HDV Firewire Question

[AndrewMSV]

So I'm going to go buy a Firewire card that can easily suppor the bitrate required to capture HDV from my FX1. I'm going to get the Firewire 800 cards that are out now...

My question is, don't the FW800 have new 9-pin cables? Can I still connect to the 4-pin connector on my FX1?

Not sure about this stuff. Please help if you can. Thanks.

[imacron-usa]

i have no problems with 6 pin to 4 pin FW cable for HDV.

[kirklandvideo]

I'm a little lost... isn't HDV bitrate the same as DV? How would a firewire-800 card help? I would have thought there's be plenty of bandwidth even with standard firewire...

[ssvp]

I'm a little lost... isn't HDV bitrate the same as DV? How would a firewire-800 card help? I would have thought there's be plenty of bandwidth even with standard firewire...

That's a very good point.. You don't need 1394b for HDV.

[sonydude]

Fw 800 uses a different cable. Do the sony HDV cameras support FW 800? The canons we used in college (XLH1s) use a regular 4pin FW400 connector.

[Billy]

I'm a little lost... isn't HDV bitrate the same as DV? How would a firewire-800 card help? I would have thought there's be plenty of bandwidth even with standard firewire...I think you're exactly right. From what I understand, HDV actually has a lower bit rate than DV, but still uses the DV rate for capture and related.

[AndrewMSV]

OK then.
Thanks, all.

I'll just get the 'normal' fw400 then... no new cables or anything like that needed!
Thanks.

[ssvp]

OK then.
Thanks, all.

I'll just get the 'normal' fw400 then... no new cables or anything like that needed!
Thanks.

Now with that said.. If you were going to use Hard Drives with Firewire then 800 would be good to go.. Of Course just use eSATA instead.. Faster than Firewire..

[AndrewMSV]

I ended up just buying a cheapo $17 FW400 card.
I saw a combo card that have FW400 (4pin), FW400 (6pin), FW800(9pin), and a SATA port all in one!

I could have gotten that one to future proof myself a little bit, but for $17, you can't really go wrong. (The other one was closer to $70)

[RatVega]

I ended up just buying a cheapo $17 FW400 card.
I saw a combo card that have FW400 (4pin), FW400 (6pin), FW800(9pin), and a SATA port all in one!

I could have gotten that one to future proof myself a little bit, but for $17, you can't really go wrong. (The other one was closer to $70)

There's nothing to "Future-Proof", the future has been here for a couple of years. (What is the past tense of Future?) There is some versatility in having all those connections, but the SATA port is the only one that has seen any action in the last year or so.

FW 400 will support your DV/HDV capture needs. It's fast enough to support most needs in DV editing.

FW800 is twice as fast, so it might be able to support playback of uncompressed 720p but is otherwise too slow. It is handy for back-up and generally fast storage, just not the "dead fast" transfer required for most uncompressed HD.

SATA is the "future" for most of us, and isn't as standardized as FW for "pass-around" externals (yet). SATA has has a few technical issues but its affordability make it the destination for fast video stores. Additionally, the rapid cost decline make SATA a good general storage choice.