Is there a way to transfer data to computer besides firewire?
 

My pins on my HC1 Dv-out/firewire are bent and don't look like they want to work. Everything else is fine - so is there a way to transfer the data to my hard drive - capture it - without the Firewire? If so, at least I don't have to repair it, if not, a repair is due which will cost.

Thanks

Hi,

The HC1 outputs DV or HDV data in digital form - but ONLY via the firewire. If you think you can go analog, then use the analog out to another cam analog input, and from there to firewire. This is a viable workaround if you have another camcoder (but not HDV) and your material recorded is HDV...

Those small connectors are very delicate, you must treat them as sore p.....s. Needless to say, you have learned this the hard way. Probably the cost servicing the HC1 is quite high, you could always ask for a quote. The second hand value of the HC1 is low if firewire is not working...

Christian

I am guessing the USB or the component out won't do the trick huh?

USB is only for transferring still images from the memory stick. It won't do anything for video DV/HDV transfer.

Component capture can be done, see the recent thread about the Intensity (Pro). It's a $350 card though, and only as a PCIe card.

Ok, well that is something. Is the component out better then the Firewire as far as compression of image?

Well - component out is analog, and is a decoded version (from digital to analog) of the m2t format that is stored on tape, therefore I dare to say that the quality is fully acceptable, but albeit never better than direct firewire transfer. Probably the HC1 component out is as good as the rest of the system.

There have been some discussions about getting non-compressed video out from HC1 (best quality) by feeding the component output to a digitizer, such as the Intensity Pro. Replying the tape definitively is outputting a decoded m2t file in analog form (not better quality than firewire), but using the CMOS sensor in realtime probably would produce even better results. However, I have my doubts - it is not likely that the HC1 contains a component output decoder that can BOTH decode the raw signal from the CMOS sensor (not compressed) - and the compressed m2t file format...

So - capturing using component out brings the signal to the analog domain and then back to digital. If the digitizer is of high quality and you store the file also as high quality, then probably the quality drop is barely noticeable, compared to firewire transfers...

Christian