Whats the best place to purchase batteries? Im thinking of buying a JVC camcorder. Are there generic batteries out there, and are they as good as the manufacturers?

Also, how long does it take to transfer 60 mins (13GB?) of tape to pc via USB? My calculations made it 19 minutes. Am i correct?

Many thanks.

[MarkE19]

Don't use USB to transfer video to your PC!!!!

USB is too slow to transfer at full quality. All it will give is web cam quality. To transfer to a PC you NEED a firewire port. These can be added as a PCI card for less than £20 from internet PC hardware retailers.
Firewire will transfer to the PC in real time ie 60 minute tape takes 60 minutes to transfer. As a camcorder can only transfer video at this speed there is no other option.

Mark.

[Orbitalzone]

I just used www.Keene.co.uk for my JVC GRD50 camcorder battery. They do own brand batts for a third the price of a JVC!

I got the 1600Ma battery (twice the capacity of the standard Batt supplied) for £35 delivered. I saw an original onine for about £65 from Empire but they had no stock anyhow. JVC price seems normally about £99!

Once again, many thanks for the advice both.

[woody67]

I would recommend www.mdsbattery.co.uk - I recently had a JVC (Uniross) BNV114 off them - cheapest i could find and delivered next day.

Or try www.7dayshop.com for cheapest more general batteries.

Firewire is the the best way to transfer, not USB. USB data transfer speeds are effected by processor and background programs etc, so calculations may not match reality. However video transfers in real time, but USB is too slow for the amount of data that needs to go through the cable per second

woody

Cheers for the reply.

[Hambone]

Originally posted by MarkE19
Don't use USB to transfer video to your PC!!!!

USB is too slow to transfer at full quality. All it will give is web cam quality. To transfer to a PC you NEED a firewire port.
Firewire will transfer to the PC in real time ie 60 minute tape takes 60 minutes to transfer. As a camcorder can only transfer video at this speed there is no other option.

Mark.

Not quite true,DVDCAM use USB and quality is as good as DV tape,not web cam quality.It works slightly quicker than real time.
USB2 is meant to be quicker than firewire!!!

DVDCAM The Future is Here,The Future is Now