IEEE 1394 Firewire Adapter
What do you do after you have bought yourself a MiniDV (Digital Video) Camcorder, a CDR/RW drive and a PC?
If you are like me, you'd probably want to start editing and producing your home movies into VCDs and that's what I am currently into.
As usual, I had to learn the hard way and yesterday, I finally got the last piece of equipment that will turn my PC into a regular Movie Studio.
IEEE 1394 Firewire
You see, even though your MiniDV camcorder may come with a IEEE 1394 Firewire port (iLink), you still need a IEEE 1394 Firewire PCI Host Adapter (and the cable) to connect your MiniDV camcorder to the PC.
Surprisingly, locally, Video Capture Cards like those from Snazzi or DVStorm are being advertised as the only way to connect or get videos into your PC. These cards are NOT cheap, they can cost nearly RM 1,500.00 or more (approx. US$ 390.00).
NOBODY tells you about the mild mannered IEEE 1394 Firewire PCI Host Adapter cards! Which is surprising because it's supposed to be the ideal card if you're using a MiniDV camcorder. Especially since the transfer rates of Video and Audio from your camcorder to the PC is at incredible speeds that even regular Video Capture Cards cannot compare.
And the cost of this card (including a Firewire cable)? A measly RM 250.00 (approx. US$ 65.00)!!! You even get a free Video editing software with the card (and a free CDR disk from the Salesman if you smile a lot)!
Good value for your money
PLUS this adapter will usually have 2 or more ports, so in the event you upgrade to External Storage, CD drives or any peripheral that supports Firewire in the future, you are ready...
Video capture software
Since it's just been 2 days since I installed the card, I am still struggling with which software I will use to capture and edit my videos, so as soon as I make some progress, I will post my findings in the MISC section over the next few months.
Among the software I am testing now includes:
- MGI's VideoWave III SE (at present, the easiest and fast; bundled software with the IEEE 1394 card)
- Ulead's Video Studio 4 (maybe I installed it wrong; a bit jerky)
- Ulead's MediaStudio Pro 6 (looks promising and a bit more features than MGI VW III - a bit more to learn before you can use it)
- Adobe's Premier 5.1c (can't get it to work - today, I tried using version 6.0 and no wonder; only 6.0 supports IEEE 1394 DV!)
See my opinion about iMovie 2 by Apple.
