Which is better? Firewire data transfer or Capturing video from source?

[ender1031]

I need a little advice here.

Im building a box for a friend who does alot of video editing from her digital video camera.

I built a box using a Leadtek A310 Ultra MyVIVO card with an AMD 2600+ cpu and 1GB Crucial memory.

The way she does here video editing now, (i just found out) is she hooks up her camera via firewire and transfers the data to the pc and then edits it.

The way I have it setup now, is she will hook up the camera via S-video and audio cables and capture the video using the Leadtek software.

So, which is better?

Capturing the video using the card, or just transferring the data using the firewire cable?

 

[Naffer]

I'm rather partial to the firewire method as it allows the camera to be controled by the PC. Also, firewire is just one cable and analog would require two, one for video and one for audio.

 

[GullyFoyle]

Firewire, for sure. By re-capturing the digital video in analog fashion, you'll just be adding an extra capture step that will result in some loss of quality, however negligible it may be.
Firewire transfer to the PC will get the video onto the PC without ANY loss of quality. That's what digital video is all about!

 

[modedepe]

Firewire is by far the better choice.

 

[oldfart]

Firewire by an enormous margin. Its like asking if you should replace the 9800XT with a Voodoo 2.