How to connect a digital camcorder to your computer?

Before you can edit video on your computer, you need to get the video into the computer somehow. Sorry, a shoehorn won’t work — usually you connect a cable between your camcorder and the FireWire or USB port on your computer. Of the two, FireWire (also called IEEE-1394) is usually preferable. FireWire ports have two basic styles: 6-pin and 4-pin. The FireWire port on your computer probably uses a 6-pin connector, and the port on your camcorder probably uses a 4-pin connector. This means you’ll probably have to buy a 6-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable if you don’t already have one. The FireWire connector on your camcorder may not be labeled “FireWire.” It may be called IEEE-1394 (the “official” term for FireWire), DV, or i.Link. Whatever it’s called, if the camcorder is, it’s FireWire-compatible. FireWire is a “hot-swappable” port technology. This means you don’t have to turn the power off on your computer when you want to connect a camcorder or other FireWire device to a FireWire port. Just plug it in, turn it on, and away you go. (Meanwhile, you may want to practice saying buzzwords like “hot-swappable” with a straight face.)

Connect the FireWire cable between the camcorder and your computer, and then turn on the power on your camcorder. Your camcorder probably has two power modes. One is a camera mode, which is the mode you use when you shoot video. The second mode is a player or VTR mode. This second mode is the one you want to turn on when you prepare to capture video from the camcorder’s tape into your computer.
When you turn on the camcorder, your Windows PC will probably chime and then display the Digital Video Device window, which asks you what you want to do. This window is one of those handy yet slightly-annoying features that tries to make everything more automatic in Windows. Click Cancel to close that window for now.
One really cool feature of FireWire is a technology called device control. In effect, it allows software on your computer to control devices that are connected to your FireWire ports — including digital camcorders. This means that when you want to play, rewind, or pause video playback on the camcorder, you can usually do it using Play, Rewind, Pause, and other control buttons in your Pinnacle Studio or Apple iMovie application. Some camcorders can use USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports instead of FireWire ports. The nice thing about USB ports is that — unlike FireWire ports — virtually all PCs made in the last five years have them. The not-sonice thing is that most USB ports are too slow to handle full-quality video. Pinnacle Studio and Apple iMovie can capture from USB cameras using the same procedures described in this chapter for FireWire capture, but you may find that the video quality is reduced. Thus, I recommend that you use FireWire whenever possible.