Hi,
I would like to know which one would be the best way to transfer movies from D8 cassettes to PC. One way is to stream it using a firewire card from my camcorder to PC and the other way is to use a capture card. I am very much concerned about the quality of video transferred. Thats one thing I don't want to compromise on. If you guys think a Capture card would be a good choice then can you please recommend me one and how much would it cost. Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot
Subrata_dg

[melliott1963]

If your camcorder has DV out, then use firewire. The quality you get on the PC will be the best you can get.

As far as I'm aware, video capture cards capture an analogue source and convert them to digital (but I may be wrong!). If this is the case, then your camcorder needs to convert the digital movie to analogue, via the video out socket. This will then get converted back to digital by the capture card. This is bound to lead to a loss of quality.

Hope this helps and, if anyone knows otherwise, I'm prepared to stand corrected!

[MarkE19]

I would say that a 'firewire card' is a type of 'capture card'
Capture cards can be Digital or Analogue. Your D8 camcorder will have a firewire output, so you should get a firewire card. These only cost £10-£20 from ebuyer etc. There really is no need to spend more money on a 'brand name' card as they are ALL good enough for video capture. All you will need then is software. If you have Windows XP then you already have Movie Maker. Upgrade to MM2 from the MS web site (free download ) and you have a full setup for the cost of the capture card.
If you do not have XP then you can buy a firewire card from around £20 up including software. All capture cards should include a cable to connect your camcorder to the card.

To edit on a PC you will need a minimum of:
Windows 98SE (first edition will NOT work)
1Gb of disk space for every 4 minutes of captured footage

Of course once you have started you can (and will ) spend more money upgrading the PC to make editing quicker and with better results .

Good luck,
Mark.