I ran into this same issue about a year ago. Upon searching through a
couple dozen webcam programs, I only found one that supports firewire.
The software in question comes with the pyro 1394 webcam that came out
a couple years ago, and works just as well for a sony dv camcorder as
it does for the firewire camera that the software comes with. The
software in question is called Teveo live 2.1, and allows you to run a
streaming webcam from your computer. You can download this software
from http://www.rocketdownload.com/Details/HTML/5724.htm
The issue here is compatibility of video standards. Most older (usb
and parellel port) webcams use a standard called video for windows.
This standard is very old dating back to windows 3.1 and microsoft is
replacing this technology with its much newer Direct X. The problem is
that the vast majority of webcam software applications available only
know how to connect to "VFW" compatible webcams. Microsoft has no
plans to make firewire "VFW" compatible, so for the majority of webcam
software made to date, you are out of luck. You may have more luck
with an apple computer running a firewire webcam, as their products
are much more likely to support this than on a microsoft pc.
I found that Teveo live was the only webcam software that would work
at all for firewire, out of about 20 or 30 different
shareware/freeware/"pirateware" webcam programs I tried, so if this
program doesn't do everything you need it to do, then like I was, you
would be out of luck until some better program comes along.
search terms:
pyro 1394
firewire webcam
webcam software
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