[align=justify:755c35f15c]Hi, I just recently purchased a digital DV camcorder. I am really excited about recording--making movies, etc.

I just realized though, reading through some messages, that it is a must--in terms of quality, and stuff--that I need to transfer my video recordings through a firewire, which my computer does not have.

I'm really new to this kind of stuff, so I was debating whether or not just to get a firewire for my computer (internal) or external with a hardrive. I have a 120GB hardrive on my computer, but it is partititioned into two, one 12GB, and the other, the remaining of the 120GB. I was wondering, what would you guys with experience would recommend? I don't know the amount of hard drive space I would need to complete short videos-4 minutes long, to longer productions like 20+ minutes.

Possible insights on what I should do? What kind of firewire I should get. I am also low on budget too, so I would want to try and keep the price as low as I can, in terms of if one is external and includes a hardrive, or just a firewire card. Possibly what software? (I know this is a hardware forum...), possibly links to getting started?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.[/align:755c35f15c]

Thanks!

You will need a fire wire card. The drive is fine nutill it is full, then just delte stuff or add another, and another, and another........ I am up to 6 now.

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Hi Boatsink

Welcome to the wonderful world of digital videography. Yes, a firewire connection is a must. You can get one fitted internally but you can also buy a PCI card with (I can't remember if it's three or four external sockets and one internal). Get a four pin to six pin firewire cable to connect your camera to the Firewire socket. You already have editing software on your computer in the shape of Windows Movie Maker but a good suggestion is Adobe Premier Elements 2 which is on sale in Jessops (UK) for £70 or Ulead Video Studio 9 again from Jessops (UK) for £50. You have enough hard disk space at present but do upgrade to an internal one at some stage. As far as video making is concerned, look at television and the movies and see how 'scenes' are composed. They are in focus, steady and don't stay onscreen for a long time. There is also no excessive zooming in and out, or swinging the camera left then right then left again.

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