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DV Capture & Firewire Cable

B

b4u

Golden Member
Hi,

I'm in the process of defining a better setup for capture my DV movies, straight to uncompressed AVI files, for latter edition and DVD burn.

First of all, my setup:

Camcorder: Sony DCR-HC85E
Computer:
Processor: P4 2.4c
Memory: 1Gb (2x512Mb)
Graphic Card: Gicacube ATI 9600Pro VIVO 128Mb (used for analogue capture)

I have a tower with a front Firewire connector, so accessing the plug is really easy: Tower Firewire front-connector

To make the trick of capturing, I'm using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (lattest version). It's great, I can even command the camcorder operation within this software 😉.

So the only thing missing, was in fact the firewire cable, since sony doesn't give any bonus, unless you pay for them 🙁.

So, I entered my local store, and they sold me a this Bandridge cable.

I got home, connected, and start capturing with no problem at all. Then I start thinking about quality ... I think the quality I'm getting is okay, but I want the BEST! So, I went again to the store, and they presented me with a beautifull gold plated firewire cable, this Profigold cable. It costed me 3 time more, so I hopped it would be worth it ... 😉

I got home, and start capturing, again with no problem at all. So problems aside, it's time to check the quality ... and in this area I got quite a surprise ... the quality feels exactly the same! Damn! Something must be wrong, since I really believe there is quite a quality difference between Bandridge and Profigold.

Then I thought about the obvious ... my Tower firewire connector is NOT gold plated, and it's directly connected to my motherboard using the usual thin wires ... and in this area I need your opinion ...

Should the problem be with that front connector plug, which degrates quality qhen receiving and transmiting the signal to the motherboard? Or that should not be the problem at all?


If so, how could I solve the problem? I thought about 2 solutions (first one would be better, if available):

[1] A front pannel for the tower (to a 3 1/2" bay, or even 5 1/4" bay), which has gold firewire plug, and apropriate wire to transmit the signal without loss to the motherboard (I would still have the advantage of a front case connection, no need to crawl under my desk);

[2] A PCI card with gold firewire connectors, which would get the signal without loss (can it bring any incompatibility with my system? I don't have experience with firewire PCI cards).


In any of those last 2 solutions, what is your opinion? What brands/products you recommend for solution?


(I also capture video from analogue sources, in this case I have a VHS VCR connected to my ATI VIVO S-Video, using a Profigold SCART->S-Video connector, so I guess I'm okay, since I'm connecting directly to the capture card, don't you think?)


Thank you.
 
I doubt the firewire cable has anything to do with quality at all since its like a hardrive cable transfering data between the stored video on your camcorder (DV tape) and your hardrive. Are you saying your video quality is poor? I use an DCR-HC30 camcorder and a bargain firewire cable to my firewire port on the Mobo, quality is excellent.
 
Cable has nothing to do with it. If you are capturing directly to AVI (with DV codec), your files should be ~ 13 Gig/hr. If they are smaller, some other compression is being added. BTW, your camcorder may have an A->D passthrough feature which would be a better way of capturing your analog video than what you do now. Take a look in your manual.
 
To be honest, at this point I don't notice any difference of quality between both cables ... except for the price ... but even if I can get a slight better quality using another firewire port on my PC, I would consider the option (taking price/quality-gain into account, obviously).
 
Originally posted by: b4u
To be honest, at this point I don't notice any difference of quality between both cables ... except for the price ... but even if I can get a slight better quality using another firewire port on my PC, I would consider the option (taking price/quality-gain into account, obviously).
Click to expand...

It won't. Make sure you are capturing at full DV quality within your capture program and it should be a lossless copy of the video on the DV tape.
 
Originally posted by: b4u
To be honest, at this point I don't notice any difference of quality between both cables ... except for the price ... but even if I can get a slight better quality using another firewire port on my PC, I would consider the option (taking price/quality-gain into account, obviously).
Click to expand...
You have discovered that you can spend more money for a brand and get no gain because of it. It is a digital signal. Any lose you would see would result in dropped frames during capture. That would be your tell-tale that you were having a problem.

If you use the AV capture through your video card, you would probably see a difference between that capture and the DV capture. Plus, the audio would need to go through your sound card, so there is a better chance of losing sync. No timecode either. If AV capture *really* matters, then a Canopus ACDV-100 is a good bet. It converts the AV to DV in the box and sends it into the logger via.... Firewire. Oh, and the cheaper cable would still work. 😉

 
B4u,

Tell us what the quality issue is. Is it the DVD final? Is it in the editor preview window?
 
Originally posted by: rbV5
Originally posted by: b4u
To be honest, at this point I don't notice any difference of quality between both cables ... except for the price ... but even if I can get a slight better quality using another firewire port on my PC, I would consider the option (taking price/quality-gain into account, obviously).
Click to expand...

It won't. Make sure you are capturing at full DV quality within your capture program and it should be a lossless copy of the video on the DV tape.
Click to expand...


What you mean by full quality? I'm setting the capture to 720x576 25 frames per second, and in the process of capturing I don't get any dropped frame.

Anything more I can check on?
 
Originally posted by: b4u
Originally posted by: rbV5
Originally posted by: b4u
To be honest, at this point I don't notice any difference of quality between both cables ... except for the price ... but even if I can get a slight better quality using another firewire port on my PC, I would consider the option (taking price/quality-gain into account, obviously).
Click to expand...

It won't. Make sure you are capturing at full DV quality within your capture program and it should be a lossless copy of the video on the DV tape.
Click to expand...


What you mean by full quality? I'm setting the capture to 720x576 25 frames per second, and in the process of capturing I don't get any dropped frame.

Anything more I can check on?
Click to expand...
25fps? Are you in an area that is PAL? If so, you are OK.

You were the one talking about quality and trying different cables. We are trying to figure out why and if you are having issues. Are you? What are they? Because a firewire cable is not going to be an issue unless you start getting to max cable length. I do not remember seeing that anyone makes one that long (max cable length.)

Should the problem be with that front connector plug, which degrates quality qhen receiving and transmiting the signal to the motherboard? Or that should not be the problem at all?

If so, how could I solve the problem? I thought about 2 solutions (first one would be better, if available):
Click to expand...
Were you thinking there should be a problem and were not seeing it or are you having a problem and have not yet described it? 🙂

 
What you mean by full quality? I'm setting the capture to 720x576 25 frames per second, and in the process of capturing I don't get any dropped frame.

Anything more I can check on?
.
Click to expand...

I mean using the highest setting for your DV codec for capture.
 
A gold plated cable could make a difference with an analog signal..... but not on DV video captured via firewire. I am sorry
 
gsellis:

To be honest, I don't see any problem right now, I'm in a PAL area, hence the 25fps, and I'm having NO dropped frames (as I'm told by Adboe capture feature).

The reason I'm asking in this forums, is because at the end, I have 2 cables: one standard one of about 10?, and the other gold plated of about 35? ... it's a huge difference in price, and I would expect a better quality ... which I don't get ... hence my question about a "gold-firewire" port or something like that, that would improve quality.

At the end, I'm just a consumer that finds too much noise when shopping for a DV firewire cable.

If I get the same quality with both cables, and if the difference between a good cable and a bad one would result solely in dropped frames, then I think I'm okay ...

As for analogue conversion from VHS PAL, I'm connecting my VCR with a golden cable, and through my 9600Pro VIVO S-Video connection. So I think I'm getting the best signal I can get, without splashing some 1000? on hardware 😉
 
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