Many new computers even in these days do not come with Firewire cards. This Firewire DV Video Capture card is what you need to keep up with the new DV Digital Video technology.  This card brings the revolutionary speed performance and data accuracy of FireWire era to your Mac or PC. It is 100% compatible with Apple Firewire, Sony iLink, and all other IEEE-1394 devices.

This Firewire card is the mechanism by which you can connect your miniDV camcorder to your computer. A firewire cable runs from your camera's DV port to your computer's DV input with this card installed.  Firewire runs at a higher speed than a USB cable and has a smaller interface than SCSI, making it an ideal transport for moving digital video to your computer. That's a quick definition of Firewire.

IEEE1394 (aka. FireWire/ i.LINK) is a high-bandwidth real-time interface for computers, external storage drives, CD burners and consumer electronics products such as camcorders, VCRs, printers,  HDTVs, and digital cameras. The IEEE 1394 bus transfer provides enhanced digital/data connectivity for consumer electronics audio/video (A/V) appliances, storage peripherals, other PCs, and portable devices without any degradation.

Why is IEEE 1394 Firewire connection good for video editing ?

The DV video & audio will be captured always in sync and transferred together in one single cable. In the world of video editing, Firewire-enabled camcorders or digital cameras  remove the user's worry about the video & aduio out-of-sync problems.

When you choose to use the DV/Firewire video transfer into your computer, it saves the need for costly analog-to-digital converters and frame buffers. The audio track is transferred along with the captured digital videos in sync through one firewire cable, unlike capturing the analog video sources, which you will need to deal with video capture and audio capture separately with different cables and jack adapters between the video source and computer.  

Firewire also improves upon existing interfaces such as SCSI, traditionally used for the storage of digital video and provides higher speed, lower cost, and is more user-friendly than existing video interfaces. This Firewire DV capture card is 33 times faster than USB transfer.

$$$ Transfer Time Is Money $$$

What about the support to Apple's iPod ?

With iPod’s built-in FireWire? port, an entire CD can be downloaded in less than 10 seconds and a massive 4,000 song library can be downloaded in just over 30 minutes, versus the more than 13 hours it would take to transfer 4,000 songs with USB-based devices.  And it recharges automatically whenever iPod is connected  to the FireWire port, which which can supply both power and a way for the iPod to show up on a users desktop as a hard drive. This means iPod can double as a " very fast, extremely chic-looking backup disk.

[Support Devices]

Digital Video Camcorder, Apple's iPod, Digital Camera, Scanner, external firewire hard drive, external firewire CD-RW drive, firewire DVD Burner, memory card reader, Webcam, IEEE 1394 Repeater/Hub and so on.

[Compatibility]

 Window 98/98SE/Millennium/2000/XP or Mac OS 8.6 or above.

[The Advantage]

• Easy plug-and-play installation. No additional card drivers needed for setup in Mac OS 9.0+ or OS X and Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
• Enhance your Mac or PC with the next generation IEEE 1394 FireWire capabilities to instantly work with Digital Video Camcorders, FireWire storage drives, i.LINK compatible devices and all other IEEE 1394 devices.
• Recharges automatically whenever iPod is connected thru the FireWire connection, which which can supply both power and a way for the iPod to show up on a users desktop as a hard drive. This means iPod can double as a " very fast, extremely chic-looking backup disk.
• 4 multiple ports. Sufficient to survive your computer without the need to get extra hubs or repeaters in the future.
• From the casual home users editing their home movies, to the professional multimedia artist, FireWire is the industry standard for digital video editing.
• As Apple's chosen successor to SCSI, FireWire is a must-have feature for Macintosh users who don't have FireWire port on-board. FireWire is one of the fastest computer connections ever created. External hard drives, scanners, CD-R drives, high-end printers and other high speed peripherals are taking advantage of this speed and the simplicity of connections.
• 100% Compatibility with Apple Firewire, Sony iLink, and ALL other IEEE-1394 equipment
• Capture digital video on your PC and edit with the budled Ulead VideoStudio Version 5.0( not the earlier 4.0 version) software
• Firewire happens to be a great networking interface. Windows XP and Apple's Mac OS X natively support networking with any firewire devices, providing an easy way to create a faster-than-Ethernet local network.

[Features]

• OHCI Compliant IEEE1394 PCI Board.
• OHCI Based Architecture Link Layer Chip Included.
• Connect Up to 63 firewire-enabled external devices
• Hot swap support for all the FireWire peripherals. Full support of real time dynamic insertion and removal of devices.

• Complies with 1394 OpenHCI Specifications V 1.0/1.1.

• Provides enhanced connectivity for consumer electronics audio/video (A/V) appliances, storage peripherals, and portable devices without any image or data degradation.

• Transfer large multimedia and data files seamlessly between and firewire-enabled peripherals and your Mac/ PC.
• Package Includes: FireWire PCI Card, Ulead's VideoStudio video-editing software on CD disk, One 6-feet-long FireWire Cable (6-pin to 4-Pin) and Installation Manual.

  Video-editing software Included:

  • Hyper-intuitive Ulead VideoStudio DV 5.0 Basic Pack( not the earlier 4.0 SE version) for capturing and editing digital video on your PC. License/Serial Number is enclosed for registration. VideoStudio DV carries a range of video editing tools to help you produce memorable movies. The users can:
    • Easily transfer video from DV/D8/Hi8 camcorders, VCRs, PC cameras and TV tuner cards
    • edit audio, video and titles with frame-level accuracy in Timeline mode. 
    • Produce videos for CD, DVD, tape, e-mail and Internet streaming
    • Record video back to DV/D8 tape for showing on TV or recording to VHS
  • Apple QuickTime for creating and playing back movie files
  • Microsoft Windows Media Format 7 for improving AVI and WMF format support
  • Real Player for improving the RM format support

[Minimum System Requirements] 

• Mac OS 8.6 or higher (9.0.4 or above recommended) 
• Win98SE or higher version for PC-based systems.
• One free PCI slot 
• 32 MB system memory at least. 

[Q&A Session ]

Q: Does Firewire IEEE1394A Host Controller card require drivers ?
A: No, all Firewire IEEE1394A controller cards are compliant to Microsoft OHCI specification and Mac OS. Hence no additional drivers are required. There are internal drivers already preloaded in Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Mac OS 9.0 or above and Mac OS X.

Q: Does Firewire IEEE1394A Host Controller card support Windows NT4.0 ?
A: No, Windows NT4.0 does not support Plug-n-Play function.

Q: Do you need extra software for capturing/editing from a DV camcorder using the Firewire IEEE1394A Host Controller card ?
A: Yes, once you have installed the firewire IEEE1394A Host Controller card, you must also install a capturing/editing software such as Ulead VideoStudio before you can capture/edit video from your DV camcorder or camera.