On Mon, 16 Nov 1998 09:55:48 -0500, Jeremy Doublestein wrote:

>Can someone please help me? I am so confused. I have heard about a
>million different things about firewire cards and I can't seem to get a
>general consensus anywhere. I have a k6 200 with 128 Megs of Ram and a
>Miro DC 30+. It works great! But I recently bought a VX-1000 and would
>like to use the firewire port for "no generation loss" video. My
>questions are below. If someone can please straighten me out before I
>pull my hair out that would be great. The particular card that I am
>interested in is the Miro DV-300 since I already have the dc 30+ and
>would like to utilize the Instant DV function. Here are my questions.
>
>1. Speed: How long does it take to render a section of video. Is it
>significantly slower that the DC 30+? I kow that since it is a software
>codec it will inherintly be slower, but I heard people tell me 4 hours
>for 1 minute of video?!?! Is that true?

Render? If you capture through the FireWire card, you will have
a DV-AVI file. If you use an editing program that renders only
the changes (Premiere, etc.), the making of the finished AVI
file can be almost real time (cuts only); reasonably fast (some
transitions or other short-duration filters/effects used); or
VERY S L O W . . . (with overall filters/effects used on much
of the footage [this is more efficiently done analogue...]).

>2. Ca I mix annd match analog video with dv? For example I have a Hi-8
>camera that I still use. I would like to be able to capture it with the
>dc 30+ and output it through the firewire to either my camera or a DV
>deck on down the road. Is that possible? Is it also possible to do the
>reverse? (Go from DV out through the S-Video port on my DC 30+) I
>understand that the pixels are different between the two formats, but is
>it possible to render(?) between the two usig the other codec? And if so
>how long does it take to render from DV to analog and vice versa?

You can convert, but this rendering may take a LOT of time (amount
depends on the speed of your computer...). (I can't recall if AVI
and DV-AVI files can be mixed in Premiere without needing to
render one of the file types...) A better solution to this may be
using one of the Sony camcorders with analogue inputs, or the new
inexpensive Sony A-D/D-A converter. This also makes practical the
EQ'ing of the DV original, if desired... I would go mini-DV format
all the way in the computer, and do the format conversions before
entering the computer (unless the majority of the work will be
done with analogue original material).

>3. Cost: Is it worth it for the price? I know it's not as expensive as I
>paid for my DC 30+ but it still is a good bit of money. Are there any
>users out there who would highly recommend this card? Or should I just
>stick with what I got?

Depends on where you will be going... - if primarily with mini-DV,
with occasional use for analogue material, see above (it may pay to
sell the analogue card and get an external converter and a FireWire
card); if you will primarily be using analogue material, with a little
DV, then maybe adding a FireWire card makes sense... BTW, if you
don't need SCSI, the DV-300 and Spark + are the same, and the
DPS Spark is the same minus the SCSI adapter (I've had good luck with
this card, and SCSI drives are not necessary for mini-DV [another
reason for converting to DV-only in the computer...]).