"Camcorder to laptop" Help needed!!!

[nilitara]

Hi

I've recently purchased a mini DV camcorder, and I fear I've opened myself a can of worm's!! the problem been, the transfer of recorded footage to my laptop. Sounds pretty easy I thought, until I've discovered I need a IEEE 3194 firewire port on my laptop to do the transfer.

Unfortunately my Packard Bell Easynote R1910 is not equipped with one!! it seemed my next choice would be to fit a PCMCIA firewire card into my laptop, this is also a non starter, as I've no slot for one!!!!!!!!!!!

Any idea's on how to overcome this problem, would be gladly recieved.

Nige

[MarkE19]

If you have no onboard firewire and no PCMCIA slot then the only other way I know of to add firewire is via the newer Cardbus slot. Does your laptop have a Cardbus slot?

OK just had a look at the PB web site and there is no mention of a Cardbus slot on the R1910 so I think you are out of luck
I have seen mention of a firewire to USB2.0 adapter, but I'm not sure if these are any good as USB2.0 is not generally good enough for miniDV capture - but it may be your only option if you can't stream full quality video via USB directly from the camcorder (most can't).

Mark.

[nilitara]

Cheer's Mark

I've ordered a usb2 to firewire adaptor, it was'nt expensive, so it's worth a try.

Nige

[Royaldave76]

hi how do i found out if my laptop is firewire compatable?

[A n d r e w]

Originally Posted by Royaldave76

hi how do i found out if my laptop is firewire compatable?

See the attached image: if you see a port resembling those at bottom right, and more than likely accompanied by a symbol resembling the yellow one, then you have Firewire.

Rock on.

[MarkE19]

Or have a look in 'Device Manager' for a port listed as 'ieee1394' as that is the technical name for firewire.
And if not then as already mentioned just check if you have a PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot to add a firewire port with a plug in card.

Mark.