question (possibly a dumb one) about firewire cards...

[spanky]

ok, here is the deal. i got a mini dv recently (jvc dvm90u) and it has a firewire port for transferring video to my pc. the manual says that i will need third party hardware and software in order to take full advantage of the firewire. when they mentioned third party hardware, they said i'll need a firewire capture card. i bought a pci firewire host adapter card. is a firewire host adapter card and firewire capture card the same thing? or are they two different piece of hardware? my firewire host adapter came with ulead visual studio 5 software, but i am unable to capture/transfer video to my pc. if its not a problem with the camera or the card, i would think maybe it's the ieee cable. the manual suggests i use a "dv cable with a core filter". the cable i am using is the one i got with my firewire card. isn't a "dv cable" the same thing as a 4 ping to 6 pin ieee cable? is this post confusing? if so, i will try to revise it.

 

[eplebnista]

You might try looking/searching around this site for more info.

hth,
eplebnista

 

[QTPie]

firewire host adapter card is used to transfer DV data, not video electronically via the firewire cable to the computer's hard disk. This not a capture process. it's a file copy process. Thus it will occupy alot of space (about 2.2BG for 10 min shooting)
If you have external firewire hard disk or CDRW, you can transfer data to your pc by connecting them to firewire host adapter. It's a general purpose firewire host adapter.

firewire capture card can capture and compress your DV tape. Thus it will take less space on your hard drive. This card is an application specific device for DV editing.

 

[spanky]

thanx for the link. now i will have to scour the hot deals forum to try to chop down the $90 price tag.