Video capture through FireWire, DVX100b

[redherring2049]

I am borrowing a Panasonic DVX100b from a friend and I'm having trouble capturing. It uses FireWire 800, but my laptop (Toshiba Satellite L505) does not have a FireWire jack. I was told that an external hard drive with FireWire would work just fine, and I could capture to that, but that is contradicted by almost every person, so I don't know what to believe. My laptop does not have PCI express slot, but I am considering putting a FireWire drive into my tower to tranfer the files to it and then store them in my ex. hard drive. I was told FireWire to USB either does not work, or doesn't exist, and I'm really pulling my hair out because of all of this difficulty. I had the same problem with my first camera, it would never capture, and it was just microUSB. Any help I will appreciate.

[minidv2dvd]

you are going to need a computer with a normal firewire 400 port. it's not a fw800 device. and no a firewire external hard drive won't do it because you still have no firewire input into the laptop. you could add a firewire card into a slot in the motherboard of your tower. just make sure to match the type of card to the slot you want to put it in.

your other choice is to send the tapes out of course

[edDV]

Yes capture to a computer with a Firewire port with WinDV. Then copy the resulting DV-AVI file to the laptop.

But you have additional issues. The Panasonic DVX100b is a special case 24pA (advanced pulldown) camcorder unless you shoot in standard 720x480i/29.97 mode.

What editor do you plan to use? Are you trying to edit 24pA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24p

[redherring2049]

Yes, I do plan on shooting 24p, I'm a film student and I imagine most of my projects will be that format. I'm going to be getting Adobe Premier CS5, I would use Final Cut, but I'm not going to buy a Mac just for that.

[edDV]

Yes, I do plan on shooting 24p, I'm a film student and I imagine most of my projects will be that format. I'm going to be getting Adobe Premier CS5, I would use Final Cut, but I'm not going to buy a Mac just for that.

So capture on a different computer then import as 24pA 2:3:3:2

If you are a film student, the rest is left as an exercise.

[drhr]

I have also capture problem . . . .I have a laptop with a firewire port that has gone out. Now I can no longer capture from my camcorder mini-tapes to the computer using the firewire. That this is the problem has been verified. My question is what exact;u do i need in the way of an external capture device to get the video of the mini-hdv tapes so I can edit it on my laptop with my premier pro program????

[aedipuss]

a laptop firewire add-on card
http://www.amazon.com/2-Port-Expresscard-Firewire-Card/dp/B000RKUKMG

or a new computer.

[edDV]

Just find a computer with IEEE-1394 for capture. Use free WinDV.

[drhr]

Thank you so much for information about the Express Card to firewire option . . . .Toshiba never even told me that was an option when they told me the computer was out of warranty by less than one month! They said I would need to get a new motherboard - period. One of the main reasons I got this particular laptop was because of it's processor and that it had a firewire port and could handle video editing on Premier Pro. I only used the port 3 or 4 times and in retrospect it never really did work very well . . . sometimes it would just say my capture device was off line and sometimes it was okay . . . I am rather sick over the whole thing of thinking it had something to do with my settings between my camcorder and the editing program and not realizing that it was the firewire port all along . . . I am sure it was defective from the get go.