Video Connectivity Options By Wendell Benedetti One of the biggest challenges for personal computer users has been finding the best technology for transferring digital data to and from a personal computer and the various devices that are attached to it. That challenge is especially apparent when considering the massive amount of digital data that's involved in transferring video to a computer. Digital videos are measured in gigabytes, or thousands of megabytes. Choosing the appropriate connectivity option depends upon what's going to be done with the footage once it's been captured. If it's just going to be stored away as tape, and there's no intent to edit the videos on the computer, than the connectivity option doesn't really matter. If, however, the video is going to be edited on a PC or Mac, or it's going to be sent through the computer to a CD or DVD writer, then the connectivity option matters. The vast majority of digital camcorders use one of two connectivity options: FireWire, which is also called iLink or IEEE 1394, and the Universal Serial Bus (USB), version 2.0 and its latest version, USB On The Go. Both technologies provide high-speed connectivity and "hot-pluggability," the ability to quickly connect and disconnect peripheral devices, like camcorders, from a computer with out having to restart the system. FireWire, the first really fast camcorder-to-computer connectivity option, was developed in 1986 by Apple Computer for the Macintosh. Using fast serial bus technology, it delivers real-time connectivity. Transfers up to 50MB (megabytes) a second are supported by FireWire ports. The technology is able to monitor and adjust the data transfer rates between devices that inherently communicate at different speeds. It can even be used to control attached devices, so that it's possible to run the digital camcorder directly from a desktop system or laptop. The other connectivity option is USB, which was developed in the mid 1990s to provide low-speed transfer between a computer and its attached peripherals. The newest version, 2.0, is considerably faster. It's well suited for linking camcorders to computers. Each USB port can accommodate up to 127 different devices. Besides camcorders, it can also be used to attach inkjet printers, graphic tablets, mice, scanners and digital cameras, among other devices. Transfer rates up to 60MB a second can be achieved with USB 2.0. A third and infrequently used camcorder connectivity option is the serial, or RS-232 port. Not many digital camcorders support it. At 115 kilobytes per second, it's way too slow. There are, however, some digital devices that can capture short video clips that use serial to transfer the clips to the computer. FireWire, USB and serial technology utilize wires or cables to connect digital camcorders to a computer. Bluetooth does not. In its current version, Bluetooth has a range of about 30 feet. Eventually that's expected to go up to 300 feet. Using radio transmission, Bluetooth gives camcorders users the ability to transfer video wirelessly to a Bluetooth-enabled computer. It's even possible to send it to an Internet site via a Bluetooth mobile phone. Besides giving users the ability to transfer digital video, it's equally good at transferring digital stills and audio.