User`s guide

209
Hardware
Recommendations
Introduction
These topics describes hardware requirements and features for use with Wirecast.
Topics
 FireWire
 Universal Serial Bus (USB)
 High Definition (HDV)
 DV Cameras
 Sleep Mode
 S-Video & 2nd Display
 Configure Devices
FireWire
FireWire is a hardware protocol that you can use to connect devices (cameras, hard
drives, etc.) to your computer. It is important to understand that saturating your
FireWire bus (using up all available bandwidth) can lead to problems in Wirecast,
resulting in choppy audio and video.
Bandwidth Limits
There is an absolute limit to the bandwidth available to your FireWire devices (400 or
800 megabits per second). If the sum of your devices goes over the limit, you saturate
(use up) all the available bandwidth. For example, if you have a camera attached to the
FireWire bus and you saturate the bus, the output contains dropped frames which
produces choppy video.
If you use a FireWire hub and plug several devices into the hub, you share the maximum
bandwidth on the FireWire bus. Adding a hub does not add bandwidth to the bus, just
more places to plug in devices. Likewise, you might have several FireWire ports on your