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Connecting Your Camcorder to Your Computer Wizard by Andrew Alexander Published on Feb 23, 2003 12:00 AM

If you're interested in doing anything with your video footage on your home computer, the first thing you have to do is find a way to get it connected. Despite the label on the box it came in saying in a friendly way, "connects to your computer in seconds" it can sometimes be frustrating to get it to work properly. The purpose of this series of web pages is to guide you through some common problems associated with this computer - camcorder connection, and to hopefully get you up and running in no time.

Before we get started, we have to establish a few things. First and foremost is that these pages will only help you if you are using a Windows-based PC, which is alright because if you're having problems with a Macintosh, you're in real trouble, as the "connects in seconds" logo really does apply to Macs.

The second criteria is that both your computer and your camcorder have to have a firewire port. Firewire is also known as IEEE1394, Digital Video (DV), and iLink. The USB port does not transfer digital video - not even USB2.0! If your camcorder is an older non-digital model such as VHS, SVHS, 8mm or Hi8, or anything in an analog format, this series of pages will not help you unless you are using a third-party device which accepts analog video and translates it to digital video. Examples of these devices are the Hollywood Dazzle, DV-bridge and the ADS Technologies Instant DVD.

	I'm having problems with my existing setup.
	I have not yet set up firewire on my computer.