[gringo_pr]

i was given a sony handycam dcr hc30 with different cables and stuff but with no manuals fist thing i want to do is upgrade the memory stick that comes with it, it came with a memory stick duo my question is can i use a memory stick duo pro because they are alot bigger also is there a way to go from the tape to the computer i have figured out how to from the stick but not the tape i use onboard video,no video card

[thecoalman]

For the tape you need a firewire (aka 1394, I-Link) cable and firewire port on your computer. If you don't have a firewire port on your computer you can pick up a PCI firewire card for a about $15-$20 USD. Cable is about the same price. Here's a pic, generally the 6-pin is on a computer and the 4 pin on a cam, the 4 pin is similar looking to USB but it's not USB. You'll probably need a 6-pin to 4-pin cable:



From there you simply plug it in, you can even control the cam from the computer. Transfer the footage as DV-AVI which will give you a bit for bit copy of what's on tape. One hour of footage is about 14GB's, you use that as source footage for creating DVD's or whatever you wish. Don't use the USB cable for video.

As far as the memory card they are usually for storing still pictures, video cameras don't take very good still pictures. If you have a decent digital still camera stick with that for stills.

[gringo_pr]

thanks for the replay i will go get a card soon but you say not to use usb may i ask why is the quality alot worse or you just cant

[thecoalman]

USB oly provides web quality video on 99% of video cameras, the exception in most cases are ones that record directly to disc.