Re: [PLUG] Sony Digital 8 Handycam DVR

["William H. Magill" <magill@mcgillsociety.org>]

On Thursday, May 29, 2003, at 03:25  PM, Jeff 'Jephree' Mealo wrote:
> I have a video project for school and am lucky enough to have found a 
> teacher
> found of me enough so to lend me his camcorder.  I'll be editing this
> digitally in either Adobe Premier or Cinellera [linux].  The manual 
> describes
> a 4-pin -> 4-pin interface, is this what I'll need to hook it up to a 
> PC or
> another DV/i.LINK/Firewire/IEEE 3349 (I believe it's 3349?)... device 
> like a
> VCR.  I know they have 4-pin -> 6-pin a lot cheaper.  I plan to give 
> this
> cable to him as a gift for the favor as I'll only need it once.  If 
> anyone's
> had to do something like this your input would be appreciated.

This is a standard "IEE1834" aka "FireWire" aka "iLink" cable. Probably 
about $20 at any computer or camera store, or your local Radio Shack.

The camcorder world has opted to use the 4 pin end of the firewire 
cable as its "standard" simply because the other two pins are power, 
and any camcorder has/needs its own power supply. (Virtually all PC/Mac 
interfaces have nowhere near enough power to drive the camera 
transports, even if there was only one device on the buss. I don't 
think the spec even allocates that much power.)

The host end is, by definition supposed to be a six pin connection. 
However, some, as have been mentioned, don't provide power an offer 
only a 4 pin connection.

Today, there are a number of manufactures offering "universal" 1394 
cables -- these have an "adapter" which provide either a 4 or 6 wire 
connector on either end. While they seem like a good idea at first, 
they just offer an additional pair of parts (one adapter for each end) 
to get lost in your camera bag/junk box... at a cost only 4 or 5 times 
greater than a standard 4/4 or 4/6 or 6/6 cable.

By the way, I have a Digital 8 that I just plug straight into my iMac 
and suck things down with iMovie. ... but it still takes months to edit 
those vacation movies. But then you can burn them to dvds to impose 
upon all your relatives as gifts. ... :)

T.T.F.N.
William H. Magill
# Beige G3 - Rev A motherboard - 768 Meg
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magill@mcgillsociety.org
magill@acm.org
magill@mac.com

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