Help with Connecting a DV Camera to USB

[Jason Ducharme]

Hi folks,

I recently acquired a used Samsung Digital Video Camera. It has a firewire
port on it.

My PC has no firewire, only USB.

Should I buy a firewire card for my PC, or buy a Firewire to USB cable?

The cable seems to be the cheaper method but i looked at this cable on eBay
and the seller said "Will not work for DV!" I'm curious, why is that?
Should the computer care if the data being passed through the cable is DV,
or spreadsheets, or database files, etc. etc., ? Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-to-Firewire...802855781QQcategoryZ31493QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Don Bowey]

Hi folks,

I recently acquired a used Samsung Digital Video Camera. It has a firewire
port on it.

My PC has no firewire, only USB.

Should I buy a firewire card for my PC, or buy a Firewire to USB cable?

The cable seems to be the cheaper method but i looked at this cable on eBay
and the seller said "Will not work for DV!" I'm curious, why is that?
Should the computer care if the data being passed through the cable is DV,
or spreadsheets, or database files, etc. etc., ? Here it is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-to-Firewire-IEEE-1394-4-Pin-1-5M-Cable_W0QQitemZ580285
5781QQcategoryZ31493QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks in advance for any help!

If you have a spare PCI slot I suggest you buy a firewire card. I bought
one on eBay a couple weeks ago for about $18, which included the shipment
from Singapore, and it came with a cable having the camera sized connector
on one end. Also came with a video editor on a CD.

Don

 

[Jason Ducharme]

If you have a spare PCI slot I suggest you buy a firewire card. I bought
one on eBay a couple weeks ago for about $18, which included the shipment
from Singapore, and it came with a cable having the camera sized connector
on one end. Also came with a video editor on a CD.

Don

That's a pretty good deal indeed. I forgot to mention that my PC is a
notebook, so a notebook card is a little more expensive than a desktop card.
But, we're talking about only $10 to $20 more. I can certainly go that
route.

I am curious though, if someone could explain to me in layman's terms, why a
Firewire to USB cable will not work for transferring digital video? I
understand that it would transfer at the lower speed of USB, but is that not
fast enough to transfer digital video?

Thanks...

 

[Don Bowey]

That's a pretty good deal indeed. I forgot to mention that my PC is a
notebook, so a notebook card is a little more expensive than a desktop card.
But, we're talking about only $10 to $20 more. I can certainly go that
route.

I am curious though, if someone could explain to me in layman's terms, why a
Firewire to USB cable will not work for transferring digital video? I
understand that it would transfer at the lower speed of USB, but is that not
fast enough to transfer digital video?

I could be wrong, but I suspect the real problem is a protocol difference
between the two interfaces.

Don

 

[Jason Ducharme]

I could be wrong, but I suspect the real problem is a protocol difference
between the two interfaces.

Don

I've located a cable that has a chip in it that will do the job,
however it's $90 compared to the $4 cable on eBay. You can see it here, if
you are interested:

http://www.pixela-1.com/capycable.htm

In the meantime i have bought a PCMCIA firewire card for $37 and a 4pin to
6pin firewire cable and i"m transferring the data between my camera and
notebook now. I had a feeling that would end up being the route that I
would take but i did want to explore the cable issue a little further, and
now i think i understand the matter better.

Jason