Do i really need a firewire cable?

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I have a sony camera that came with a usb cable. i want to save my movie back
to my dv tape, but it keeps saying "Your camera is not connected to the
computer. Connect using a IEEE 1394 cable and try again." I used the USB to
capture video. WHy can't i use it to save? Thanks in advance for any help.
 
If you are serious about video editing, then you would care about video
quality. And a firewire cable is a must to achieve maximum video quality
during capture. And these are dead cheap. On ebay they go for like £3 ($5).
 
Sfpsycho415 said:
I have a sony camera that came with a usb cable. i want to save my movie
back
to my dv tape, but it keeps saying "Your camera is not connected to the
computer. Connect using a IEEE 1394 cable and try again." I used the USB
to
capture video. WHy can't i use it to save? Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

This is very odd? This is Moviemaker forum, And I suspect some
confusion..........
Are you saying that you connected a Sony DV cam via *USB* to
your PC and Win Movie maker was able to capture it?
If so, thats a first for both Sony and WMM.............
Now what I think is............
You have confused the cable that was supplied with your Sony
and it is indeed a iLink/Firewire interconnect.
When you connected your Sony to your PC, WinXP recognised it?
It wouldn't have if it were via USB.
You received an onscreen prompt with several options?
It wouldn't have if it were USB.
You opened WMM, and your Sony was listed as an attached device?
It wouldn't have if it were USB.
You were able to instruct WMM to "capture", and it did so, and was
able to control the Sony DV Cam?
It definately wouldn't have been able to do that via USB.

If you answered Yes to the above, then you connected via firewire.
If so, then there are 2 reasons why you cannot transfer back to DV tape:
1) You have to enable "DV-IN" on your Sony cam, do this via
the menu's.
2) Sony market a range of DV camcorders, and not all are
capable of "DV-IN", if you have one of these then you will
not be able to transfer DV footage from PC-to-DV.
 
ok. i think sony firewire is called I.Link, so it definitley has a port for
that.

The manual for the camera calls it a usb cable and the maunal for the
computer calls it's ports USB 2.0. However, i have used the camera and the
USB cable many times to capture video to edit. I'm not big on technology, up
till yesterday i thought USB and firewire were the same thing. Please don't
laugh.

So now i'm confused. The camera has a port for ILink and DV, but my cable
doesn't fit into it. Thanks a lot for the help guys.
 
yea so i realized my reply might have been confusing so i will answer all the
questions.

rehan: i do care about quality video, i just thought my cable would go both
ways instead of just capturing.

3KINGS: Yes it has a USB port and an ILINK port.

decoder: Yes to all questions. i am trying to find the dv in on the menu but
it's not looking good. argh. thanks for the help though.
 
oh by the way. I'm not even sure my computer has a firewire port. I have a
Dell Dimension 8400. It has a bunch of USB ports but i can't find a firewire.
I'm going crazy. Is there any other way i can watch my edited movies on my
TV. And will it look like it did on the computer or will it be cleaner and
more like it did when i recored it?
 
Sfpsycho415 said:
oh by the way. I'm not even sure my computer has a firewire port. I have a
Dell Dimension 8400. It has a bunch of USB ports but i can't find a
firewire.
I'm going crazy. Is there any other way i can watch my edited movies on my
TV. And will it look like it did on the computer or will it be cleaner and
more like it did when i recored it?
Click to expand...
Firewire and USB are a data transfer bus, but different protocol and
NOT compatible, you cannot feed a signal from firewire to USB etc.
OK, lets discern/confirm if you have a firewire card installed.
RIGHT click "My Computer"
From sub menu, select "Properties"
The "System Properties" dialog appears
Click the "Hardware" tab
Click the "Device Manager" button
In Device manager, if you have firewire
there will be two listings:
"IEEE 1394 Bus host controler(s)"
And also an entry for the actual firewire card:
"Network Adapters"/"1394 Net Adapter".


Supply exact/model details of your Sony DV cam,
and I'll try and check it out if it is "DV-IN" capable.
 
nope nothing that says ieee 1394 or firewire. just usb.

my camera is a Sony Handycam DCR-HC20.

If it can't be done can you recommend a way to watch my movies on my TV. DVD
most likely. Thanks a lot decoder.
 
Sfpsycho415 said:
nope nothing that says ieee 1394 or firewire. just usb.

my camera is a Sony Handycam DCR-HC20.

If it can't be done can you recommend a way to watch my movies on my TV.
DVD
most likely. Thanks a lot decoder.
Click to expand...

Hi
First, I checked out your Sony DV cam, alas it's not good news -
though all is not lost. This is the full workbench test from PC mag.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1706847,00.asp

You have a very basic but competent DV camcorder,
It is NOT equipped with the facility to transfer back to tape
digital footage from your PC. - It is NOT "DV-IN" enabled.
The USB connection is *strictly* for transfering still images
captured on the supplied SD memory card. From the tests
it is of very low resolution and you would be better using
a card reader installed on your PC for still image transfer -
if your Dell is so equipped?
The USB connection should not be used to transfer DV
footage, your claim that WMM is capturing such DV footage
just cannot be true? You must mean the Photo capture software
supplied by Sony?

You will receive excellent results via Windows Movie Maker
capturing true DV-AVI via a firewire connection.
You will need to install a PCI firewire card -
This is not as daunting as it may seem. And it is your only viable
option with that specific cam.

This is PC World's excellent and fully comprehensive 10 page
pictorial on how to install a PCI firewire card:
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,15714,pg,1,00.asp

A PCI firewire card will cost you between $12 - $25, and is
totally invaluable for DV capture.
It is very easy and straightforward to install and have up and
running.

Once you are up and running and able to capture true and
pure digital footage via firewire, it is captured as DV-AVI
format, WMM cannot burn DVD's, but the burning software
with your DVD recorder will easily transcode DV-AVI footage
to the required mpeg format for DVD.
 
Decoder wrote it very well, I'm impressed, the only thing I didn't see
explained but only touched on is this:
Yes your camera is a DV camera and yes you were able to capture via your USB
cable but the resulting capture was not DV quality. And I would also agree
100% with what everybody else said. If the camera has an iLink port then you
absolutely want to use it.
-Wojo
 
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