[paulcollins10]

Hi there,


I'm looking to purchase a camcorder and am under the impression it only connects to my laptop via Firewire. Now i'm not familiar with firewire but understand its a card that slots into the PC slot on the laptop. Thing is i already have a card in that slot to enable my laptop to become wireless.
Will it be as simple as swapping them over when i'm not using the other one? i.e i wouldn;t be able to use the internet when the firewire card is plugged in?

Also, what type of card do i need to buy, i notice there are 2 pin, 4 pin firewire cards with various numbers of ports and i'm just unsure what to buy?

The camcorder i'm looking to buy is the canon md235, as recommended by the good folk on here, if you need information about the spec and my laptop is a toshiba satellite 2410.

Thanks a lot for your help, i really appreciate it

Best wishes

Paul

[stu.artd]

You could get a USB based wireless adapter for the laptop, that would save you swapping with the firewire card. I use a USB wireless adapter for my PC and it's always been OK.

I suggets getting a firewire card like this one if it's a PCMCIA slot (I think it is) that your laptop has. It covers all the bases as far as firewire connectivity goes.

[lightningvictim]

Can I ask why you are going down the Mini-DV route?
The redering time taking a download from Mini-DV and creating via the relevant codec is very slow compared to purchasing a HD camcorder with USB2.0 and just downloading files as native MPEG4.
I used to do mini-DV and it drove me to despair as you had to "play" the tape real-time to capture the footage, edit and enhance via Pinnacle/Roxio then after all that the rendering process took ages (even with a decent spec desktop), was suseptable to failing and the end quality wasn't great.
I would suggest you to have a look at the cheaper HD camcorders that are around - I know you can get some of the 30Gb JVC models for around the £200 mark at the moment so there are probably options for your budget.
Just a suggestion but you are "investing" in aged technology - why not go for the modern option and save yourself a lot of lost rendering time. Roxio 10 has drop-in features for MPEG4 and I can create DVD projects in tens of minutes rather than the hours it used to take me.

[senu]

As one who still uses "aged" HDV and SD tape with excellent results
I would suggest that
Although you do need to capture from tape in real time, That. compared to SD from HDD is the main disadvantage
Firstly the starting quality is good to very good
Secondly encoding on a modern PC should not take ages ( Even so never more than overnight)
Thirdly . There are no decent HDD SD camcorders for £200. let alone £300
buying one for that cost would be trading quality for convenience
Fourthly, The end result from tape is also a function of software.. and ones use of it. I still get great DVDs from tape. I would suggest that MP4 sourced DVDs compared to those from MiniDV well sorted are not quite the same quality, even if there was a bit more time involved from tape to DVD

Even if you get the SD mpeg2 by USB easily, Unless you dont edit it, its quality will drop ( a little at best , a lot if heavily rerendered) . mpeg2 is not as resistant to drop in PQ with rerenders as DV AVI
Also if you dont burn direct to DVD from the HHD camcorder output, the mpeg from camcorder will still undergo a time consuming rerender on the way to getting to DVD.. No less than if the original footage were from tape

Most Current Semi Pro /Pro models are still tape.Why...if it is such aged ancient technology??
The Non Tape Pro models can cost the price of a fairly new Family car

I dont think tape will last forever , but I think your experience with Roxio/ Pinnacle suspect stability and quality does not fairly describe the use of a tape camcorder.

[Mr Lazy]

Your camcorder will have a 4-pin Firewire socket.

According to the toshiba.co.uk website your laptop has a PC card slot (PCMCIA). It doesn't matter what type of connector is on the PCMCIA card you buy, so long as you buy the right cable.

I would suggest the following product at just 12.95 which even includes the right cable you need:
2 Port Firewire PCMCIA Card - USBNow.co.uk

[craynerd]

So sorry, I`m in the same situation as the OP and confused, by the looks of it my laptop (Aspire 5670) has a small 4 pin firewire1394 port already, so what size is the firewire port on the camcorder? Do I need a 4-6 pin cable or a 4x4? I noticed they are only a few quid on fleabay, will they be good enough?

Chris

[paulcollins10]

Originally Posted by Mr Lazy

Your camcorder will have a 4-pin Firewire socket.

According to the toshiba.co.uk website your laptop has a PC card slot (PCMCIA). It doesn't matter what type of connector is on the PCMCIA card you buy, so long as you buy the right cable.

I would suggest the following product at just 12.95 which even includes the right cable you need:
2 Port Firewire PCMCIA Card - USBNow.co.uk

Appreciate your help, thank you very much!!!

Now i just need to be confident to go ahead with the MiniDV after the above poster has recommended HD now.......... so confused

[Mr Lazy]

Originally Posted by craynerd

So sorry, I`m in the same situation as the OP and confused, by the looks of it my laptop (Aspire 5670) has a small 4 pin firewire1394 port already, so what size is the firewire port on the camcorder? Do I need a 4-6 pin cable or a 4x4? I noticed they are only a few quid on fleabay, will they be good enough?

Chris

You don't say what camcorder you have, but it's almost certainly going to be a 4-pin Firewire socket. I've never heard of a consumer camcorder having a larger type. Therefore if you are sure your laptop has a 4-pin socket (I looked at the acer.co.uk website but couldn't see your model listed) then you need a 4-pin to 4-pin cable. The ones on eBay should be fine.

[senu]

Originally Posted by paulcollins10

Appreciate your help, thank you very much!!!

Now i just need to be confident to go ahead with the MiniDV after the above poster has recommended HD now.......... so confused

Read my reply to that
If you do want to go HDD ( not to be confused with HD: Hi definition) be prepared to spend £400 or more for equivalent quality of the budget minidv models

[senu]

Originally Posted by craynerd

So sorry, I`m in the same situation as the OP and confused, by the looks of it my laptop (Aspire 5670) has a small 4 pin firewire1394 port already, so what size is the firewire port on the camcorder? Do I need a 4-6 pin cable or a 4x4? I noticed they are only a few quid on fleabay, will they be good enough?

Chris

As stated .. all camcorders have the 4 -pin variety and laptops almost invariably have the small 4 pin variety too
Some desktops have both 4-pin and 6 pin ( I have one of such) but they are sufficiently different in shape .
As such a 4 pin to 4 pin would be what you need for a laptop
If the laptop does not have firewire however, the PCMCIA or express cards firewire adaptors tend to be 6 pin though
HTH