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General discussion

Canon Optura and Questions about Firewire!?!?!?

Mar 4, 2004 1:55AM PST

I wanted to know what excatly Firewire is used for!?!?! Like is it really necessary or whatever!??!?! And i want to buy a Canon Optura 300 oor should i wait for the New Elura to come out!?!?

Discussion is locked

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Re:Canon Optura and Questions about Firewire!?!?!?
Mar 4, 2004 2:57AM PST

"I wanted to know what excatly Firewire is used for!?!?!"

I see applications to move DV to the computer, as an interface to hard disks, CDRW, DVD recorders and even an attempt at networking. There is no "exact" usage since it's an interface and not limited to one use.

"Like is it really necessary or whatever!??!?! And i want to buy a Canon Optura 300 oor should i wait for the New Elura to come out!?!?"

Given you have added such a question in with a camcorder, one would use it to move DV to the compure. If you don't need to, then its not needed.

As to waiting. My best advice is to always delay. Always...

Bob

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firewire questions
Dec 24, 2005 5:35AM PST

Yes fire wire is necessary.. but you were just joking right?
I mean... right?

firewire is DV wire. no camera will use anything else (well not a serious one) Your windows box probably doesnt come with it (tho more and more are) if you arent planning on using your DV camera to export to your computer.. you will probably be happier with a MUCH MUCH cheaper hi8 model and record it to dvd on a dvd recorder or just leave it on tape and get a hi-8 tape player.

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firewire vs usb 2
Dec 24, 2005 3:12PM PST

hi badargs,

i've readd that you can use usb 2.0 to capture video to a hard drive instead of firewire. i haven't tried it though, so i can't say based on my own results if there are any problems.

indera

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Firewire vx, USB
Dec 25, 2005 2:16AM PST

It all comes down to bandwidth. Imagine that your video footage, shot on a DV camera, is like a milkshake. Now, you need to pour or download the milkshake into a glass. USB is like a straw and Firewire is like a large tube. Basically, Firewire allows for the full bandwidth of DV video to transport fror port A to port B and does it in realtime speed. USB can download video, but due to it's slower speed, DV video gets clogged and results in errors during the download. USB allows for the downloading of video shot on DVD or Hard Drive camcorder because this footage is already compressed into the MPEG format, whereas DV video is not compressed. (It is compressed, but for us mere mortals, technically it's not for what we are concerned with.) If you want the "best" video quality to be ingested into your computer for the purpose of editing, then you want DV video and at this time, Firewire is the only way to get it. (Thankfully Apple developed Firewire, which is why you don't see many PCs come equipped from the factory with it.)