Firewire question / problem (1 Viewer)

scotjimland

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I have an Sony 8 mm cam-corder and a stack of 8mm tapes I want to copy to DVD .. The camera has a firewire port.

I used to transfer onto the Mac.. (it had a firewire port).. but sadly it has gone belly up and not economical to repair ...

The Dell has USB and an eSata port .. but no firewire :Doh:

I've been Googling but as yet not found an easy way of doing it.. to be honest I don't think there is one ...

Any suggestions apart from throwing in the towel ..
 

pablomc

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If your laptop has a PCMCIA slot or express slot you can buy a firewire card for it.
 

pablomc

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USB to Express card adaptor.

[ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Startech-Usb-Express-Card-Adapter/dp/B0024OMS6E/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1329515218&sr=8-8"]USB to Express card adaptor[/ame]
 

Onderweg

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I think your only option would be a firewire to usb adaptor.

FireWire is, depending on the type between 400 (6 pins) and 800 mpbs (9 pins)

But be careful, if your laptop has
USB 1.1 --> dont even try only 12 mbps,
USB 2.0 --> 480 mbps, could work but carefully check whether video transmission is supported (effective speed is often only 240)
USB 3.0 --> 5.000 mbps was promised. You can recognize Usb3 very easy, there is something blue in the connector (but in 2010 the effective speed was 400-420 mbps, sorry i am retired so dont have the new facts :RollEyes:) but USB3.0 will certainly do the trick

Only few laptops have an USB3.0 connection :cry:

Hope this is of some help

Regards
Paul and Ineke

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scotjimland

scotjimland

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You must surely have at least one spare slot.
If so, I've got a Firewire card I can lend you.

If you mean Express or PCMCIA slot.. no.. thanks for your offer

I have 3 x usb2 , 1x eSata socket , I x HDMI socket and a card reader slot

USB to Express card adaptor.


USB to Express card adaptor

thanks, I had a look at these but can't determine if it would work ..
Link Removed

Is this any good?

Pete:Cool:
thanks Pete .. I honestly don't know

I think your only option would be a firewire to usb adaptor.

FireWire is, depending on the type between 400 (6 pins) and 800 mpbs (9 pins)

But be careful, if your laptop has
USB 1.1 --> dont even try only 12 mbps,
USB 2.0 --> 480 mbps, could work but carefully check whether video transmission is supported (effective speed is often only 240)
USB 3.0 --> 5.000 mbps was promised. You can recognize Usb3 very easy, there is something blue in the connector (but in 2010 the effective speed was 400-420 mbps, sorry i am retired so dont have the new facts :RollEyes:) but USB3.0 will certainly do the trick

Only few laptops have an USB3.0 connection :cry:

Hope this is of some help

Regards
Paul and Ineke

thanks for the info..

will do some more reading on it ..
 

philw111

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I have transferred 8mm video to digital using an "EasyCap USB video grabber". It has standard connections to the video camera at one end and a USB at the other - quality seems fine (as long as you aren't expecting HD).

The cables are on eBay for about a fiver - just search for EasyCap.

Phil

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scotjimland

scotjimland

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I have transferred 8mm video to digital using an "EasyCap USB video grabber". It has standard connections to the video camera at one end and a USB at the other - quality seems fine (as long as you aren't expecting HD).

The cables are on eBay for about a fiver - just search for EasyCap.

Phil

That looks interesting .. thanks Phil.. will look into this idea.. for £8 I'll give it a punt and see how it goes..

Re USB/Firewire adapters, there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice on the AV forums .. this is from a 'senior' member..

No you can't connect a firewire device to USB!
Firewire needs a constant transfer rate for video, but USB works on a burst rate transfer. Also the protocoles each use are different so hardware conversion would be needed.

Basically anybody selling a firewire to USB cable is selling a scam - they can't possibly work.
 
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scotjimland

scotjimland

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That looks interesting .. thanks Phil.. will look into this idea.. for £8 I'll give it a punt and see how it goes..

.

EasyCap arrived yesterday..

51%2BhAuVmP9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg


I played with it yesterday and the only problem I have is sound quality .. it sounds like a badly tuned AM radio .. :Doh:

Did a bit of Googling and found several others had the same issue, the workaround is to use the lappy's Microphone jack socket connected directly to the CamCorder's (white) RCA socket..

After doing this it worked a treat .. can also use it just to view on the TV using the laptop HDMI output ..

I have video going back to the mid 90s.. so we spend several hours just re living the kids growing up, holidays in France and Spain.. great memories captured for ever on tape.. :Smile:

Now the big task... copying, editing and putting onto DVD ...

The ULead video editing software supplied looks ok.. if a bid dated.. but it runs ok on Windows7, haven't had a real play with it yet .. too busy viewing ..
 

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