So many firewire cards

Josef Heks · December 5th, 2005, 07:50 PM

Hi,

I am wanting to edit video from my gs400. I already have some editing software, but now need a firewire card. I am confused by the huge amount of different ones available - ranging from 20$-1000s. All i want to do is capture video (often will be wide 16:9) without dropping frames. Ive been thinking of getting a very cheap LaCie 3-port firewire400 card. Or will a card like this not be sufficient for capturing video?

Thanks

Josef

Dan Euritt · December 6th, 2005, 01:09 PM

i'd get the cheapest one, with the fewest amount of ports... hook the external hard drives up via the usb 2.0 port instead of firewire.

you could look at the chipsets on the cards, if you wanted to differentiate 'em... maybe get a card with the the ti(texas instruments) chipset.

Pat Sherman · December 9th, 2005, 09:50 AM

I would at least get a FireWire800 card much faster and better for video...Then again I don't know what's available for a mac..

Christopher Lefchik · December 9th, 2005, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat Sherman

I would at least get a FireWire800 card much faster and better for video...Then again I don't know what's available for a mac..

IEEE 1394a (FireWire 400) is plenty more than enough for DV video transfers. DV video is only 3.6Mbs per second, which works out to somewhere around 25Mbps. As you can see, 25Mbps is nowhere near the bandwidth of the IEEE 1394a standard of 400Mbps. There is no reason to get IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800) if transferring DV video is all you will be doing. However, FireWire 800 can be useful for high-bandwidth tasks like external hard drives (for those few devices that currently support it, anyway).

Pat Sherman · December 9th, 2005, 05:37 PM

Oh I should have read the thread.. I thought it was about external harddrives.. If not, yeah any firewire card, port, dodad would do..

December 5th, 2005, 07:50 PM	#1
Josef Heks Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 74	So many firewire cards - which one to get?! Hi, I am wanting to edit video from my gs400. I already have some editing software, but now need a firewire card. I am confused by the huge amount of different ones available - ranging from 20$-1000s. All i want to do is capture video (often will be wide 16:9) without dropping frames. Ive been thinking of getting a very cheap LaCie 3-port firewire400 card. Or will a card like this not be sufficient for capturing video? Thanks Josef

December 6th, 2005, 01:09 PM	#2
Dan Euritt Trustee Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Carlsbad CA Posts: 1,132	i'd get the cheapest one, with the fewest amount of ports... hook the external hard drives up via the usb 2.0 port instead of firewire. you could look at the chipsets on the cards, if you wanted to differentiate 'em... maybe get a card with the the ti(texas instruments) chipset.

December 9th, 2005, 09:50 AM	#3
Pat Sherman Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: DuPont, Wa Posts: 325	I would at least get a FireWire800 card much faster and better for video...Then again I don't know what's available for a mac..

December 9th, 2005, 05:37 PM	#5
Pat Sherman Major Player Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: DuPont, Wa Posts: 325	Oh I should have read the thread.. I thought it was about external harddrives.. If not, yeah any firewire card, port, dodad would do..