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ayeplussjr

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 29, 2008
108
0
Does anyone know if there is a loss of quality when importing videos from HD video camera to my iMac via USB? Now that there is only one FireWire port on the new iMacs the FireWire port is being used for my time machine backups. I only have firewire connections on my external hard drive so I can't use USB for my backups. I used to use the firewire400 port on my old mac but now I need to use USB? Any loss of video quality when doing so?
 
If you have a MiniDV or HDV camera you have to use the FW port to get the video off the tape. The USB port is only for the memory card.


Lethal
 
If your camera shoots video tapeless (ex. it uses a Hard drive or Memory Card), then there would be no loss in quality from transfer videos from your camera via USB to your Mac.

If your camera shoots on tape, you should just unplug your Time Machine backup, and store the video on your harddrive via Firewire as that is the only way (as Lethal said). After that is done, reconnect your Time Machine HD.
 
If your camera shoots video tapeless (ex. it uses a Hard drive or Memory Card), then there would be no loss in quality from transfer videos from your camera via USB to your Mac.

If your camera shoots on tape, you should just unplug your Time Machine backup, and store the video on your harddrive via Firewire as that is the only way (as Lethal said). After that is done, reconnect your Time Machine HD.

I didn't realize my hard drive for time machine had a USB connection too. I should have assumed that it did but I never look behind there since I never had the need to because the FireWire was already connected. Anyway I just connected my time machine via USB and will use my tape based HD camera with FireWire. Thanks for the replies!
 
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