Camcorder - Firewire to USB cable

[geek2330]

I don't have Firewire ports on my PC.

For my Canon Elura 100 I have a cable that plugs into the firewire port of the camcorder, the other end plugs into a USB port on the PC.

I read mix feelings on this, people highly recommend transferring the video to the PC using a Firewire port on the PC as USB will upload the video with a lower quality (I have USB 2.0 ports on PC).

Can someone confirm this and tell me if I really need to buy a Firewire card for my PC.
If in fact the firewire-to-USB degrades the video quality, how much percentage are we talking about ??

[mats.hogberg]

Get a FireWire card. You should be able to pick one up @ about $20 or so. I find it hard to believe there should be such a thing as IEEE1394 to USB cable. The cam has both USB (which basically reduces your expensive gear to a cheap web cam) and DV ports. Some (very few) cams can transfer DV via USB, but I can find no evidence the Elura 100 is one of these.

/Mats

[redwudz]

I've never heard of a FireWire to USB cable, being that they are entirely different formats. But anyway, USB is generally low quality video for web usage, while FireWire should give you an exact copy of the data on the video tape. Most FireWire cards can be purchased for $10 -$20US and they are plug and play installation.

As far as the quality between USB and FireWire, try the USB and see what it looks like when converted to video for a TV, then hook the camera to a TV with the video out and see what that looks like. That may answer your question. Better would be to find a computer with a FireWire port and test the two formats that way.

[GeorgeW]

Firewire USB Cable

[geek2330]

Maybe in fact I used the USB port on the camera as shown in the pic from George, let me check....

[geek2330]

I checked the cables and camera, looks like I used the USB port on the camera.

Just one last question before I buy the firewire card for the PC.
Because I don't have another PC with firewire port so I can check the difference in video quality, what do you guys think is the difference percentage wise that I am losing video quality using USB ports.

I am not hesitating to buy a firewire card, but want to know the facts.

Once again, thanks people..!!!

[mats.hogberg]

Impossible to give you a percentage, but over USB, you'll get low resolution, low bitrate video.
Over FireWire, you'll get the best video your camera can create - in fact exactly the video your camera creates - DVD resolution, high bitrate, made for editing and possibly reencoding for Video DVD.
Like comparing a still image taken with your cell phone camera to an image taken with a dedicated high end digital camera.

/Mats

[geek2330]

Good enough and clear, thanks mats...!!!
Now I need to make a decision.
My work laptop doesn't have firewire but it has DVD burner.
My home PC doesn't have firewire nor DVD burner so I will have to buy both components.

[GeorgeW]

Good enough and clear, thanks mats...!!!
Now I need to make a decision.
My work laptop doesn't have firewire but it has DVD burner.
My home PC doesn't have firewire nor DVD burner so I will have to buy both components.

If you have an external hard drive, you can Author your DVD to folders (or DVD Image) on the external hard drive. Then connect the external HD to your laptop and burn (using IMGBURN or your dvd-burning software of choice).

Regards,
George

[mats.hogberg]

Even PC Card FireWire adapters are really cheap, so you could buy one for your laptop, and not having to buy a DVD writer too - even if they too are to be had for pocket money these days.

/Mats

[geek2330]

Guess what, I just happened to find a PCMCIA Firewire card at work that I can use for my laptop....nice...
I will start uploading and saving my videos as AVI with Windows Movie Maker.

The only thing left now is to find a "good" free encoder to convert to MPEG-2 so I can burn my DVD.

Thanks for all the help people..!!

[mats.hogberg]

Take a look at HCEnc - It requires some "gettin used to" - AviSynth is q required skill - but it's really good and free. Or else - Try convertx2dvd - not free, but will take care of encoding and authoring as Video DVD as good as can possibly be expected from oneclickwonder apps.

/Mats