Firewire

[elitehak]

Hi,

Sorry for the dumb question, but I am totally new to all this HDTV and Camcorder technology and trying to get a hang of it before I pour some $.

How do I know if my computer has a firewire jack? What does it look like? or can I see this in the PC configuration somewhere?

Thanks in advance

Eli

[jimmalenko]

The two to the left (on top of each other) are USB and the two to the right are Firewire.

[redwudz]

Looks like this for a 6 pin FireWire:

Sorry, I don't have a picture readily available. It looks like a USB socket, but it has a pointed end. If you don't have one, PCI FireWire cards are not expensive, usually in the $20US area.

If you have a FireWire input, it should be shown as a network connection. If you look in 'Control Panel>Network Connections' you should see a '1394 Connection'. It will also show up in your 'Device Manager>IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers'.

If you don't see it, consider getting a PCI card.

EDIT: jimmalenko posted a good picture of one.

[thecoalman]

6-pin on the left, 4-pin on the right. The difference is the 6-pin carries power for powering smaller devices. Note the one on the right in Jim's pic is very similar to the smaller USB connection. Here's another pic:



Commonly you'll find the 6-pin on a computer and the 4-pin on a cam. Therefore you would need a 6-pin to 4-pin cable.