Hi Guys,

You'll have to excuse me, I'm a total newbie.
How can I link the above DV Camcorder to my pc?

Thanks

Steve

[MarkE19]

The only connect type to a PC that will capture in full quality is 'Firewire'

Many PC's (even bang upto date PC's) don't have a firewire port installed. You therefore need to get an internal (PCI) card for around £20 from the likes of www.dabs.com and this should include the cable to connect cam to PC.
To edit footage on a PC you must be running Windows 98SE or later. Win98 first edition does not work with firewire ports unless you get a patch from MS. If you have Windows XP then you will have editing software included. This is Movie Maker, but is very poor and you should download the free upgrade to MM2.

Mark.

ps. firewire is also known as 'ieee1394' & 'DV port'.

Excellent thanks, how much would this cost roughly?

[MarkE19]

A Firewire PCI card will cost from around £20 online
Editing software is included free with Win XP or cheap progs can cost from about £20 and go up to over £500

So to get a basic PC ready for editing will cost from under £50! The price can then sore as you start adding extra memory, extra hard disks, DVD burner etc etc.

Mark.

As little as £20! Thats ace! I have the software etc, just need that hardware, is there any particular model/brand that you can recomend?

Thanks for the help.

Steve

[MarkE19]

Make/model makes very little difference as firewire is a set standard. The only real difference worth paying more for is if you also want USB2.0 onboard.
If you do want a well known make then you can expect to pay upto or over £100 for it, but these will nearly always come with software included.
Also most if not all cards will be supplied with a DV cable for connecting your cam to the card.

Mark.

I'm not overy concerned with USB 2 to be honest. However, I'm using a laptop. Is this going to make a difference, bearing in mind I can't add in components as readily as if it was a desktop.

[MarkE19]

On a laptop you will need the firewire port on a PCMCIA card such as the following from www.dabs.com

Firewire Card Bus (PCMCIA)
£49.94 inc VAT
manufacturer code SW-F-FWPCMCIA
quicklinx 162PWS


but of course this is more expensive.
This is just the first one I found, so there will be others, perhaps cheaper. Also have a look around at other sites.

Mark.

Thanks again for your help. It's much appreciated, I';ll see how I get on!

Cheers

Steve

Just an after thought, would that have the appropriate cables inculded?

I have a JVC mini dv and am thinking about firewire

1. Is Hama ok generally and is there any need for me to buy jvc everything?

2. Any idea of minimum pc system reqs?

Cheers

[MarkE19]

Steve,
yes I would expect any firewire card of any type to include a firewire cable - normally 6 pin to 4 pin as that is the standard.

seadograf,
I have used Hama in the past and they have been around for a good while and seem to be good quality accessories.
PC specs for editing are PII or later, Win 98SE or later, 128Mb RAM (would recommend as much as possible is installed) dependent on the progs used and loads of disk space. DV footage takes 1Gb of space for every 4 minutes captured. Capturing to a separate drive is also recommended.
The better the specs of the PC used the quicker it will be to create a final edited VCD/DVD etc.

Mark.