Hi,

I was told by a salesman that I would get better quality from my miniDV videocamera if I transferred using component output and a special capture card to transer video than using FireWire. Is this true, is there a difference between the two and if so is it worth it (purchasing the video card)?
Thanks
Robert

it is true only if you record from the camera directly to the pc.
if you record first to the tape , then playing back the tape to the PC.there will be no difference.
The damage is done while recording to the tape.
This is not new, since ever, camera heads deliver better signal than the recording mechanisme/support is able to digest.

There have been a couple of longish threads in the JVC forum in the last couple of weeks that relate to this subject.

Outcome seems to be that capture via component via a Blackmagic Studio card was markedly inferior to digital capture.

I did a test using Adobe CS3 to capture analog component 1280 x 720 8bit 60p through a BM studio card, and at the same time captured 30p to tape, them imported through 1394 port into Avid Liquid. The difference is very noticeable. I posted a mp4 file, because of file bandwidth issues, to show people what they can expect to get out of this combination. Even the HDV portion of the mp4 has more resolution then the analog component capture.

http://www.portstanleynews.com/TV/JVCTest.mp4

I will do another test with a Canon HV20 to check the difference of HDV vs HDMI

Not sure this would be true for all cameras or all cards, but based on this one data point, analog capture seems to produce worse results than Firewire.

I'd love to know if anyone had better or worse results with different camera and /or capture card combinations. A couple of folks (including me) e-mailed Blackmagic asking for comment on their analog performance and citing the above comparison. Nobody got an answer.