I just bought a new digital video camera.
I'm curious about getting the video from the camera to my computer. The camera has a firewire port (didn't come with the cable), do I need the cable? What software do I need?
Sometimes I'm a real idiot when it comes to simple things like this. Thanks for your help.

 

I think that you should have some sort of software that came with the camera that will allow you to dl the movies. As to the cable, I think a usb is what you need.

 

Gas,
Thanks for the reply but the USB cable (supplied) and software is for getting photos off the camera, nothing to do with the video.
I saw something about an RS-232 cable for some of the JVC cameras, but not for mine. That would be too damned slow anyway.

 

Nevermind, I was thinking about hard drives and using USB's. I guess cameras must be different.

I will try to find out since there are many people around here

 

I was right, I just spoke with a friend and he said that USB can be used to transfer videos although firewire is faster. So just use the USB.

 

The answer to your question depends on what quality you want. You can use the USB and the software provided if you don’t mind a low resolution capture. The maximum that mine allowed (with USB 2.0 even) was 384x256. If you want to do it right buy yourself a firewire video capture board and some software. Your captures will be much smoother and at least twice the resolution. I bought the Pinncale Studio DV from www.buy.com

Go to Pinncale’s site to read about all of the different capture cards. http://www.pinnaclesys.com/Category....=1&langue_id=7

It comes with the Firewire PCI card for your computer, the firewire cord and the software. I capture the video from my digital video camera, edit it down (add titles, etc) then write it back to the camera or to a video CD. My next purchase will be a DVD burner because the Pinncale software allows you to make DVD menus and burn your movie to a DVD. One thing to look out for: you need plently of available hard drive space. One hour of video captured at the highest resolution takes up about 14 GB of hard drive space. If you have any questions e-mail me at sdmcwilliams@pbsj.com

Here are some reviews of the Pinncale software http://www.techtv.com/holiday/story/...408350,00.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,574600,00.asp

 

Here are some screens from the software
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPa...70&Langue_ID=7

Capturing


Editing


Writing

 

Gas - You are correct, I can download low-res 20 second videos for email use if I use the USB. Thanks for checking into that for me, I checked it out after you told me about the USB (JVC doesn't mention it in the users guide, I had to find it on my own).

Blue - That is exactly what I am looking for, thanks a bunch!!! I'll look into the Pinnacle software ($100 isn't too bad).

The biggest problem is that I'm in Japan (Yokosuka) and the language barrier is a b!tch.