Quake3World

anyone reccomend a program that will capture the video and audio via the usb cable? windows movie maker only captures the video, and at a poor fps. the software that comes with it, captures both, but at an even shitter fps and its non adjustable.

If it's not USB2 you're going to have a bitch getting anything smooth.

USB = 12 MBit
DV = 25 MBit

Good luck.

so, if i go buy a dv cable, i stand a better chance?

Either firewire (DV) or USB2 will be fine. Windows Movie Maker works with either import, but you'll probably need to install cam drivers to get the USB2 capture to work. If you have USB2, get that and you'll be fine. If you've already got Firewire (IEE 1394) and don't need an additional PCI card then do that instead. Firewire has a number of benefits over USB for video work.

USB1 will give you choppy 320x240 video. Cameras generally downscale video over USB.

I've got a Sony mini-dv camcorder and I've noticed that even their software wont record audio through USB.

Another thing to keep in mind is that USB 2 only achieves a high data rate in bursts, while Firewire, having been designed with DV in mind, maintains a constant data rate.

Regarding Firewire cards, I don't know about other programs, but Avid relies on the card having a Texas Instruments chipset. If your card doesn't have this chipset, Avid can run into problems.
There must be a technical reason for this, so I always recommend such a card.
SIIG and ADS cards both use the TI chipset.