David_Wallis

Hello,

We have just bought the above... but to get mpeg movies onto the pc do we have to buy a dv capture card with firewire inputs... or can you do it slowly over usb??

David

alistair

I assume you're talking about MPEG's stored on the memory stick...

You load the video over firewire, but you have to load JPEG's & MPEG's over USB. It's not slow as the files aren't that big. The interface is really neat, just plug in the USB and it appears as a removable drive so you can just drag them in Windows Explorer or attach them directly to eMail.

David_Wallis

We have got that working fine... but it says we should be able to get the footage out as an mpeg... do we need the firewire interface along with the dv capture card to do this??

I understand that usb is 12mbps and firewire can run 400mbps and that a 640x480 mpeg is gonna be big... but seems a bit silly that you have to buy the card to do it..

David

alistair

The only way to get video out is by firewire. I got a card, cable & software bundle from PC World for £50 (reduced from £100). You can then download and edit the video then save to whatever format you want (if supported by software).

I haven't done much editing, but you can also record back onto DV once you've finished so that you can keep the DV quality which is loads better than VHS.

It takes up loads of disk space so if you want to do much, then a dedicated disk is probably a good idea.

DazV

Yeah, all the video should be sent down the FireWire connector which is much, much faster than USB (20x I think) @ 400mb/s.

Best to capture in .avi video, do your editing then when finishing convert into whatever is suitable eg. streaming asf for the net, mpeg1 for cd presentations, etc...

Blow Dog

I have the Miro DC10plus card. Does this support firewire?

I've used it previously to capture video off VHS but this firewire is really confusing me.

Cem

David_Wallis

how fuc&*ing much do they want to charge for firewire cables... and I dont care how shielded they are.... finally found some cheaper ones though..

Are all the dv capture cards the same.. is it just the software that changes??? (as you can tell Im not into this dv stuff..

its for my dad... who we just bought the camcorder for... and I want to get some footage of my car, both whilst driving and stood still!! And then post it up... hmmm.. maybe not actually...)

David

alistair

Not sure if they're all the same quality, but when I looked I found the software came with a card & a cable so I just bought the bundle. - £50 all in seemed like a good deal compared to the cost of the cable.

Have you had a play with the camera - awesome quality from something so small.

Blowdog - no idea about your card, but it is unlikely that an analogue video card will have digital firewire inputs - but you never know and I'm no expert.

DazV

First of all, firewire is simply a means of transferring data from one digital device to another, in the same way serial, parallel and usb do. Firewire is the fastest at 400mb/s. You can get firewire hardisks, capture cards, etc...

Ok, PC's work in digital.
Newer Camcorders work in digital.
VCR's and older Camcorders work in analogue.

To connect a VCR (analogue) to a PC (digital) you need a capture card equipped with an analogue (composite video) socket. Analogue data is passed down the lead, and converted to digital at the other end. The information being sent from the VCR suffers from signal degradation and compression, so its not a pure as the original video clip on the VCR.

To connect a newer camcorder (digital) to a PC (digital) all you need is an all digital connection from one to the other. eg. FireWire. The information being sent suffers no signal degradation or compression and is a perfect copy of the oringal video clip in the camcorder.

Once you get the video clip captured on your PC, you'll save it in .avi format typically, which is good to edit. From there you have a number of choices as to what format to convert the clip into to reach your target audience (website or cd-rom or hardisk, etc)

-DV

David_Wallis

Got home yesterday and dad had called in at ccl and bought himself a firewire card for just over 20 quid complete with cable.. has set camera up and quality is good, as a digital camera its not too good.. looks a bit dark.. but I havent really played with it... The touch screen is cool though.. We have now managed to make some mpegs.. Can watch the camera live on pc through firewire!..

Wasnt a dv capture card, just boring firewire card...

Thanks for all the help..

MPEG's to be posted to my site soon!

David