Connect a Canon HV20 Camcorder to Macbook Pro and External Firewire Drive

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Connect a Canon HV20 Camcorder to Macbook Pro and External Firewire Drive

I was wondering how I should connect my camcorder to my Mac. I understand I need to use a 4 to 6 Pin Firewire cable but should I use the 400 or 800 port? I currently have my external drive connected to the 400.

I've read there may be issues with trying to use both ports at the same time.

Thanks.

Macbook Pro 2.16Ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.9), 2 GB RAM, iMovie HD 6

Posted on Apr 19, 2008 4:16 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 19, 2008 6:37 AM in response to JCWarrior

Hi JCWarrior

I often connect both an external drive and HV20 to my laptop, but the majority of my external drives are Firewire800, so there is no real question. What I do use is a cable that is FW800 on the one end and FW400 on the other (mine is from Belkin, but I am sure other people also make these) when I need to connect both the camera and a FW400 external drive to the laptop.

Hope this helps

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Answer 2

JCWarrior Author

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Apr 19, 2008 7:14 AM in response to hannes du plessis

Yes, that helps. Thanks.

I have also read that I should use a dedicated drive for video. Is that really neccessary?

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Answer 3

Apr 23, 2008 12:11 PM in response to JCWarrior

While I agree that it is best practice I think it depends on how much/how intensive – for my Final Cut projects I use a dedicated external drive, but for iMovie I keep my current working files on my internal drive. I have upgraded the internal to a 200GB 7,200rpm drive, so that might make a difference.

My feeling is that if it works, it is fine, but I am only an enthused amateur, so my requirements might be different from other users'

-h.

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