Hey all,

I have heard of a FireWire cable to use to connect my camcorder to my PC, are there any advantages to using FireWire??

Many thanks

It really depends on the type of media your camcorder accepts, and whether it has other ports. Plus Firewire is not as common as USB.

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Yes--I think in the past, before USB 2.0 became standard (aka high-speed USB), Firewire was the preferred method for connecting/recording video from digital video camcorders because it provided enough bandwidth for the high-data stream whereas USB 1.0 and 1.1 lacked the bandwidth. In addition, firewire was more closely associated with Mac's, and it's become a bit more common on PC's as well. However, with the proliferation of USB 2.0, devices could rely on the more common USB interface (which is more universal), which is why firewire, while still used, is less common.

If you have an older digital video recorder, likely it utilized firewire (say more than three years old) to interface with the computer. But now most use USB 2.0.

Firewire and USB 2.0 transfer at ABOUT the same peak speed--I think it's 480mbps for USB 2.0 and somewhere around 400mbps for firewire. But some people claim (I don't have and references on hand) that firewire provides a better constant bandwidth whereas USB 2.0 has a bit lower constant bandwidth. But either are fine for high-speed interfaces--plenty for pretty much any device today.

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Ya, I personally don't have a firewire port(or at least I don't think I do, I haven't checked the back of my computer in w while). USB is more universal, hence the name universal serial bus.

Hello

I use Firewire for my video camera. I isn't necessarily a mac thing, I have firewire on my Mac and my PC. Firewire has a bandwidth of 400mbits although new firewire has a bandwidth of 800mbits but not many devices support it. It can be used to connect video recorders, and also a crossover cable from pc to pc can be used for networking, I do it with my laptop if I am sending say a 5gb video from my PC to my Mac, as it goes much faster than via the 54mbit wireless and then through my 100mbit lan.

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Thanks for all the information guys! I have seen some good FireWire products on the net so I will give it a go