will a USB2.0 Firewire Adapter work for me?

[J.Frost]

I am trying to hook up my sony handycam dcr-hc21 to my laptop via firewire, but i have no firewire port. so i was wondering if anybody could tell me before i buy something i dont need, will the macally PHRS250CC Aluminum 2.5" USB 2.0 & 1394 External Enclosure allow me to connect my video camera to my laptop? please help.

[TJohns]

From just it's description, it sounds like it's just an external enclosure for a 2.5" laptop hard disk that happens to have USB 2.0 and 1394 connections for the PC (not an uncommon beast). Pretty sure those boxes don't do any sort of "translate" between the ports though ... you just plug it into the PC using one or the other cable to access the disk.

Trevor

[J.Frost]

thanx, i thought as much. does anyone have any ideas how i can connect a firewire to a computer without firewire ports?

[johns0]

You need a firewire card to install in your computer to use a firewire connection.

[guns1inger]

Buy a firewire PCI card ?

[J.Frost]

i dont have a pci slot

[johns0]

Firewire card for a laptop.
http://www.firewire-1394.com/cards-firewire-laptop-notebook-cardbus.htm

[J.Frost]

i looked at those too, but i dint have an expresscard slot either, only usb and a 3-in-1 card reader.

[guns1inger]

You can get USB/Firewire hubs that offer usually a handful of USB ports and a couple of firewire ports. They may help, although the main issue is that the computer may not see the firewire device properly and be able to control it. These are the type of device you need to see in action and test at a computer store, not buy on faith and hope they work with your kit.

[J.Frost]

ya, i will see what i can find. thanks

[johns0]

There is no real firewire to usb adapter so i dont think a hub will work anyways.

[J.Frost]

so there is no real way for me to use a firewire with this computer is what im gathering.

[guns1inger]

This is probably the solution : http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/3889.htm

If you can find one . . . . . .

http://www.pixela.co.jp/en/products/tv_capture/pix_uvcd_u1w/index.html

[J.Frost]

this looks promising, i will have to look into it.

[J.Frost]

i found a usb to firewire cable, http://compare.ebay.com/spid/21690572?fl=350179978898&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=...ShippingLowest
do you think this would be recognizable by my laptop?

[guns1inger]

Looks like a 4 pin to 6 pin USB 2 cable - i.e. USB to USB. No firewire in sight.

[julitomg]

Or something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144031&Tpk=Pinnacle%20MovieBox%20Plus

[guns1inger]

Or something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144031&Tpk=Pinnacle%20MovieBox%20Plus

Wont work - requires firewire for output

[johns0]

What type of laptop do you have?Just read that the 4300 doesnt have have any card slots,you dont have a desktop computer?
.

[J.Frost]

i have an older ibm thinkpad a22m. it does have a pci slot, but i dunno if it will be fast enough

[redwudz]

If it has a regular PCMCIA slot, a FireWire card should work. I used to use one on my HP laptop with no problems. Speed isn't much of an issue. But DV over FireWire needs about 13GB for each hour of video, so you do need some extra hard drive space. But I would go to the laptop manufactures site and check what type of card it uses first. PCMCIA from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Card

[julitomg]

guns1inger

julitomg wrote:
Or something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815144031&a ... Box%20Plus


Wont work - requires firewire for output

Take a closer look a the picture, the MovieBox does have a firewire input (6 pin) alongside with the analog ones (composite, S-Video and stereo audio) and on the rear you´ll see the USB 2 conector (the square one), it even includes both cables. I´m absolutely sure because I´ve had it in my hands (my brother lent me his once when for some reason I had problems with my Pinnacle firewire PCI card), I conected my miniDV cam to it, the MovieBox to my PC via USB port and transferred DV AVI perfectly.

[guns1inger]

I looked at the specs and it lists only firewire output