I have a few questions about .... installing firewire cards, dvd re-writers and external hard drives.

[WriggleJiggle]

Ok, I have a few questions, so thought it best to put them all together.

Can someone tell me about installing firewire cards/ports?
I have googled this page which seems to suggest you just open the box, stick it in, download any appropriate drivers (although I've got XP so I think it is a plug and play thingy) and then all is well and good.

Is it really this simple? Is there any minimum requirements my computer should have - so much free memory or something? And most importantly, if I buy one, will I be able to download my camcorder videos from DV tape to a dvd?

2nd question. If I buy a dvd re-writer to back all my photos and videos, do I also need to buy an external hard drive to back things up or would a dvd re-writer do the job adequately?

Any advice very gratefully received - thankyou!

bump

Yeah, installing most cards is fairly simple as long as you have the right screwdrivers and a spare PCI slot.

For most back up purposes a DVD rewriter is adequate. An external hard drive would have the advantage that you can easily get one big enough to copy your whole hard disk to. A DVD rewriter allows you to easily create off site backups.

Having been persuaded to join by my Mrs, you have the honour of being my first post!

Assuming you have XP and a pc that is fairly new (last 24 months) then I would suggest perhaps investing in either a pinnacle studio moviebox USB (assuming you have usb 2.0) or pinnacle studio movieboard pci. Both are available at maplins or perhaps PC world. Pinnacle comes with the software and hardware to connect and edit the video. You can also author a DVD afterwards.

Alternatively you can buy the components and build it up (ie firewire io board and software). Its swings and roundabouts.

As CruelAndUnusualParenting says a DVD rewriter is good. Again its hard to recommend a product with out knowing your computer details. Essentially there are three choices sata, Pata (ide) or uSB 2.0. Somewhere like scan (www.scan.co.uk) would be a place to go. The drives you want need DVD +/- RW/RAM/DL. If you want something to burn labels then you need lightscribe as well. Assuming you have pata then a samsung 20x DVD +/- RW/RAM/DL is what you need. To find out whether you have pata you need to lift the lid.

To do this, some strange precautions are required. Ideally leave the power lead in but the computer off and the socket off at the wall. Its earth you want not juice.

if a large fat or flat cable goes to your existing cdrom then its pata, if a thin (usually red) lead goes to the cdrom its sata.

You would install the dvd alongside your cdrom (slot below) and use the second connection on the lead to add it. A screw driver is required.

Personally I would use the PCI card video software board because its faster, but USB is more portable.

Hope that all helps. Merry Christmas

S

Wow, what fantastic responses - thankyou!

Now I have skim read it I need to go back and read a little more carefully (and no doubt think of many more questions!)