# MiniDV camcorder/firewire - info needed



## wendi (May 7, 2002)

Hi all, I need some IT assistance! [smiley=help.gif]
I'm looking at minidv camcorders at the mo and have discovered that I don't have a firewire port on my Dell (Dimension 4300).
Dell have been useless at advising me on which one to get and how it affects my warranty so I thought as there's loads of IT bods here I'd ask your advice.
Pc runs on windows XP and it's been suggested I get the Pinnacle DV Clip which has all the gizmos I need. Problem is as I bought an extra 2 years of warranty I don't want to chance doing it myself and invalidating it (plus I'm not happy to fit it myself). Any thoughts?/suggest any thechies that won't charge the earth for a ten minute job ???
I've also realised that there's such a thing as a dvd-rewriter (duh) - I thought a cd-rewriter could copy onto dvd's!
The other thing I need to know is what cable I'd need to copy vids straight onto vhs?
Sorry for all the questions - my knowledge of IT is currently at surfing and cd burning.
[smiley=computer.gif]


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

ok - no firewire is not an huge issue atm - your pc will have usb slots so therefore a dv cam that has usb will suffice. You do have options - either look for usb dv or get dell to fit a firewire card to the machine - approx cost is Â£40 for the card or fit a firewire card yourself and hope that your machine is trouble free.
CD-RW cannot write to DVD - that is a misconception I've noticed from a few Dell customers - the ad says CD-RW/dvd combo......that just means the drive can play dvds and write to cd only. 
Video to vhs - the cam will surely come with vid out and vid in - there for through the standard sockets you will be able to hook directly to video. Or if your PC video card has video out you can load film to the pc, tweak and edit it, then out put to either cd or video. On a standard cd with proper compression you will get approx 60 mins of high quality video.


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## wendi (May 7, 2002)

Cheers - on the camcorders I've looked at (Canon and Sony) the USB connection is only for upoading stills, not video, so I'll be getting a firewire port anyway!
How will I know if my pc has video out? :-/


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

If you look at the back of your pc - where your monitor is plugged in - you should see one or two round svhs connections - they look similar to the connections that you see on any video/tv for inputs. You should have aswell cables supplied from Dell for the purpose of attaching video sources to the PC if you have a video capable Graphics card.
One final note - there is a great video card available to upgrade the system from a company called Gainward - it offers video in video out - dvi connection - dsub & firewire all on one card. ;D
http://www.gainward.com/c-1.html?id=79


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## l3ett (May 6, 2002)

OK a few things I think u should know:

1) I'm not sure USB has a quick enough transfer speed to be able to properly transfer dv to your pc. Firewire is the best option, which as you already know you need an additional card for. (Unless you have a Soundblaster Audigy card, which comes with one built in! ;D)

2) Your PC hard drive needs to be fast enough to keep up with the video being transferred. Assuming you have a newish PC you should be ok, but you wont be able to do anything else on your PC at the same time as recording from the DV camera.

3) You need loads and loads of disk space! 30mins or so of DV takes up around 15GB of space 

3) To be able to put your DV on either a CD or DVD you need to convert it to MPEG format. You need some software to do this, and it can take an age to complete! 30mins of footage can take anything up to 12hrs  depending on the quality you want and how fast your processor is.

If you want to record your ediited clips back to the camcorder, make sure the one you buy supports DV In as well as DV out. Apparently the duty in the UK on cameras that allow DVin is higher so not all manufacturers enable DV In on their camcorders.

I have a Canon MiniDV camcorder and do quite a bit of home video editing, so if you want any more advice just ask!


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## wendi (May 7, 2002)

Cheers.
On the back of my pc I have one port that looks like a tv arial port.
I actually went into a shop today to ask about the connections I'd need and the guy said I only need a firewire port and a usb card reader (for stills).
He showed me a cable that came with the camcorder which connects to the tv - scart or 3 coloured pins. He said I upload the video to the pc, edit it, download it back to the camera, use the scart to connect to the tv and record onto the vhs like a tv programme. Does that sound right?
I got the turbo drive on the cd-rom etc (7200rpm or something!).
The Gainward card - is it a 'take the cover off, plug it in, load the software, put the cover on' deal? - I want to only have to take the cover off once and it needs to be compatable with XP!!
Apologies that I'm so thick :-/


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

ok -

The Gainward Card would directly replace your current video card - and yes its a case of take out old - plug in new and install software. As said this card would provide everything that you need to get going - however the cost is just over Â£100 - but worth it.

The cheaper option of course is the adding in of a firewire card alone - this again is lid off plug in install.

Re the usb card reader - only needed if you have diff formats of card memory that needs to be read. eg - digi camera vid camera and another peripheral. No need for just one peripheral as the data is transeferd though the firewire connection.

Re speed of your PC - the transfer rate of even a 5400 rpm hard drive far exceeds that of firewire or USB so no worries there.

The coverting of video to mpeg suitable for cd can take some time - but 12 hours is excessive - more like a couple of hours....

Re transfer to video - yes connect the cam to the TV and do editing from the camera itself - but far better to do editing on pc and then output to video.

The socket on the back of the pc sounds as if you have video out - this will aloow connection to your television through a cable which you should have .


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## wendi (May 7, 2002)

Thanks guys! Â [smiley=cheers.gif]
I think I get it now except...


> if you have a video capable Graphics card.


... I have a 64MB NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with TV Out and when I ran the System Profiler through Dell for my PC it says I also have a Legacy Video Capture Device - does that mean I only need to add a Firewire Card and I'm sorted? I have Windows Movie Maker so I'm guessing that's the case.
Sounds like it to me but want to check before I spend my pennies!
Forgot to ask - Sony are doing these very compact MicroDV camcorders - anyone have one/tell me the differences between the two (other than that you can only edit vids with Sony's own software)?


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## pgm (May 7, 2002)

Now if you had a Mac which has (already built in):
USB
Firewire
CD and DVD recorder
imovie software for editing, adding credits, effects etc.
Quicktime for playback.
All in one lovely box

What do you think sa|ntt?


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## saint (Dec 6, 2002)

[smiley=thumbsdown.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


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## Love_iTT (Aug 18, 2002)

Pete, leave the poor PC people alone, they can't catch up the 2 years that Apple have over them in such a short space of time. If they want to bungle along using Windoze, adding PC cards here and sound cards there, let them. In the meantime we can just quietly carry on being creative and getting the work done in the easiest possible way, the Macintosh way.

I can see their little faces now, Bulldogs chewing a wasp springs to mind.

I'll get my coat shall I ;D ;D ;D


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## wendi (May 7, 2002)

Well after this lenghty experience I may well 'upgrade to one at some point!
I take it for video and editing they're the biz?


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## justinp (May 7, 2002)

Macs are good for colouring in and thats about it 

Cheers

JustinP


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## Love_iTT (Aug 18, 2002)

Wendi, all I can say is why dont you take your camcorder into an Apple reseller and get the guys there to show you how easy it is to import it, edit it in iMove and then produce a DVD in iDVD. All this in one desktop or laptop machine. Then go into PC world and ask them to do the same thing and just see for yourself what is the easiest and most productive platform, the choice is yours.

Justin, you mean colouring in videos? yeah they're great for that too ;D

Graham


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## pgm (May 7, 2002)

> Wendi, all I can say is why dont you take your camcorder into an Apple reseller and get the guys there to show you how easy it is to import it, edit it in iMove and then produce a DVD in iDVD. All this in one desktop or laptop machine. Then go into PC world and ask them to do the same thing and just see for yourself what is the easiest and most productive platform, the choice is yours.
> 
> Justin, you mean colouring in videos? yeah they're great for that too ;D
> 
> Graham


Heâ€™s right Wendi. You will be amazed at how easy it all is!


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