IEEE 1394 Card

slacker2 · Post by **slacker2** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 9:05 pm

I was wondering if anyone can give some information on exactly what this is. My wife is trying to take video from our digital camcorder and put the video on a cd. According to the program she is using (Movie Maker in Windows XP) it states that the first thing we must have is this card and to be honest I have never really heard of it. Any information would be appreciated. Also is there a better program to use other than Movie Maker?

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 11:51 pm

IEEE 1394 (also known as Firewire) is the interface that most digital video cameras use to transfer information to your PC. The card is simply a PCI card similar to a USB adapter, and XP should support it natively. They're roughly US$90.

I'm sure there are better programs than Movie Maker, but you'd likely pay quite a bit for them.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 6:35 am

Firewire (Apple's trademark on the name, everyone else calls it IEEE-1394; that's Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an industry standards group) was originally a Macintosh infrastructure, but has moved to PC because of its pervasive use with video devices. It supports data transfer rates of 400 Mbps, where USB 1.1 only supports 12 Mbps. Like USB, you can hook up a large numbers of devices (up to 63, I belive) and is capable of hot-plugging (you can change devices while the computer is on and running, unlike most legacy ports).

The high data transfer speeds make Firewire ideal for hooking up external video devices, which could not move data through a USB 1.1 port fast enough to be efficient.

I found a D-Link 3-port Firewire Card through pricewatch.com for $32.95 (USD) plus $6-8 shipping, so the prices are coming down on them now.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Tue Jun 04, 2002 8:15 am

I've just purchased pinnacle studio 7, a complete video editing package. It comes with a PCI firewire card with an additional output to support the capture of analog/S- video. Obviously, the 1394 is what is of interest here. I should have all this jazz up and running by later this week. I'll post a full review of my impressions sometime in the near future on this thread. I was going to post this in my DVD writer thread but since this popped up it seems apropos. I still haven't received my DVD writer but once I do, I'll have the ability to go from analog to digital video, capture and compress it on a PC, and then write to a DVD. The DVD writer I'll review and post in the DVD writer thread. Sorry to spam up your thread slacker2 but I felt like tying your thread to mine since they have similarities.