Firewire 800 Question

[OrganicFan]

I have firewire 400 in my PC. I know firewire 800 works better in devices like hard disks (or any storage) which supports firewire 800 and it works well if I have to transfer large amounts of data from my PC to the device.

Does it help if I am transferring video from my camcorder to PC?

Basically, my question is do I need to upgrade to firewire 800?

 

[Gawd]

Nope. Only if you're using a DV to transfer onto your PC. If it's a regular, old, out of date, VCR with RCA plugs, or even S video, firewire will do nothing. Unless you buy another adapter that lets you use firewire from RCA/S vid.

I'm still trying to find an old 8 mm film projector so I can get digital transfer of my old film! Dammit!

 

[OrganicFan]

I have a Sony camcorder (Digital 8) which has a firewire port. Will it help in speed and/or quality?

 

[OrganicFan]

To refine my question a bit, will it help in speed even if the device sending the data (in this case my camcorder) is not firewire 800?

When I play in my camcorder, I get the image in my computer without any delay. How will it further improve the speed from my camcorder to my PC? Sorry I am a novice.

 

[wumpscut]

I don't think it will speed things up. Here is a link to an article that says 1394b aka firewire 800 isn't truly supported by XP http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20040823/firewire-01.html

 

[canucklehead]

Save your money as Winston says.
A lot of what i see is video captured to either a RAID with fibre or 2 gig fibre or a SAN solution. Most of my video clients editting stations have either RAIDS connected to them or use a 2 Gig fibre SAN solution.
TRansfer and capture is always tedious at best of times.

 

[FAST]

Firewire Speed

A faster FIREWIRE speed will not change anything if you are capturing from the FIREWIRE port of a DV video camera.
The rate at which the digital data is sent from the camera will not go up if the FIREWIRE port has higher speed potential, the transfer rate is fixed.
Other types of data transfer would/could be effected if everthing else in the loop was capable of higher speeds.
I set up a friends computer to capture from a $50.00 FIREWIRE card to the computers internal drive with no "dropped frames".

No expert, but thats my understanding. FAST

 

[pony123]

To refine my question a bit, will it help in speed even if the device sending the data (in this case my camcorder) is not firewire 800?

When I play in my camcorder, I get the image in my computer without any delay. How will it further improve the speed from my camcorder to my PC? Sorry I am a novice.

I am afraid I do not understand the question - when you are capturing from your camcorder ,using firewire , it captures at the tape speed of the camera - at the compression you select from the programme you are using to capture the video . The speed of the camera tape is constant and you can not make it go faster or slower ( if you want to view the video normally ) . A few of the newer cams have hard drives and not tapes - your question might apply to these but not to a tape camcorder , digital or otherwise . If I missed something here please advise , just trying to help .

 

[OrganicFan]

I am afraid I do not understand the question - when you are capturing from your camcorder ,using firewire , it captures at the tape speed of the camera - at the compression you select from the programme you are using to capture the video . The speed of the camera tape is constant and you can not make it go faster or slower ( if you want to view the video normally ) . A few of the newer cams have hard drives and not tapes - your question might apply to these but not to a tape camcorder , digital or otherwise . If I missed something here please advise , just trying to help .

You are right. That is the same question I had. From what I understood, if it is a external hard disk which supports 800, then I would see a difference, but not in a camcorder which has a tape at a standard speed.

Anyway thanks everybody for the help. I saved my money for now sticking to the firewire 400.

Now who do I see with the $40 I saved? Maybe a MP visit is in order.

 

[shakenbake]

To refine my question a bit, will it help in speed even if the device sending the data (in this case my camcorder) is not firewire 800?

When I play in my camcorder, I get the image in my computer without any delay. How will it further improve the speed from my camcorder to my PC? Sorry I am a novice.

If your Sony Camcorder is like mine, it will be limited to only 100 megabits per second, and not be able to fully utilise even the older Firewire speed.

shakenbake