Video transfer - JVC GR-D270U - firewire

Question

ok...

I already know that the USB option doesn't work.

I do know that I have a IEEE 1394 cable and a Western Digital FireWire external hard drive.

I want to be able to save my videos onto my PC for later use

(such as making DVD's and such)

my questions are:

Do I need a firewire card for my PC

or can I just save it to my firewire ready external hard drive?

(Western Digital)

Video editing software:

do I need it?

or can I just save the video to my External, and call it a day?!

any info is well valued.

if possible,

can someone(s) please give me a detailed walk through?

many thanks and praise in advance...

-Ryan

Answer 1

If your computer was made within the past 3 years, it should have a single Firewire 400 port somewhere on it.  Check on the front and back of your desktop.  The Firewire port should be next to the USB ports.  On a laptop, it is either on the back or on the side and next to the USB ports.  Remember that Firewire is also known as IEEE 1394, i.Link, and DV connection/port, so look for a port with those markings too.  If you do not have a Firewire card, you can get one for a desktop or a laptop for less than $50.  

Once you find the port, you will need to connect the camcorder to the computer with the correct Firewire 400 cord.  There are only 3 types available: 6-pin to 6-pin, 4-pin to 4-pin, and 6-pin to 4-pin,  Chances are that you need the 6-pin to 4-pin.  It should be easy to tell which cord you need since the camcorder will normally have a small 4-pin connection, and your external Firewire hard drive will plug into the large 6-pin port on your computer - the same port where you need to plug in your camcorder.  If you need to share the Firewire port, you can purchase a Firewire hub or splitter, so that both your camcorder and external hard drive can share the same port.  * It seems your external hard drive is connected to your USB port, and that is fine; you can leave it there.

Once your camcorder is connected, you can use your editing software to capture your miniDV or HDV video to your computer.   In Windows, you should already have Windows Movie Maker.  If not, you can download it for free.  If you have a Mac, then you probably have a free copy of iLife which has iMovie and iDVD.  There are also a variety of completely free editing program available on the net for Windows, OSX, and Linux.  If you want something more powerful, you can get Apple's Final Cut Express, Sony Vegas, or Avid's Pinnacle Studio for less than $100

It seem your external hard drive is connected via USB.  You can use your editing program to capture your video directly to your hard drive without the need to edit them a that moment.  This will keep the video files from taking up all the storage on your computer.  You can then edit the video in your editor from the external hard drive.  If you save your editing project file to your hard drive, you can bring the hard drive to a friends location and collaborate on editing decisions on their system if they have the same editing software.

Just remember that Firewire captures at real time, so if you have an hour long tape, it will take an hour to capture.  The good thing is that the capture process is automatic once it is started, so you can start the process, leave, do something else, and return in about an hour.  Then you can switch tape and repeat the process, or you can turn the system off and call it a day.