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?

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?

Thanks,

Derek

"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?

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?

Thanks,

Derek

Yes a big diff. in quality: AV is VHS quality (around 280 lines) Mini-DV is
720 x 586 (I think) that is more than 500 lines.
Never tried to connect a Sony camcorder to a DVD recorder, but if both units
are equiped with a true firewire connectors; see no reason why Sony
camecorder (who developped the fire-wire system) wouild not work.
jacques

"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.

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.

Thanks to all for the replies.

I've now connected via firewire, and it works OK, including the
camcorder controls.

Slight snag is, the recorded DVD seems a bit "jumpy" at times, as if
it has dropped frames, even when recorded at high quality (1 hours
worth on a DVD). Is this because I am burning to a DVD RW, with a 4x
write speed?

Would I get round this by using a 16x DVD R ?

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

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.

Thanks to all for the replies.

I've now connected via firewire, and it works OK, including the
camcorder controls.

Slight snag is, the recorded DVD seems a bit "jumpy" at times, as if
it has dropped frames, even when recorded at high quality (1 hours
worth on a DVD). Is this because I am burning to a DVD RW, with a 4x
write speed?

Would I get round this by using a 16x DVD R ?

The cause for the 'jumpiness' is probably down to the DVD drive
on the player itself not handling DVD (+/-?) RW discs well.
If you just copy the contents of the RW disc to a DVD (+/-?) R,
it may well play ok - it's all down to which type of disc your DVD
player (or PC DVD-ROM drive) prefers.
You can look that up he
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
There can't be any 'dropped frames' due to writing too slowly as
this process is completely independent - if you wrote a DVD-R
disc at 0.5X speed, it would still play just as well as one written
at X16, when put into a DVD player (in fact, burning at less than
a drive's max speed will theoretically make a more compatible
disc as the 'holes' 'burnt' by the laser will be more like the ideal
round shape.)
HTH,
--
Rob