[MacDV] 4-pin & 7-pin s-video cables

[Mark M.Florida]

The s-video port on your PowerBook is only for *display output* -- you 
can connect a TV to your computer and use it like a second monitor, or 
to mirror your PowerBook's screen.  It's not really intended for video 
playback -- it's there if you wanted to do a computer presentation on a 
TV (or even record your computer screen to video tape).  The special 
7-pin connector has composite video and s-video in the same jack -- if 
you plug in a standard 4-pin s-video cable it will output the signal in 
s-video quality, or if you use the s-video to composite video adapter 
that came with your PowerBook, you can output to regular composite 
video.

As far as video *capture* goes, the only real way is through the 
FireWire port. You should have a 6-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable that 
came with your PowerBook (if Apple still includes those). i.Link is 
just Sony's brand name for the same thing -- FireWire and i.Link are 
both also known as IEEE 1394. (catchy, eh?)  The main difference 
between FireWire and i.Link is that "i.Link" devices only have the 
4-pin connectors where anything labeled as "FireWire" can have either 4 
or 6 pin connectors.

As far as transferring your old Hi-8 footage, you'll just need to 
connect the analog outputs from that camcorder to the analog inputs of 
your miniDV camera.  Depending on how your particular camera works, you 
can either use it as a "pass-through" converter (it passes the analog 
signal through to DV without going to tape first), or you'll have to 
capture it to miniDV tape first.

Hope that helps.

- Mark

On Jul 9, 2004, at 1:56 PM, Claire Hart wrote:

> I just received my powerbook, and began to install FCE.  The PDF 
> "Installing Your Software" recommends that, before you install FCE, 
> you connect and turn on your video equipment so Final Cut Express can 
> automatically detect your method of video capture.  I got my Sony 
> miniDV camcorder out and found that its S-video is 4-pin and the 
> powerbook's S-video is 7-pin.  Is my solution as simple as buying an 
> adaptor such as this one I found through google?  
> http://www.svideo.com/7pin.html
>
> I also have another cable that came with the camcorder, an i.Link 
> interface.  With this cable, do I not even need to worry about the 
> S-video?  I've lost the manual that came with the camcorder.
>
> I have a ProScan Hi-8 camcorder as well that I'd like to transfer over 
> to DVDs, so I might need that cable after all.
>
> Thanks for your advice,
> Claire