firewire or usb?

just got my new panasonic camcorder mini dv and downloaded my clips onto the comp via the supplied usb cable. but the images are really appaling, like worse than my av camera! if i use firewire will the clips be GOOD quality?

 

Hi, using the USB cable should be fine. It depends on the number of megapixels your camcorder has and have you set it to take pictures on the highest setting in the camcorder's menu? Soemtimes it will be automatically set on a lower quality. My Sony DCR-HC90 does'nt take great pictures either so I think that we cannot expect excellent quality pictures from the start. It also may be the way your computer compresses the photos too. Some formats cause the pictures to compress as much as possible t save hard drive space, losing vital picture quality. Just try changing the formats the pictures are imported in as, and/or the type of format on the camcorder that it takes the picture in, but I'm not sure you get the choice to do this.

Hope to have been of some help,

Joe

 

i said CLIPS ie, video clips!!!!!! digital camcorder!

 

Yes, you should use Firewire for best quality.
Check out section 2 of this article: http://www.digitalvideoclub.com/basics/transfer.php

 

Firewire is For Transfering DV Video from the DV Tape and the USB is For Transfering Pictures/Video from the Memory card...Don"t Plug them both in at the Same Time....

 

I can understand the confusion of many new users.
The issue is that some years ago the USB connection on camcorders was only used to transfer stills recorded to the memory card. In the last years models are appearing on the market in which the USB connection can also be used to transfer the video from tape. These models are then also accompanied by a CD with a USB driver and a basic capturing and movie editing program. Unfortunately many of the manuals of such camcorders fail to mention the DV transfer over Firewire and neither do they mention that the quality of USB transfer is limited.

 

i always was under the impression that firewire was faster but usb is more common...

 

USB is more common on PC's (although all PC's sold these days also have standard Firewire on board), but on camcorders Firewire is more common (I don't think there is any miniDV camcorder that does not have Firewire).

Comparison of speed between USB and Firewire is a bit tricky. USB 2.0 has 480Mb/s, Firewire (IEEE1394A) has 400Mb/s. However, the problem with USB is that the data transfer is controlled by the system. This means that the actual speed depends on what other tasks your PC is performing at the time. This will result in speed drops below what is necessary for a real-time high resolution video transfer. In Firewire the data tranfer is negotiated between the bus and the device itself so the available bandwith will remain at its maximum at all time.

 

If I have the choice between the two I would always opt for firewire.

 

cheers guys, firewire worked and ive now got nice sharp video! not sure about the price of the cable tho!!

 

Thanks to you,TPFKAS for clearifying difference between USB and Fire Wire. Especially the usage of CPU time while transfering clips via USB. Just like DMA and PIO modes. Thanks again

'C'

 

TPFKAS has helped me a lot lately since I brought my camcorder.

I've gotten a Panasonic PV-GS35 and the "download to PC" section is devoted 90% to USB and it barely mentions firewire. so it makes you wonder which way to go when the manual suggests one thing and forum other.

Needless to say that Firewire is my choice (and I know whom to believe) ;-)

 

Good to hear that my efforts are appreciated

Anyone with a little experience and wisdom can easily beat a manual, Next is it only a matter of willingness to share the knowledge with others and you will all find it on my website mentioned in my sig.

 

When i capture any video from my mini DV camera, the only thing the should br running on your PC is the video capture program and all other progam should be off, so the only thing that using the processor is the capture program, that way your picture will be the best quality your PC can give, unless you have a dual core processor, I not even connected to the web when i'm capturing.

 

Digital transfer (i.e. no re-ecnoding or anything while capturing) actually hardly takes any resources on your machine. The only real limitation is hard drive access and it is therefor recommended not to use your system disk for capturing.
Also, there is a big difference between the way various capturing programs have been designed. Some of them take a lot of resources for no apparent reason. Therefore my favourite is WinDV. I can actually continue with any other task (as long as it does not require heavy disk access) while capturing and I have a modest system (Pentium 4, 2.4 Ghz with 512 MB RAM).
Regarding quality: during a digital transfer there is no influence on quality whatsoever. The only thing that can happen is dropped frames and most capture programs will report if that happens.

 

hey guys im planning on this ipod 10gb on ebay and there's 5 hours left so i need a quick answer.the seller says the player only synchs with firewire cable i dont think i have a firewire port so i s it possible that i can get an adapter of some sort to put in usb port and where can i get it thanks in advance

 

Go and buy yourself a FireWire PCI card. You can get one from on line sellers or from a shop who sell computers peripherals. Install it in your computer in a unused pci slot. If you haven't opened your computer before then take to a PC repair shop they will upgrade it for you.