Best Firewire Card for Sony Camcorders

[romande]

What is the best Firewire card to use with the Sony Camcorders (DCR-TRV530) ???

Please advise ......

[ktnwin]

Since Firewire is digital, all Firewire capture cards essentially perform the same functions with the same quality level.
However, go get an OHCI compliant card to be sure about compatibility with software driver.
If you are also looking for some video capture and editing software with it, one good choice is StudioDV package that contains a Firewire card and accompanying software.
Actually, Firewire cards are the one that gave us the least headaches compare to analog video capture card.

I just got from Comp-USA, it's only $49.99 with three Fire-wire outputs (Comp-Usa brand), also comes with the cable from your Sony DV to this card. I'm very happy with this, this is the first one that I never had any trouble. I'm using Sony DV PC100 and DV20 and adobe premiere 6.0
Good luck

[romande]

Is the Pinnacle StudioDV the best "bang for the buck" ???


Is the Dazzle DV Editor card any good ??

_________________
Regards,

Romande

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: romande on 2001-07-03 04:21:46 ]</font>

[Darkbird]

I couldn't capture audio from my Sony with the Pinnacle StudioDV when it was in pass-thru mode (i.e. just sending data to firewire without recording to tape). StudioDV was only 200Mbps (most are 400Mbps now) and uses proprietary drivers that are not guaranteed to be compatible with other types of firwire devices. Other users out there were having same problem with audio. I returned it and got an Adaptec firewire board, works fine and uses a standard Microsoft driver.

[ktnwin]

Actually, there are lots of reviews on the StudioDV package at Amazon.com

Most users are very happy because it works right the first time for them, a few not happy because it just does not work.

I don't know about the 200Mbps / 400Mbps thing. This could be true but have not verified yet (I am quite involved with 1394 products as a designer). For DV capture, this would not be a problem because DV rate is 3.6MB/sec or 28.8Mbps which is still way way below 200Mbps.

The 200Mbps could be a limitation if you consider to attach Firewire disk drive to the same card later.

For me, StudioDV is really the "best bang for the buck". I got what I want (hardware and software that work).




<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ktnwin on 2001-07-03 10:19:42 ]</font>