Firewire 400 or 800?

[Miro]

I just bought a Sony DCR TRV33E minidv and tried to move some stuff filmed with it to my PC using USB (2). The quality was poor, with Sony Image Mixer the maximum resolution was 360x240. So, I'm going to buy a Firewire PCI-card, but...should I buy a FW800-model or is FW400 fast enough? I tried to find answer from the old posts, like here: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t197925.html but I couldn't find any help. Isn't USB2 faster than FW400? -> So I should buy FW800. -> But then again, doesn't FW800 need 9-pin cables, the camera has only 4-pin connector, isn't that for max 400?

Please help, what I should do?

-miro-

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[bebe]

Miro,

I have both of the cards Firewire 400 and 800 (usually 64 bit pci cards). The dv camera only uses 4 pins and it only uses the 400 mb transmission of data and this is enough for capturing digital video. In order for you to use the 800mb transmission you need to use all the 9 pins (this is usually used for faster external hard drives). There is an available cables that support 9 pins to 4 pins converter.

Bebe

[Miro]

Thank you, Bebe.

I would have bought a FW800-card just to be sure, but if FW400 is enough I'll buy such. It costs only about 1/4 of the price of a FW800-card, which also is nice...

-miro-