Using Video Camera, USB vs. Firewire for performance question

I want to hand down my Sawtooth (upgraded to 1.8MHz / 1G RAM) to my parents to use as a skype machine. I am able to get a USB Logitech Notebook Pro Webcam to work, but video is much lower quality than I would like.
I am thinking it is the USB 1. speed of the machine. My question is if I invest in a used iSight Firewire, will that most likely alleviate the problem and get a cleaner, less choppy video sent. Other option is to get a Tango USB 2.0 card.
Advice / Experience is appreciated.

Hi-
Not sure of the quality of your webcam, as that makes a difference, but any USB 2.0 webcam will benefit from USB 2.0.
A PCI card is also a lot cheaper than a firewire webcam.
Make sure your PCI card is a NEC chipset.

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I have a problem with my blackberry 9360, I bought it last 2months, and now when I use video camera or camera I saw a red and blue line. Can someone help me with this issue?

I have a problem with my blackberry 9360, I bought it last 2months, and now when I use video camera or camera I saw a red and blue line. Can someone help me with this issue?

Hello zukafu,
Welcome to the forums.
In this case we can try to reload the software on the BlackBerry® smartphone to make sure it is running the latest version and there are no issues with the OS.
Here is how to backup your BlackBerry smartphone http://bbry.lv/oPVWXc
Once you have backed up your BlackBerry smartphone please follow the link below to complete a clean reload of the BlackBerry smartphone software.
Link: http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/KB03621
Once completed test it and proceed with a selective restore, here is how to restore http://bbry.lv/qgQxLo
Thank you
-SR
Come follow your BlackBerry Technical Team on twitter! @BlackBerryHelp
Be sure to click Kudos! for those who have helped you.Click Solution? for posts that have solved your issue(s)!

Using Video CAMERA with Connect pro

We reciently purchased this product and were told that it
would work with video cameras. We have a Panasonic that we are
using with vista. this camera works with Premiere Pro, and there is
nothing wrong with it. I know that Connect is not software based it
is an Internet Application. How ever i know that the OS (vista)
"sees" the camera because it works with other programs. Sorry i am
connecting with IEEE not USB
Has anyone out there in the world has success with getting a
video camera using IEEE connection to work fully. Audio and Video
coming through the camera?
Is anyon aware of drivers for either the camera or the IEEE?
And if the Connect product does not support this... WTF?
thanks

Connect does work with IEEE1394 Firewire Cams, just not with
all Firewire Cams. (USB cams also are not all working).
I would suggest to first try out the cam from different
machines with different OSs (Vista might well be the sole issue
here), also try if you can get an ordinary USB cam to work.
If all fails, you can workaround that using a virtual camera
driver, piping the firewire cam into the virtual cam and in Connect
you can load the virtual cam with the image of the Firewire cam.
Not a nice way round, but it would work.
If you google for "Adobe Connect camera compatibility matrix"
you get a "slightly" outdated list of supported cameras.

S-Video to USB or Firewire Converter

I'd like to use the S-Video output on my VCR to input into my Mac via either USB or Firewire. Is there an affordable (less than $50) converter that can do this job? I can use either iMovie or Final Cut.

Unfortunately there is no under $50 converter that will do what you want unless you can find a 'deal' on eBay or Craigslist.
The Canopus ADVC-55 will do the job and is about the least expensive converter available, but it goes for $200. AND, if you were to consider that expense I'd really suggest the ADVC-110 instead - at the same price it gives you bi-directional conversion, not single direction.

USB or Firewire for Final Cut Pro and or Premiere Pro

I have a macbook, and i need to do a crap load of final cut/ premiere rendering, and i need to get a external for the capture scratch and ect.
But what i want to know is, what one to use? USB or Firewire 400,
I was originally gonna get a LaCie Rugged, cuass its buss powered and extremely portable, but my friends told me, seeing ive got only one firewire port, im gonna have to get something like the 320gb o5 500gb LaCie, which has two firewires on the hard drive, although its not that portable.
So i asked, why cant i get a USB external, that was a dumb thing to ask. They gave me reasons like USB speed isn't constant, not secure stuff like that.
So what should i do, and which is the best one to get?
Cheers
Message was edited by: BlueDingo

Don't know about PPro.
For FCP, you really should have FW. The problem you'll run into, is that the Mac Book only has 1 FW bus. It doesn't matter how many ports the computer or external have, they will all run on the same FW bus. And I don't believe the MacBook has the capability of using an Express34 card (or any other FW expandability). I could be wrong, but don't think so.
One solution is to capture directly to your internal harddrive, then copy the files over to the external FW drive. Others have posted about daisy-chaining your camera/deck through the external FW drive, but I've not done that and can't tell you how.
Even capturing to the internal may not work, depending on what format you're capturing.
Hang around for other possible solutions and search this forum for 'capturing to Mac Book' or some such language.
K
and yes, USB delivers content in packets vs. a continuous stream using FW. FW is the way to go. You might have success with USB, but you'll be lucky. Try to get FW 800 if you can.

USB or FIREWIRE for audio interface?

Hi,
what will you prefer to , USB or FireWire of your audio interface?
and why?

mactreouser wrote:
Hi,
what will you prefer to , USB or FireWire of your audio interface?
and why?
Here's the "pecking order" for performance and stability :
1.- Internal PCI or PCIe card to audio interface. These units are the best overall, both in audio quality, low latency, and reliability. Some have built in processing cards, with which you can use instead of the computer's CPU, for audio processing tasks.
2.- FireWire audio interface. These are reliable, but can have issues if not set up properly, due to the FireWire drivers which need to be used to run these units. Some have onboard "low latency" mixing facilities, and some have CPU processors for processing audio.
3.- USB 2.0 audio interface. These are also reliable, however are more limited in bandwidth than the FireWire counterparts. This is due to the different nature of the USB audio protocol VS the FIreWire one. Still, it is not that bad for home recording.
4.- USB 1.0 and 1.1 audio interfaces. These are reliable, but not recommended if a lot of realtime audio recording is going to take place. In other words they are great inexpensive units for doing programming, sequencing, editing and mixing, BUT not so much for live audio use, or live audio recording. this is due to the limitations on the USB audio protocol architecture. It simply cannot handle low latency audio very well.
Cheers

USB to firewire for car charger?

I have a car charger for my iPod that accepts a firewire cable. I'd like to charge my iPhone with the same device. Does someone make a USB-to-firewire adapter I could use? Any chance it would harm my iPhone?

Bumping this once in hopes of getting an answer.

HT4327 Dear Sir can i use Apple 10W USB Power Adapter for "iphone 4S"

Dears
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The apple charger is rated 100V to 240V, 50/60 Hz. You can use it in any country.

HT4341 Can I use the 5w usb power adapter for iPad mini/ iPhone 4 in 220v with an adapter?

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When using video camera on iPad 3 screen keeps going in and out of focus

Every time I use my video camera the image goes in and out of focus making the blurry there seems to be no settings to stop this help.

At this point, I would go for reset to its factory default condition, using the iTunes program to get a clean system install. That way you'll clean everything out and just have it set up the way it would come from the factory. You'll need to do your backup (on the iTunes program too) and be sure you understand which stuff will be saved and which will not (from the links below). Also turn off any anti-virus program you may have on your desktop. Then when you reset it to the factory default condition, don't restore your backup just yet ... until you check it out without your data put back on it. Verify its operation first, to make sure that you know it's okay. Hopefully everything is okay at that point, otherwise you'll have to take it into Apple to check it out for any hardware failure.
Here are the links, and the last one pertains to the reset to factory default condition ...
Choosing an iOS Backup Method (Should I Use iTunes or iCloud to back up ...)https://support.apple.com/kb/HT5262
Back up and Restore your iOS Device with iCloud or iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766
iTunes: About iOS Backups
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4946
Create and Delete iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Backups in iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4946
iOS: Troubleshooting Encrypted Backups
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Use iTunes to Restore your iOS Device to Factory Settings
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

Can't use video camera and AirPlay at the same time

I was streaming music via AirPlay when I wanted to grab a video of my kid dancing. As soon as I turned on the video camera the audio stopped playing. Kinda disappointing.

Yep. I have CC and CS installed and they both work. However, I don't see why I should use cs.
Regards
Kasper

Video Camera Recording / Broadcast Setup for iMAC

I'm interested in recording an event with my 3CCD video camera onto my Intel based iMAC, using Final Cut Pro. I also want to play it back real-time to a television set. Any ideas what hardware i will need to do this? I have multiple iMACs that I can use, but I don't know how to get the audio and video from Final Cut on the iMAC to the television. Anyone have ideas?

If your camera is capable of outputting analog video+audio simultaneously with FW digital video+audio then you could connect your camera to your iMac via FW and your camera to your TV via analog. That is, if your camera is capable of doing it.
Regarding your iMac, the only way to use your iMac to capture with FCP and output to a TV simultaneously would be with the Apple video adapter. Depending on which model iMac you have, you could either mirror the iMac desktop to the TV or extend the iMac desktop to the TV. But in either case the video quality on the TV is going to be crap; and you're still going to have to figure out how to feed the audio to the TV.
A better solution, although more costly, would be to use a video mixer between the camera and your iMac. Camera -> video mixer -> iMac, second mixer output (aka monitor output) -> TV. That presumes however that the video mixer is DV capable or, if not, that you feed analog to the mixer and add an analog-digital converter between the mixer and your iMac (camera -> mixer -> DV converter -> iMac).
By the way, you didn't say whether you are working in DV or HDV or AVCHD. I assumed DV. There are HDV mixers but they run into 5 figures.

Is there a preferred Video Camera in the forum for use with FCE?

I am on the hunt for a new HD camcorder in the 800 to 1200 US dollar range. Is there a preferred recording format or anything specific to look for that will help my camera work best with FCE or better yet are there things I should try to avoid?
I am looking for something compact so that I can carry it with me on trips easily, but still give a good quality HD image. Thanks

The main consideration is that AVCHD is a hard drive based format whereas HDV is tape based. The nature of tapes is that they're relatively inexpensive so it's not such a big deal to save your tapes as backups in case you ever need to restore your project from the original footage. For AVCHD on the other hand, you'd need to make a backup by copying the whole file directory to an external drive for safe keeping, and if the drive fails or gets corrupted then you are out of luck.
There are other less important things to keep in mind. AVCHD can reach a maximum resolution of 1920x1080, whereas HDV by comparison reaches its peak at 1440x1080. I've heard some say that AVCHD cameras generally work less well in low lighting conditions, but I personally haven't noticed too much of a difference. Finally, the market seems to generally be moving away from a tape based workflow. Not that AVCHD is exactly the format of the future (and you'll certainly be able to purchase DV tapes for a while to come), but it's something to keep in mind. FCE deals with the two formats differently as well, and it might be wise to skim over both the section in the User Manual about capturing and the one about the "Log and Transfer" process.
As far as bugginess is concerned, I wouldn't say that one format is prone to more problems than the other. As long as you read up on the capture or ingest process before attempting anything you should be fine.
Finally, keep in mind the fact that FCE transcodes both HDV and AVCHD into the Apple Intermediate Codec upon capture or ingest. AIC usually runs at about 41-50GB per hour, so you'll want to make sure that you have a fast external firewire drive to use as a scratch disk when editing to store your media.
Sasha

Interfacing Video Camera to Mac Pro for Final Cut Express HD Use

I have a lot of Video8 tapes that were made on my Sony DCR-TRV310 that I want to move to my Mac Pro and edit with Final Cut Express HD. The Sony camera only has the three (R,Y,W) output ports and my Mac Pro only has firewire input ports. Does anyone know of a cord solution or do I have to use an additional interface. Thanks

Hello,
Unfortunately there is no "cable solution" You will need an external interface. Something along the lines of an external tv tuner. Elgato Systems makes a few, i've had great success with the Hauppage WinTV PVR USB2 Tuner. This cost me about 150$ Canadian and is compatible with Mac's after a software download from the manufacturer's website.

USB or Firewire for a hard drive to store my photos

Hi, I am a new Mac user. I have a new iMac 20 incher, with 1Gig of Ram (soon to be 2 Gigs when the extra memory arrives), and a 128 mg video card.
The primary purpose for the Mac will be to serve as a digital darkroom. I will run PhotoShop CS3 on it, and, in the future may use LightRoom or Aperture. I think both products still need a bit of 'seasoning' before I am willing to make the jump. I will also use the iMac for itunes and to store my music.
I have a Windows XP laptop that handles all my other work such as e-mail, spreadsheets, etc. I am reserving the iMac for photography and Music.
Previously, I stored my photos on my DELL Windows XP machine and backed them up to a USB2 drive.
Because of the number of photos I take, I plan to store them on a drive that I attach to the iMac. I will probably get a 250 Gig or 500 Gig drive and use it to store the photos. I will NOT be storing photos on the iMac drive as it will become filled up in less than a year.
In terms of speed and ease of use, is there a difference between a Firewire drive and a USB 2 drive? Does either type of drive have an advantage over the othter? Any significant disadvantages of one type?

hi.
if you're just backing up then usb2 would be fine. basically in the real world on mac's usb1.1 is slowest, usb2 is faster, firewire 400 is faster still - good for audio and other media and firewire800 is even faster (good for video).
For some reason usb2 is faster on pc's than mac's. usb was a system developed for pc and by pc makers(?) and firewire developed as mac equivalent.
Firewire is faster than usb2 on mac's. if you're going to be working with your media from the external disk drive then go for firewire 400 or 800. Though fw400 will be plenty enough. Also important is the ext. drive speed. 7,200rpm is the standard and fast enough. Slower than that you'll find a 5,400rpm which are typically used in laptops and portable ext. hard drives.
If price isn't an issue go firewire and 7,200prm. Also, i understand that you won't be storing the photos on your imac drive. cool....just remember to back up your important photos onto separate media!
hope that helps
rounik

Using Video Camera, USB vs. Firewire for performance question

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