Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Why Use FireWire?

Feb 5, 2006 6:44AM PST

I want to put alot of the videos I record on my miniDV camcorder (Sony HC-42) onto my computer hard drive for editing and storing. You can use both USB and FireWire. The only way that I know how to import videos onto my computer is to use video capturing software or video editing software that has video capture. When you capture, you just play the video at normal speed. What are the advantages of using FireWire if you can only import video at playback speed? Is there a faster way to import video cause this way can take forever? Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Look at what quality you get from USB or Firewire.
Feb 5, 2006 8:28AM PST

Since both capture at 1X, I'd want the quality. You may not.

Bob

- Collapse -
(NT) (NT) I didn't realize there was that big of a differnce.
Feb 5, 2006 9:00AM PST
- Collapse -
Is there much of a difference
Feb 5, 2006 9:37AM PST

in speed or quality between 4 pin to 4 pin and 4 pin to 6 pin? If you had both options which would you use, or does it even matter?

- Collapse -
Since the other 2 pins are power, how could that affect...
Feb 5, 2006 9:44AM PST

Speed?

Google.com finds what those pins provide so you can find out what they do.

Bob

- Collapse -
Useless Forum?
Feb 5, 2006 12:04PM PST

Considering how much information you can gather from search engines, discussion forums are worthless for asking questions. Since I couldn't really find an answer to my question from searching before, I figured asking here would be faster than reading through many articles, especially since this was already an ongoing discussion about firewire. I guess not.

- Collapse -
That's the fish or fishing lesson discussion.
Feb 5, 2006 12:54PM PST

It's been discussed before whether just answers should be handed out or to try to help people use today's great tools.

What you may also want to consider is that you are also feeling the effects of retailers cutting back on educated sales staff.

Here we discuss, but if you think this is tech support, it's not.

Bob

- Collapse -
I'll keep that in mind
Feb 5, 2006 2:16PM PST

Next time I'll try not to ask tech support questions. I didn't know there was a significant difference in quality between firewire and usb video capture. I'll be sure to use firewire over usb. Thanks for the info. I thought it was strange when I first tried capturing video with the camcorder's included software. I hooked it up with usb and it said it'll take like 5 hours. Then I hooked it up with firewire and it said like 27 hours. Always thought firewire would be faster but I don't understand the long times anyways. Something wasn't right I guess since it was only an hour long tape. Now I just use Premiere and get 1x capture. I guess that's as fast as it gets.

- Collapse -
Time at 1X. Yes, we all wish that was better. Get a demo of
Feb 5, 2006 9:48PM PST

Go try one of those HARD DISK CAMCORDERS. In that case you may get "files" that you can transfer at USB 2.0 speeds. However, the quality is still under discussion. This is why you want a demo file from said camcorder.

The transfer rate of 1X on firewire is caused mostly by limits on many fronts when that system arrived. With most machines now more capable, the crystal ball does seem clearer that something new may arrive but new is always costly.

-> Moreover with HD camcorders, the higher amounts of data pushes the possible speed back to 1X.

The old adage of speed, quality, price, "Pick 2" comes to mind.

Bob

- Collapse -
The "Pros" only do it at 1X
Feb 7, 2006 2:07AM PST

Bob,

You are correct about picking between "speed, quality and price" when choosing a method to import our home video footage. I work in the TV biz and when we need video footage digitized into a Final Cut Pro bay, an Avid Adrenaline / Avid Symphony / Avid Media Composer bay, or a Discreet Fire / Flame bay (keeping in mind these bays cost between $50,000 and $500,000), the footage is imported in realtime. This follows your "pick speed, quality, price" options where we choose best quality over speed and cost. If we "home videographers" want the "best" quality there is not current option other than digitizing at 1X. Using a compressed MPEG format upfront (via USB) is NOT an option for those of us who want to maintain the best quality. This currently means we must use Firewire. USB, which covers cameras that use hard-drives, memory cards, DVDs and mini-DVDs, is a compromise at the moment.

- Collapse -
Thanks for the reply.
Feb 7, 2006 2:32AM PST

May all your bits arrive in one piece.

Bob

- Collapse -
Understatment!!!
Feb 8, 2006 3:09AM PST

"USB, which covers cameras that use hard-drives, memory cards, DVDs and mini-DVDs, is a compromise at the moment."
If you take a MiniDV/60min tape which holds about 13gb and will record for 60min and compare it to a DVD camera that uses a min DVD that holds about 2.5gb and record for 60min. The quality difference is like comparing regular VHS to DVD.
The mini DVD may look OK when played back on analog NTSC TV, but may not look good on HDTV. John

- Collapse -
camcorder's included software.
Feb 6, 2006 6:21AM PST

The sad thing is that the software that comes with most cameras is junk. Even when I had a 450mhz processor capture over fireiwre was 1x or real time. Rendering the video after editing could take over night. But capture was allwise 1x. John