Transferring video camera movies to pc. and burning to CD/R

[alwaysblue]

Hi, I'm completely new to this aspect of the video world, do I need anything special like a video capture card?? I want to transfer video footage shot with my dad's video camera onto my pc. and then eventually burn the footage onto CD/R at the best quality I can.
I have windows XP.
Intel Pentium 1.6 cpu.

[UncasMS]

a firewire card will be a good choice if your cam supports that.
otherwise usb2 might be the way to go.

[alwaysblue]

thank-you for your response, I need a firewire card and connector. I have Pinnacle studio 8 software, is that good enough for what I want to do?

[SKD_Tech]

Pinnacle should work just fine

[UncasMS]

pinnacle 8 is fine, but pls make sure that your camera supports output via firewire before you buy a firewire card!

[alwaysblue]

The camera has a connection for a cable that plugs into the camera obviously on one end and a firewire connection at the other end, it is not a usb connection. I assume that means it is made to work with a firewire card. I have a recent panasonic model. Let me know if I'm incorrect.

[setarip]

"I assume that means it is made to work with a firewire card."

Read the "specifications" in the documentation that came with the camera - or check at the Panasonic website...

[atifsh]

better choice would be...

remember u may be mistaken by a svideo output with firewire(IEEE1394) most recent but cheaper models have svideo not firewire.
also for firewire card dont buy any firewire, for this believe me im using a hardware VCD encoder that gives me far more better vcd quality then any other type of encoding even frm best avi to vcd encoding. i have Snazzi VCD maker try to get a firevire card of Snazzi which also have a hardware VCD/SVCD encoder that will give u excellent quality without AV sync problems.

Simple firewire card on ebay 20 $
Snazzi firewire under 80$
Snazzi AV/DV under 200$ (best if u have money) all connections av/svideo/fitewire with hardware encoder.

[alwaysblue]

Hi, it says it has i.LINKTM(IEEE 1394 PC Interface), at my local future shop store they have a boxed firewire card with cable by Pinnacle for about 100.00 bucks, would this be worth it???