Got a miniDV Do I need firewire or will USB do?

[austinphoto]

Just got my first miniDV. I can put a USB connector into the camera

and computer. I don't have firewire. I can buy a firewire card but I

already have several USB2 connections. Can I use the USB2?

Thanks,

Abe

[emre]

You probably need Firewire. The USB connection is for stills. What is your camcorder?

[gluteal cleft]

Some camcorders will do video over USB2, but those few that I have seen have problems keeping the video stream constant. Go firewire, and don't look back.

 

steve

[austinphoto]

Will do. Thanks very much!

[tonysvision]

Try it and see. You will know if it's not working. I am using USB 2.0 with a Panasonic GS-150 capturing to external USB drives with no problems using the software provided with the camera. I've captured and edited at least 20 hours of video this way so far, using Iomega and Simple Tech USB drives. I would need Firewire to write back from the hard drive to DV tape in the camera, but so far have not seen the need to do this.

[vlady_madejczyk]

You have more possibilities. If you don't want to use FireWire, try S-Video - many camcorders have the option, however you will need a capture device and software. Results will be poor and depend strongly on your computer (RAM, active processes in memory, used software etc).

USB is used in most camcorders for stills and/or streaming to hard drive on your computer. However don't expect high quality for the streamed files, since they are mpegs. For low resolutions, you can get good results, however if you expect something better there is no escape - FireWire is a must. 60min DV takes about 10GB, so just try to transfer the file using USB (if possible) - looooong time will be needed. It depends what you want. For better quality and editing you will need DV format, and it means - FireWire.

By the way - Fuji FinePix S7000, digital camcorder, has option for video 640x480, 30fps, and there you can use USB for video transfer (format avi).