Digital Camcorder/Firewire question

[WDW Poly Princess]

I recently bought a shiny new mini-dv camcorder, and a firewire to hook it to my computer with, but since it came with a USB cable, do I really need the firewire? What's the advantage of using the firewire over the USB cable?

Sorry if it's a silly question, but I don't know much of anything about camcorders!

 

[DrCavin]

Firewire is much faster than usb. You can download video using USB, but you will probably have to cut back on the quality in order to get it to work and it will probably not be a very good image once downloaded. With firewire you should be able to download at the highest quality available.

 

[Elwood Blues]

I've read that some Video Camcorders use USB to transfer still pictures only and firewire to transfer the digital video.

There really isn't much difference in speed between USB 2.0 and Firewire but your camera may only be recognized by the software that came with the camera (or third party software (which you may find much more useful than what came with the camera)) when it's connected via firewire.

 

[Elwood Blues]

Firewire is much faster than usb. You can download video using USB, but you will probably have to cut back on the quality in order to get it to work and it will probably not be a very good image once downloaded. With firewire you should be able to download at the highest quality available.

While I've never actually done a transfer I wouldn't recommend using a lesser quality recording mode just to save a few minutes on the download. That is assuming that the camera can actually download video via the USB port. So if USB does work and that's all you have, I would just start the transfer and go have dinner.

But, I would get the appropriate hardware to maximize the transfer speed. You only have to do it once and your set. I could never understand why someone doesn't consider (what I like to call) the "aggravation factor". That is, how much will it aggravate me to wait in order to save some money. Firewire cards aren't that expensive now. I just saw an Adaptec on sale at Compusa for $10 (after rebate).

 

[sapiendut]

Firewire = 400 Mbps
USB 2.0 = 480 Mbps

therefore USB 2.0 is FASTER than FireWire

Also check your camera, certain cameras have both USB and FireWire BUT only transfers still photo via its USB output and only video through the FireWire output.

Check your manual to be certain.

 

[Dakota_Lynn]

Firewire works much better. You'll drop many frames when transferring with a USB cable and the quality will be terrible. I took a class on digital video editing. The instructor warned us against using USB but I used it anyway because that is what I had and got crappy results. I went out and bought the firewire cable and got a perfect transfer.

 

[the kabuki]

Everything I've read says to use Firewire.

 

[Charade]

Firewire works much better. You'll drop many frames when transferring with a USB cable and the quality will be terrible. I took a class on digital video editing. The instructor warned us against using USB but I used it anyway because that is what I had and got crappy results. I went out and bought the firewire cable and got a perfect transfer.

That doesn't make much sense (dropping frames) because you're not streaming the data for real time display and having to worry about the PC being able to keep up. That's like saying a floppy would lose data just because it's slower than a CD. The camcorder should only send data to the PC when the PC is ready for it.

If you are using the camcorder in LIVE mode and recording to the PC then maybe it could present a problem (dropped frames).