IEEE vs USB?

[Sam Chao]

When I was at the store picking out a mini-dv camcorder,
the store clerk told me that I would want to transfer
video to my compuer using a firewire connection. He said
that USB wasn't really fast enough or reliable enough. So
I bought an IEEE card and cable.

When I got home and tested out transfers using USB (I
have USB 1, not 2) versus transfers using IEEE, I
couldn't tell any difference at all. Both methods require
me to play on the camcorder and record on the computer.
So if a video is 15 minutes long, it takes 15 minutes to
get it onto the computer.

Is this right? I was under the impression that using
IEEE/firewire would enable me to grab the video off the
tapes faster. If not, what's the point of firewire?

I'm using Windows Movie Maker.

Thank you very much for any help given!

 

[Capture Boy]

I use firewire and find it preferable to USB.

A large fast hard disk is also an essential item, no point capturing loads
of video quickly if a slow hard drive results in lots of dropped frames.

I have nothing against Movie Maker (hell its free after all) but there are
plenty of better programmes to use, depending on your budget.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

It's not the time it takes...you will ALWAYS take the same amount of as the
original footage is.... it's the RESOLUTION and in this case the clerk was
100% correct. You will experience far less dropped frames using firewire...
and the result will be a much better quality.

 

[Hausi Tellenbach]

Hi Sam.

....the reason is:

The camcorder sends during playback what it gets from the tape (there is no
handshake between the camcorder and the PC - the camcorder sends and the PC
has to be able to capture the data). DV-PAL sends about 3.61 MB/s, which is
about 29 Mbps (-> 1h of captured DV will consume ~13GB of diskspace).

- USB 2.0 High-Speed would be able to transfer 480 Mbps (but afaik is there
no camcorder supporting High-Speed)
- USB 2.0 (and USB 1.1) Full-Speed is able to transfer 12Mbps (which not
enough to capture ~29 Mbps and ends up in loosing data)

- IEEE 1394 (aka firewire, aka i.Link) is able to transfer 400 Mbps which is
enough for the ~29 Mbps-DV-datastream

=> So, if you want to capture DV in full quality without losses, you have to
use IEEE 1394 (and a PC, which is able to bring this data-stream to the
disk)

USB on camcorders you may use to transfer still pictures and perhaps to use
the camcorder as a kind of webcam....

See also e.g. here: http://www.glyphtech.com/site/technology_usb20.html

Cheers,

Hausi