I have a Canon XL1S - I'm wanting to get a capture card and a dv cable to run from camera to computer 4pin to 4pin...what do I need to get. My computer is fairly recent....about 1 year old. I realize I need to get a bigger hardrive...

1. how big of a hardrive do I need to capture dv tape video safely?

2. Can I get an external maxtor harddrive and then run a firewire from that into the capture card with 2 firewire ports?? Can this be done??

3. What kind of DV cable do I need to get (4pin to 4pin)..do I need to get a special cable...canon has one but it's $50.

Anyhelp is appreciated.

Dean

Here are some answers:

1- The bigger the better. I have 5 external drives ranging from 40Gig to 250Gig. As for safety... with a 160Gig drive, you can store over 12 hours.

2- It can be done. You can even plug the drive into the Firewire card and the camcorder into the drive's port if you want.

3- Most Firewire cards use the bigger connector (6-pin), so you'll need a 6 to 4-pin cable. A PCI Firewire card costs about 25$ at Tigerdirect.com and the 6 to 4-pin cable about 15$. You don't need to buy the more expensive Canon cable: any Firewire cable will do.

Have fun !