being made is that USB 1.0 is really not fast enough to transfer high-quality DV footage and sound to the PC satisfactorily. It'll work, just, but results are far more consistent with Firewire.

 

Ahh! but then I do have USB 2.0

Half an apology then

Andy

 

Thanks for the replies , things are looking a little clearer

Just to clarify, can you go from a mini USB on the camera to a USB on the PC (even itf it is a slower type 1)? Camera is a Panasonic NV-DS11B.

Mike

 

That's EXACTLY what I do msp, but as I stated above I have a faster USB design (USB 2.0)

I'd put some piccys up if I could find the lead


Andy

 

right then
on the camera we have ilink on the left (never used it)
and mini USB port on the right.



On the lead we have Normal sized USB at the top
and mini USB below.

 

Thanks Fuzz,

Problem is that my camera connection is actually smaller than yours (I take it mines not a mini USB after all but something else)

Mike

 

Fuzz,

i am guessing - your USB connection can be used, but it will only transfer stills (e.g. from a memory stick) or low quality MPEG video.

Full resolution DV footage needs a lot of bandwidth - i.e. Firewire, which is why the camera has such a port. USB2 might be able to cope, but i don't think any camcorders use it yet.

mb

 

isn't it called USB streaming

Well I transfered 30mins of video at at LEAST tv quality the other week.
Oi Snowcrash how is the editing coming along ??
He'll know what the settings were,
I transfered it to his pc

Andy

 

ahh bollox I'll just run off a clip and see.
Hope I have enough room to host it

 

In a word no 23 secs of clip is.



Andy

Conclusive yes to USB DV CAPTURE.

 

yes, your USB does do DV - DV raw is about 3Mb/sec...so 79Mb looks like proper DV-raw...

My 3CCD digicam only has firewire :-(

 

i think the usb connection on the panasonic is a non-standard usb port (i might be wrong here). as i stated above, i have come across usb device that uses it's own non-standard usb port.

 

USB is 11Mbps (bits!) so assuming you're saying 3MB (bytes!) as second, USB could not transfer DV. USB2 is something similar to Firewire, which is 400Mbps. Although of course there's a newer 800Mbps firewire now as well.

 

firewire, the choice for DV

 

I have a Panasonic NV-GS50. Very similar guts to the DS model you have but slightly smaller and with all the toys .

It has both USB connector (lead enclosed with box) and Firewire connector (cable bought separately, but ebuyer do them for £2!!!).

USB can only be used to transfer stuff that's loaded onto the SD Card. This could be MPEG movies (if your model does that) or still photos.
Firewire is required to transfer high quality DV footage.

Other makes may allow you to transfer DV via USB (though that would be scarily slow unless USB2 is used), but not on the Panasonics as far as I'm aware. Raw DV footage is huge (I just transferred a 4 minute section via DV and it came out 700Mb so you really need firewire. Buy a firewire/ieee1394 card for about £20+ or get a motherboard with firewire built in.

Hope this helps. email if you want for more Panasonic specific info.
Joolz