Page 1 of Fire Wire Connection

On most digital camcorders there is a DV output.
Is this another name for a firewire port? I.e. can you connect this port to a firewire port on a pc?

I believe so, that`s what we do at work with a Sony, but I don`t know if "all" DV outputs are firewire.

Dave

LBM,

Firewire is formally known as IEEE-1394, and I do connect my DV camera`s firewire port to my firewire port on the desktop PC.

I`m using Pinnacles Studio DV package which provides the IEEE-1394 card for the PC to do this, I believe that some of the rendering is handled by the card itself so be careful if you have a generic firewire connection on your PC, if you are using that to download video data from a camera the generic card may not have the necessary components to handle the rendering and you might need an extra software package.

If anyone has more detailed info on this subject, Please feel free to add to or correct anything I`ve said above - I wouldn`t profess to be an expert by any means :-)

Cheers

Chris

Thanks Chris,

How do you rate Pinnacles Studio DV? Does it cater for most of the standard functions you need?

Cheers

only other thing I can add is that Sony seem to sometimes use a 4 pin version on their laptops and cameras, rather than the standard 6 pin, so they can sell you an adapter.

Hi LBM,

No problem, I`m happy to help :-)

I`ve found Pinnacles` Studio DV to be really good, I`ve made quite a few home movies now using it and the family have been pretty impressed at the quality and tricks you can do with it. It`s got full title editing and transitions to make it look a lot slicker too. You can mix video from different capture files, and add in background music from other sources on your PC or off CD if you want to as well.

I`m about to upgrade to version 7 which has quite a few enhancements and bug fixes in it, and has improved title and transitions available too. I`d check if buying it to see what version it comes with now, as I`m not sure whether 7 is only available as a downloadable upgrade or is actually now in the box as standard.

Depending upon how serious you are there is also DV+, DV510 and DV510+ which basically add more features, but the price rises sharply as well though !

If you go to Pinnacles website they have a forum similar to this, and their are some real experts on there that could answer any detailed video capture/production questions you have too.

There are also competetive products out there such as Ulead, that you might to compare against.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Chris

I`ve also got Studio DV and it`s a great little product. One very useful feature is the ability to download the video as a compressed file. You have to remember that for each minute of uncompressed video you need around 400mb of hard disc space! My ageing pc only has a 14gig drive so I have to be very selective about me video clips.

I`ve also got a version of Adobe Premiere knocking about on me computer, but I haven`t gotten round to learning how to use it properly...

BTW, Sony`s cut-down version of Firewire is called i-link

This item was edited on Saturday, 11th May 2002, 13:25