rgforester wrote:Perhaps I should have qualified my comment when I said "I'm new at this." I should have said I'm new downloading HD video. Our video production company is just starting to move awsy from MiniDv to HD. I am very familiar with how to download tape to FCP and we need faster downloads than are available with USB. That is why I was trying to find out if we need a capture card and/or external box.
So if you can tell me what you would recommend for
higher speed transfers, it would help us choose the right gear.
Having a capture card (like the ones from Black Magic) will make NO difference to speeding up capture from your camera. They are designed primarily to capture in "real time" uncompressed video from whatever video source is connected. That will likely not ever be faster than what you can capture via USB
Have you already tried to "download" HD video from the new cameras via USB? How did you do that? Was it by connecting the camera using it's USB port or were you using a USB connected card reader in to which you placed a memory card from the camera?
Capturing from memory cards (even via USB) is nothing like capturing from tape. It's always way faster than real time.
Other than that... I don't think I can help you any further. Good luck.