1. will it double the rate of capture from DV cams if one uses fw2 (800mpbs)? or do you need to make a DV cam's fw port capable of such high transfer rates?

2. if so, are there fw2 cards for the PC?

I've never heard of firewire 2. Are you not getting confused with USB2???

All the best,

Ed

It is usually referred to as FireWire 800. But several PC manufactures use the term FireWire 2 because of Apple using the term, kind of like Sony and iLink. FireWire 800 cards are available for PC's but your camera is only capable of 400 Mbps (if even that). It would not be possible to upgrade an older camera either. The upgrade would require a new controller and firmware.

Well I be damned!!! I need keep up with the trends.

That is interesting, that could now mean then that you could get higher resolution cameras, and edit in the same resolution. Bring on 35mm sized CCDs - Cool!!!

Thanks,

Ed

doesn't HD cameras (like JVC) REQUIRE fw800 at the very least? hmm... ain't it the faster the better? yeah yeah yeah i know about cost but the cost to edit is already pretty high. what's the point of not going full on towards fw800? DV was the leading reason why fw exists why not be the leader again?

Right now HD cameras use SDI. FireWire is not required for editing but will be soon.

JVC's HD camera uses the firewire400 interface. It has about the same bandwidth requires as mini-DV (around 3.6MB/s?).

Anyways, firewire800 doesn't do anything for DV capture. It will increase hard drive speed though. There's no point in getting the card for HD cameras which may or may not arrive at the prosumer/consumer level and may not even use the FW800 interface for capture. I believe all the major cam manufacturers agreed on a HD format using mini-DV tape similar to JVC's so it's unlikely you'll need FW800 to capture HD.