Connecting DV camera to laptop USB Ports (no Firewire ports available)

Jamie-Shotter wrote on 11/8/2020, 9:31 AM

Please advise how to connect a DV camera to to a laptop which only has USB Ports. The DV Camera has a DV firewire port and a mini-USB port. I tried transferring videos by mini-USB to USB of laptop, but Magix software didn't recognise device. Are there connectors available to transfer from DV firewire or full size firewire to USB ports?

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 11/8/2020, 11:24 AM

@Jamie-Shotter

Hi and welcome to the forum.

. . . . The DV Camera has a DV firewire port and a mini-USB port. . . . .

To record into MEP you need a USB video converter (grabber), eg Terratec, and use this by connecting the camera via the camera's Composite output to the converter and recording the video in MEP which you set to record from the USB converter.

You should have a lead with the camera with 3 cinch connectors, yellow, red and white, the other end will probably be a 3 ring and tip 3.5mm jack plug this is the lead you use to connect to the converter.

The mini USB port is mainly for transferring images only from the camera to computer, there are very few (ie rare) cameras which can transfer video over USB, if yours is a Canon, JVC, Panasonic or Sony they definitely cannot.

Note:

Be wary of cheap USB video converters, or ones that has an extra audio lead to plug in to the computer audio card.
Do not get a Firewire to USB converter - they do not work for video transfer, the two communication protocols for video transfer are incompatible.
Ensure that you install 64 bit drivers for the video grabber.
You will have to start/stop playback on the camera manually.

HTH

John EB
Forum Moderator

Jamie-Shotter wrote on 11/8/2020, 12:34 PM

Thanks John, the Terratec link looks similar to the one i already have from Magix. ill use this and just accept analogue transfers only and not worry about digital transfers.

AAProds wrote on 11/8/2020, 5:38 PM

@Jamie-Shotter @johnebaker If possible, use the black S-Video connection from your camera (if it has one) to your video grabber; better video quality than the Composite (yellow) connection. You'll need a special male to male S-video cable.

AAProds wrote on 11/8/2020, 7:28 PM

@Jamie-Shotter A similar scenario came up on a thread a few months back:

https://www.magix.info/us/forum/firewire-ieee-1394-to-usb-2-or-3--1246122/

There will be a few pointers in there for DV transfer, the main take-away being that if you can do a DV transfer, you should. Just depends on how much money for conversion box you are willing to pay, and if you are happy with the quality from the Magix capture box/stick.