[Renragevets]

I recently bought a Canon HV30 HD camcorder.

On discovering I had a firewire port on my Dell Inspiron Laptop I bought a firewire cable.

When I connect the camcorder, put it in "play" mode, I expect the laptop to recognise it and give me the option to download the data from the camcorder but nothing at all happens.

A friend suggested that although I have a firewire port, I may not have a firewire "card". Surely if I have a firewire port and connect it up it should work!? Otherwise why would Dell bother with it!? (maybe I am being naive!)

A couple of questions:
1. How do I check for certain whether I have a firewire "card". (I don't have the Dell manual so can't check that). Would this be listed under "devices" in the control panel? Would it specifically say "firewire"?

2. If I haven't got the card, what card do I buy that is compatible with my Dell Inspiron Laptop (with Windows Vista)?

3. How do I install it?

Any help/advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[t1m103]

have a look in network devices to see if you have one and if its enabled,its normally called something like IEEE 1394 interface.

[Andy98765]

Look in Control Panel, Device manager, look for IEEE1394, open and if disabled right mouse click and enable.

[senu]

Originally Posted by Renragevets

I recently bought a Canon HV30 HD camcorder.

On discovering I had a firewire port on my Dell Inspiron Laptop I bought a firewire cable.

When I connect the camcorder, put it in "play" mode, I expect the laptop to recognise it and give me the option to download the data from the camcorder but nothing at all happens.

A friend suggested that although I have a firewire port, I may not have a firewire "card". Surely if I have a firewire port and connect it up it should work!? Otherwise why would Dell bother with it!? (maybe I am being naive!)

No you are not been naive. Your friend is wrong. Your cable might be faulty

A couple of questions:
1. How do I check for certain whether I have a firewire "card". (I don't have the Dell manual so can't check that). Would this be listed under "devices" in the control panel? Would it specifically say "firewire"?

No it is in PC language called IEEE1394 or in Sony s world I-link
The method to check it has been suggested above
Good luck

[alpine101]

My Inspiron 6000 has one, though I've never used it. It is identified as an IEEE1394 Host controller. No card is needed.

[Renragevets]

Thanks everyone for the very helpful responses.

I do indeed have the appropriate "device"/"card" (whatever it's called) and successfully managed to get the content onto my laptop from camcorder last night.

The problem was that I didn't have the video editing software running at the time and this was needed to recognise the connection.

All good

[t1m103]

Originally Posted by Renragevets

Thanks everyone for the very helpful responses.

I do indeed have the appropriate "device"/"card" (whatever it's called) and successfully managed to get the content onto my laptop from camcorder last night.

The problem was that I didn't have the video editing software running at the time and this was needed to recognise the connection.

All good

glad you got it sorted.