Infobase: About FireWire


It's one of the two main ways that we connect camcorders to computers and also to other devices. It's also known as "i.Link", "DVlink" and IEEE1394. But what's it all about and is it needed for all connections between camcorders and computers?


When DV camcorders were being developed in the early 1990s, all the major manufacturers agreed not only to use a common digital tape format but also a means by which information could be sent from the camcorder to other associated devices. FireWire was first developed by Apple Computer Inc and was adopted by the electronics industry under the patent IEEE1394; today, we often refer to a device being "1394-compatible" which, in short, means that it uses FireWire to make connections.

OK. So that's the condensed history lesson over. What is FireWire in practice? Well, every consumer digital video camcorder that uses either MiniDV or HDV tape has a FireWire socket - and this makes it possible to transfer video clips from the tape in the camcorder to a suitably-equipped computer, another camcorder or a digital videocassette recorder. No only that, but many additional devices used by computers - external hard disk drives, signal converters, etc - use FireWire as well. It's a universal connector standard.

When is FireWire not necessary?


As the use of tape-based camcorders, such as MiniDV and HDV models, gives way to the new wave of devices that save their video clips to either HDD (Hard Disc Drives), SD/Memory Stick Memory Cards or - to a lesser extent - DVD discs in the camcorder, we have less of a dependence upon FireWire. FireWire is only really necessary for the streaming of the DV signal to another device in real time. So, every 60 minutes of tape content requires 60 minutes to transfer across to the computer in readiness for editing. Other so-called tapeless, even solid-state, camcorders can send their clips over a USB cable in the same way as we commonly do to transfer digital stills pictures. For these, FireWire is not required.

How do I know if my camcorder has FireWire?


Aray of connecting sockets on a common MiniDV camcorder
All consumer digital video camcorders that record using either the MiniDV or Digital8 formats have a small 4-pin FireWire (1394) connection. It's part of the connection standard mentioned above. The tiny socket will usually be found hidden behind a rubber or plastic flap on the body, and will usually be accomanied by other input and output sockets, such as USB, AV, S-Video and LANC. In this image (right) you can see a cluster of sockets - each of them doing a different job. The FireWire socket is the one in the upper centre of the frame and labelled DV in/out. This is what you should look for on your digital video camcorder. It's this that we refer to as the "4-pin FireWire socket". A 4-pin FireWire plug is the smaller of the two plugs pictured below, and is accompanied by a 6-pin plug on the left.

FireWire connecting cables


Image showing a 6-pin and a 4-pin FireWire plug together
There are three types of connecting cables available with which to connect different FireWire devices. They are as follows:

How to copy DV or Digital8 footage from camcorder to computer?

If you have a Windows PC, you'll need to check that it has an appropriate FireWire socket. Lok at this picture of a Canon MV800i connected to a desktop computer via a FireWire cable. Because the PC (a Sony Vaio desktop machine) has a front panel-mounted hard-wired 4-pin FireWire socket installed, we use a 4-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable.

Canon DV camcorder with 4-pin to 6-pin cable connected
That means that the connectors at either end are identical. However, there are times when this won't be the case, and the computer will be equipped with the larger 6-pin FireWire sockets, so the cable required will be a 4-pin to 6-pin cable. If you use an Apple Mac computer, you'll always be using a 4-pin to 6-pin cable for the simple reason that all Apple Mac computers (desktop machines, iBook and Powerbook laptop computers) have 6-pin FireWire sockets installed as standard. If, on the other hand, you've bought a low-cost desktop PC or laptop computer from your local computer store, you'll need to check that it has a FireWire socket. If not, you'll to obtain a low-cost plug-in PCI FireWire card and have it inserted into a spare slot at the side or at the rear (where other things like sound cards and modems are inserted).

A PCI FireWire card will often have 2 or more FireWire sockets. Operating systems like Windows XP and Vista will enable the device to be installed and detected by the system without the requirement to install drivers or anything as boring. Once the card is installed and running, your computer (whether a Windows PC or Apple Mac) will only require you to switch on the camcorder to its Play or VCR mode. With a tape containing your video footage ready to play back, the contents of the tape are ready to copy to the computer via the FireWire connection and written to the hard disk drive. This process is called capturing - for which a program like Microsoft Movie Maker (Windows/Vista) or iMovie (Apple Mac) is required. Both programs come free to their respective system users.

My camcorder came with a USB cable and editing software. Why can't I use USB for transfer?

Lots of today's camcorders now enable you to shoot digital still pictures as well as video, with images (and even small compressed video clips) being stored on a flash memory card such as a MMC, SD or Memory Stick card. The best way to transfer the stills and small video clips to a computer is via the USB cable provided. However, standard USB doesn't provide the connection speed required for the transfer of full-specification DV or Digital-8 video recording. Nor does it enable the computer to take over the camcorder and allow you to use a control panel on the computer without touching the camcorder (called Device Control). FireWire is still best for this. However, USB 2.0 provides for greater speeds and is challenging FireWire where transfer of DVD footage and recordings from HDD (hard disk cams) is concerned. These use a recording format the same as that used by DVD called MPEG2, which - compared to DV - is highly compressed and requires less bandwidth on the connection. At the moment, FireWire is by far the best way to transfer DV and Digital-8 footage from camcorder to computer - and back. Use FireWire for video and USB for stills and tiny email video clips stored on the card.

Words and pictures: Colin Barrett, SimplyDV. No unauthorised reproduction or distribution. Copyright 2002, 2005, 2008.

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