"Derek" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

I've just bought a Lite-on DD-A110 DVD recorder to archive my
Mini-DV
tapes onto DVD.

Would there be any difference in quality if I connect my Sony HC35E
camcorder via AV composite video, as opposed to connecting with a
firewire cable?

Yes, using firewire (aka iLink / IEEE1394) the transfer between
machines is bit for bit copy, the only degradation will be when the
DVD recorder encodes to burn the DVD. IF you were to use the composite
video (analogue) output the signal will first be converted into a
analogue video stream, it will then need to be converted back into a
digital stream before the recorder can finally encode for the DVD
writing. Keep it digital all the way!

Don't be tempted to edit your video *after* it has been encoded (into
MPG / VOB format) as you will cause issues with quality as MPG is a
lousy format - it needs decompressing and recompressing, unlike a
native DV or avi files.


I've also read somewhere that not all Sony camcorders work with a
firewire connection to a DVD recorder.

Does anyone have any experience of this?


I suspect that this is an issue with 'machine control', in other words
being able to start the camcorder via the DVD recorder controls - the
basic DV data stream should be OK.