digital camcorders

[rh71]

Can someone give me the skinny on digital camcorders? Most sites have reviews on the various brands out there, but don't really go into how it works in terms of meshing with the PC. What format does it transfer into and how does it transfer? I read something about firewire, but can it be done through USB?

A friend shot 40 minutes worth of tape for us - how big would the file size be, and what format?

Thanks for any pointers.

[HotRod9mm]

rh71...

The camera will depend on your buget and how far you want to go with Video Editing. Most come with software for editing.

As far as "Firewire", you can get a PCI card that has a firewire connection. I don't think that there is a cable that will work between USB and firewire, but I might be wrong.

If I remember correctly, 20mins(VHS) would require about 8-9gigs of Hdd space, so 40mins would be about 17-18gig.

Hope this helps....

[rh71]

I guess what I'm really looking to do is transfer right from the camcorder (digital already isn't it?) to my desktop in a video format (not VHS). Does it really take that much space with all this digital technology?

So firewire - I would need a Firewire PCI card (3 slots common)... does that come with all the necessary cables? I would need? The camcorder in question is the Sony TRV-11:
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/home/digitalvideo/minidvcamcorders/dcr-trv11.shtml

[nilknarf]

40mins of DV takes about 8GB of space. You MUST have a fairly high speed drive and relatively fast PC, bus and cpu.

Some FireWire (IEEE-1394) carddss come with, some without cables. Most DV or DV8 cameras do have the DV (FireWire/IEEE-1394) port.

DO NOT run the camera from battery while transferring DV to/from the PC.

HotRod is correct about VHS video. Analog sources require more space because of video capture requirements for analog.

Tim

[SiteCharts.com]

If I remember correctly DV camcorders use mpeg 2 for compression so your movie will need soace like a normal mpeg2 movie
(I don't remember the correct size per minute but wasn't it something like 10-20MB?? per minute)

As far as I know (and guess) it will not be possible to transfer a movie via a Firewire-USB cable.
The max. transfer-rate for USB is something like 4MB/s while Firewire maxes out around 400MB/s.

BTW: Those Kensington PC-Webcams with a resolution of 640x480 CAN'T work properly because they would need a transfer rate above the USB max.

[rh71]

Thanks for the info guys. What I'm still confused about is the software I guess... does the Firewire PCI card come with any software? The camcorder only came with PictureGear software for still image captures. I'm assuming software is necessary to transfer thru the Firewire PCI card - does it transfer straight into an MPEG2 format?

The ultimate goal now is to transfer the 40mins of DV onto the computer via firewire, into the mpeg2 format which is fine... we'll worry about further compression later.

[HotRod9mm]

rh71.....

Their is a New post in "Steals and Deals" for a editing kit...

Says it has everything....

[SiteCharts.com]

I think most Firewire cards will come with some sort of Video Editing Software.
(Mine did...)
Just look which ones do.

[DanU]

rh71, I've also been thinking about getting a firewire + DV editing package for use with my sony D8 camcorder. I've been reading around and decided that I'm either going to get a pinnacle studio dv or the ulead mediastudio. I'm currently leaning towards the studio dv because it only captures video at the end of your editing process, saving alot of hard drive space.

[rh71]

good tip, thanks DanU...

anyone know what the software they hand out with the Firewire card usually is ?

[grieg]

I use a firewire card and DV camcorder everday to update the Southern NC surf report. I also make movies when the surf is good so the surfers came see themself's on the internet and get stocked about there surf session. I save the movies using .asf format to stream for those who have a high speed connection. I love it I can get down to the exact frame I want with I shoot daily still shots from the video. If you want to see what I am talking about check out my Website and click on the videos.
www.sncsurf.com (http://www.sncsurf.com)

[rh71]

that's pretty cool... don't you need a windows media server to run streaming video ?