Firewire v USB v RCA

[ricky]

I posed a question a few days ago about video capture and editing. The general response was Firewire was best as it was "digital-to-digital" and faster. What I'm unclear about is this. If I'm trying to transfer a home video that is presently on a tape in my Sony Digital 8 video camera, to my PC for later editing and copying to DVD, surely all three accessories (firewire, USB & RCA cables) will transfer at the same speed as I'll invariably have to press the "Play" button on my video camera and that's the speed that will be used for data transfer. Or am I mistaken.

Am I right in assuming the difference will only be noticed if I were to transfer from the camera's memory stick as opposed to tape? But then again, the memory stick only contains still pictures, not the whole video.

What I'm thinking is in my situation, I should use either USB or firewire cables so that there's no digital-analogue-digital conversion involved (as would be the case with RCA jacks) but the speed of transfer will be the same with all three.

Any comments would be appreciated.

[teegee420]

What kind of capture device do you have?

[ricky]

I am not too technically-inclined but the brochure about my PC says it has Medion Power Cinema 2.5 and Cyberlink (incl. Power Producer 2.0 Gold, Media Show SE, Power Director 3.0 SE and Power DVD 5). Also has Medion Power Cinema 2.5 and ATi Radeon 9800XXL 128 MB DDR SD-RAM 256 bit Memory Interface (Graphics Card I think).

[sitlet]

if you want to transfer dv video from your cam to your pc, firewire is the ONLY way to do this. usb is not fast enough to transfer dv. the usb part of your camcorder is for transferring still images only to your pc. rca cables generally do not hook up to pc's, unless you have an analog capture card. in that case, you can use the rca's, but it is NOT worth it. what you are doing is converting the digital video on the tape to analog, then converting that back to digital in the pc. you will lose quality. firewire is straight digital to digital file transfer and is the way to go is you want to get the best out of the video

[ricky]

So the only difference between using RCA & Firewire would be digital-analogue-digital conversion with the former and straight out digital-digital with the latter? And is that where Firewire becomes faster (not having to convert)?

[teegee420]

Both are the same speed. That's not the issue. Firewire is a transfer, whereas RCA is analog to digital capture.

[ricky]

ta. my pc has a few firewire input (IEEE 1394) - some with 4-pole and some with 6-poles. does it matter which input (and therefore type of firewire cable) i use?

[MOVIEGEEK]

The 6 pin is the standard connector for PC,the 4 pin is for the camcorder.It doesn't matter which one you use.

left:6 pin......right:4 pin

[ricky]

Since my PC has both 4-pin and 6-pin firewire inputs, and my camcorder only 4-pin, would it make a difference if I used a firewire cable that has 4 pins on each end, i.e. would the quality, etc be different if I used the standard cable and hooked it to the 6-pin input of my PC?

[ricky]

sorry, no need to reply - didn't read your second sentence.

[ZAPPER]

RICKY I ain't no expert (standard disclaimer) But here is something to consider. If your cam came with a fire wire cable try it. If your cam or PC came with any software try it. I don't intend to sound mean or anything but poke around a little bit with your stuff and see what happens. And if you screw up anything then go read the directions!(just kidding I don't think that that anything can happen other than locking up your system) It is true that to transfer your video to your PC it will take as long as it takes to play the video. But by going with fire wire you can probally control your cam from your PC and stop and start at the places you want. Thus giving it a rough edit right off the get go.(no need to save the lens cap or foot shots to the hard drive)Now you can use whatever editing software you have to make a movie. As for the RCA out on your cam, hook it up to a TV monitor to veiw your video as you capture or transfer. It looks so much better than the cams little screen or the small window that the editing software screen provides. Have fun

[ricky]

Can you tell me a bit more about the rough edit procedures that's possible by controlling my cam from the PC using firewire.

[teegee420]

Depends on the program you are capturing with. Vegas allows you to control playback. I'm sure other programs do to.

[sitlet]

yes, most programs will allow you to control the play, stop, ff, rw, etc controls if you connect your cam via firewire. you will not get this with rca cables. again, i highly recommend you use the firewire connection to transfer video..

[ricky]

Thanks for all your responses folks, highly appreciated. Managed to buy a firewire cable the other day (4-pin cam end and 6-pin PC end) and last night managed to transfer a couple of holiday videos that were on camcorder tape to my PC. Used the program that came with the PC (Cyberlink Power package) and managed to control the cam from the PC. With capture now complete, it will be interesting to see how editing and subsequent burning to DVD goes. That will be the hard part I reckon.

Apparently the Cyberlink Power package has all the tools for one to produce a decent DVD from home videos captured via camcorders. Anyone experienced with this package? If so, would appreciate any handy tips and what to avoid when using this.

Thanks once again.

[lenti_75]

DON'T go for analog.....use firewire, especially that you have a digital camera...

[sitlet]

Anyone experienced with this package?

im not too familiar with that package. maybe someone on here is though. but if you get stuck editing or converting to dvd, check out some of the guides to the left. there are plenty of guides for all kinds of different software and freeware. so if you find you dont like the cyberlink software, try some of the other software and see how it goes.

good luck!

[ZAPPER]

Ricky If you can, get your hands on a book called "The little digital video book" by Michael Rubin try www.peachpit.com or a book store near you. I ain't never been to the site but I have the book and it is really good for starters. Sorry I can't stay longer I really need to crash.