It does have Firewire connection. And it's a superb camera.

According to the Canon website and this review:

Canon HV30

...the HV30 has FireWire [IEEE 1394].

The pics show a mini FireWire port just above the HDMI port. So you don't have to worry.
--
Mike

Thanks to all, incl. P@MAST3RS who sent me crop of the HV30 manual.

That's good news though it seems odd that Canon or B&H would mention USB, but not Firewire. Though maybe I'm behind the times or just plain ignorant in not knowing that an "HDV/DV" port is actually a Firewire one.

From what the CamcorderInfo Connectivity page on the HV30 says, the USB port is in the LCD cavity.
So it looks like there are both USB and Firewire ports on this baby.

Oh, and since I'm at it, might as well ask those of you who have used the HV30:

--- While I'm somewhat aware of the limitations of each respective modality, does using 24p (or 30p for that matter) still come out at 1920 x 1080 p? Otherwise put, what will I get once the capture is popped into VP8?

Some cheaper cameras "dumb down" slower (or higher?) frame rates to 1440 x 720i.

go to:

www.hv20.com

where you will find lots of answers to your questions.

Thanks, Patryk. I'll have to bookmark that site if I succumb to temptation :o)

I found this a page at Eugenia's site which looks a bit scary on 24p, but perhaps VP8 is an app that will save me the hassle. Or not, dunno.

Here is the first part of that page,"Canon HV20 24p Pulldown" :

"Canon offers optional 24p support in their HDV consumer camcorders as an option (officially called “PF24″). Unfortunately, they don’t record on the tape a “pure” 24 frame stream but instead they record 18 progressive frames and 12 interlaced ones in succession, inside a 60i stream.

http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/07/13/canon-hv20-24p-pulldown[/link

Here's to hoping VP8 will lighten said burden...

That's good news though it seems odd that Canon or B&H would mention USB, but not Firewire.

They don't mention it because every digital camcorder has a firewire port ... at least eveyone one that I've ever seen .. not sure about those that record on HDD or memory cards .. but every tape camera I've seen has it.

Also ... firewere also has other names .. like Sony's I-Link and the generic IEEE 1394.

Only Mac's FCP and its Compressor handles pulldown from HV20 seemlessly.

I use TMPGEnc 4.0 Express to remove it on my PC. It's a cumbersome process as after you digitize you have to spend another x amount of hours waiting for your computer to render out the files.

NEO HDV kinda works but doesn't handle chroma pulldown too well so you will be stuck with artifacts.

OK, as I figured, I just didn't know that Firewire was called by other names.

As far as pull-down (or up -- depending on situation), way over my beanie to comprehend at this point. I'll cross that bridge when/if I need it. For the foreseeable future, I'll only be making stuff to turn into .FLV or at most plop on a DVD.

So probably somewhat moot anyway. Hopefully :o)

is USB substantially slower than Firewire for such an application? If so, how much slower? As far as I can tell, much slower according to Mps.: 12 vs. 400/800

USB 1.0 was 12 Mbps. It is still used for plugging in keyboards and mice, etc., but has otherwise been superseded by USB 2.0 which runs at 480 Mbps.

That is a "bigger number" than with the most common version of Firewire, FW400 at 400 Mbps, but in the USB standard the main CPU does all the work, which really slows down performance.

Even Firewire is on its way out (slowly). Apple didn't bother with Firewire on most of their recent laptops, it was USB 2.0 galore.

Even HDMI has had a stunted growth, as laptop manufacturers (Apple was #1) are shifting to DisplayPort instead. Identical functionality, with really the same signals in a smaller connector, and no high license fees to pay to the HDMI creators.

NEO HDV kinda works but doesn't handle chroma pulldown too well so you will be stuck with artifacts.

What is this about? "Chroma pulldown?" I must have been sick that day in class, could you please tell us more.

"Apple didn't bother with Firewire on most of their recent laptops, it was USB 2.0 galore."

I think they tried that briefly. The latest Apple laptops seem to have 1394b.

Bob.

Being able to remove pulldown could be really usefull if you want to make FLV or even DVDs.
From my experience crossing bridges if/when you need to is the biggest source of problems and wasted money in this game. Never assume anything.

Bob.

Bob,

You said, "From my experience crossing bridges if/when you need to is the biggest source of problems and wasted money in this game. Never assume anything."

I only have so many neurons able to process so much new stuff -- and right now, the big decision to get an HV30 is taking up the lobal quadrants :o)

Never had to deal with pull-downs, I barely know what it actually is (sure shows my ignorance, don't it?) I just need to know that I'll be able to tackle and master that in due time. After I get the HV30.

One thing at a time...