Firewire card recommendations?

[zanos]

Anyone want to recommend a cheap basic one that does the job. I'm assuming they're pretty much all the same.

[taylor42]

I have had good luck with the ATI DV-Wonder. It works with my JVC GR-DVL510UL and comes with Ulead Video Studio 5.0

[silverbeetle]

One thing i'd like to know about firewire cards and video capture is is there any difference between a normal firewire card and a 'specialised' DV firewire card? do they offer extra specialised features or is it more the software bundled with it that offers the features? any info would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Allan55]

Firewire is Firewire is Firewire. It's just that firewire got its big start in the video camera arena. So a lot of marketing hype talks about DV because that is still its biggest use.

This isn't the same as a quality card vrs a no-name.

Its also interesting that the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge seems to like Texas Instrument chips on the cards and Canopus doesn't... Are there any real electronic engineers at these companies? I wonder; so do a couple of EEs I know.

[Craig Tucker]

I bought a cherry firewire card, only about £25 works perfectly. I know you can spend a lot more on a card but what benefits you get from the extra outlay of cash I dont know. I figured that as long as it transferred video from my camcorder to my PC then that was all I wanted.

One thing to note the card wants to be ohci compliant. Most are but the first one I bought was'nt and didnt work with my camera so I had to exchange it.

Craig

[Majtolycus]

It's true, firewire is firewire is firewire. I was looking at the ATI DV wonder about 6 months ago, and I believe the price was $40-50. They also had generic cards where I was looking (CompUSA) for about $30-40. But then I noticed something really nifty -- the Sound Blaster Audigy comes with a firewire port built in. And I had been looking for a new sound card anyway, since I wanted to get surround sound digital speakers (moderately happy with my Creative 5700s.. think I would've preferred the comparable Klipsch model though).

So my point is, if you're in the market for another type of peripheral like a sound card, check to see if an intergrated firewire port is included with any models. You can kill two birds with one stone.

--=Major