[MacDV] Thanks from the guy with the DV camcorder without firewire

[solorzano at mac.com]

On Thursday, June 5, 2003, at 01:18  AM, Gary Fujihara wrote:
>   Here is the deal:  My wife tells me that it is a Sharp model VLPD-7,  
> and
> there is a data port on it - a USB port.  The camera also comes with  
> some
> Windows video capture software.  Does anyone know what my options are  
> now (I
> know, I know...upgrade to a newer camcorder...unless I want to spend  
> endless
> hours uploading at 12 Mb/s transfer rates)?  Anyone want a used DV
> camcorder?  :)

Gary, the camera has the ability to capture JPEG still images to a  
SmartMedia flash card, and the USB port you noted is used for  
downloading these photos from the SmartMedia card to your Mac. But the  
USB is not used for video transfer at all.

But after checking specifications for the VLPD-7, it appears that you  
_should_ have an "iLink" port (as others have mentioned previously,  
iLink is Sony's name for their implementation of FireWire).

The specifications table lists:
"DV input/output:    DV terminal (I.  LINK) "     (translated into  
english)
Drawn from:
<http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/vlpd7.html>

** For some reason this direct link doesn't render the Japanese  
correctly for me --
but Google's _cached_ link does:
<http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:T0TAVcVswo4J:www.sharp.co.jp/ 
corporate/news/vlpd7.html+vlpd7&hl=en&ie=UTF-8>
(anyone know why?)

If you're lucky, you need only to connect the camera to your Mac with a  
6pin-to-4pin FireWire cable  (that is, AFTER you figure out where  
Sharp's designers have hidden the camera's iLink port!). A wild card  
here is whether your camera is compatible with iMovie -- let us know  
how you fare after giving it a try...

-------------

For curious DV'ers --
A product announcement and photo of the VLPD-7 can be found here:
<http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/mobile/news/1999/11/18/vlpd7.htm>
( larger photo:  
<http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/mobile/news/1999/11/18/vlpd7e.jpg> )

For a rough translation from the Japanese, plug URLs into the "Babel  
Fish" translator:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr