[plug] Video camera newbie

[Carl Gherardi]

Hmm... look like I left out a few significant details.

On 13/09/2004, at 7:56 AM, Rob Davies wrote:

>
> On 12 Sep 2004, at 12:51pm, Carl Gherardi wrote:
>
>> Hey Guys,
>>
>> I managed to get my brother running linux - and hes been happy with 
>> it for 6 months now, but he now wants to grab and edit video from a 
>> digital video camera. "i've got this (windows) software here, how do 
>> i install it?"
>>
>> What is the general process for getting digital video via usb?
>>
>
> USB or USB2 is totally useless for video capture it will drop frames 
> even if you manage to get it to work. This means finding a camera with 
> a USB port which for video I doubt you will find, still capture is USB 
> even from a video camera, but video is definitely FIREWIRE / IEEE1394.
>

Ive had a few of these type of problems under Mac OS 9.x previously 
even with firewire.

The video camera has already been purchased - its a jvc gr-d73, and has 
both usb and firewire ports(and no manual.. so i dont know if its usb 
2.0)

>
>> Most of the stuff i'm finding on the web is - get firewire working, 
>> use dvgrab, open kino/cinelerra. I'm using usb so i'm a little lost.
>>
>
> I would recommend cinelerra for which Slackware has ports that are 
> native, but if you are a relative newbie to video or linux it could be 
> a severe learning curve. On the bright side their is a large video 
> community whom use linux hence, information scattered over WWW and 
> newsgroups / mailing lists. Remember google is your friend!
>

Do you have a couple you frequent/recommend?

>> I've used usb mass storage devices previously, but the camera doesn't 
>> appear to act like one.
>>
>
> And you won't, see above!

As the camera doesn't actually use a tape, I figured it was using some 
sort of solid state memory like a thumb drive or a digital camera.

Are there any video cameras you can copy files straight from without 
having to worry about from drops?

>
>> If I need to get a firewire card I will, but i'd like to avoid it if 
>> possible.
>>
>
> As suggested by Skribe, spend the money, not sure of which one to 
> recommend, but I am sure their are others on the list whom would know.
>

Any success stories out there?

Cheers

Carl