[scragend]

Help me please, guys...

Just taken the plunge and picked up a Canon MV730i on eBay. Came boxed with all the kit, seems fine and can take video no bother.

The problem comes when I try to transfer the video to the PC. I can't seem to get the PC to recognise the camera.

The only FireWire port I have is on the soundcard. I have an external hard drive which I have plugged into this port and works fine, but not so for the camcorder.

I have read somewhere on this forum that it might be the fact that the FW is on the soundcard that's the problem, so I've got a PCI FireWire card on order to try that.

I can get video onto the PC via AV out into my TV card, but presumably DV would be better quality? It would also let me capture to AVI instead of direct to MPEG which is what I have to do now.

If the worst comes to the worst and the DV out on the camcorder is knackered, can it be fixed? How much are we talking and where would I be able to get it done? Is somewhere like Jessops any use, or will they just rip me off?

I was intending mainly to use the camcorder for passthrough, but thought it would be handy to have camcorder features for not much extra cash. Beginning to wish I'd gone for a Canopus 110 instead...

[vonhosen]

Firewire on soundcards can be problematic. You definitely would be better capturing as .avi

I would wait to see what happens with the PCI firewire card before jumping to any conclusions.