Handycam Firewire to Laptop USB convertor (not PCMCIA based)

[raja2001]

Hi All,

Have been looking for a solution since almost 6 months both in US and India, but havent had any luck.

Short Story:


Need a convertor that can connect my Handy cam firewire out to my laptop USB 3.0/USB2.0 in. My laptop doesnot have a PCMCIA slot or a firewire port (IEEE1394 interface) (Sony VAIO VPCCB series Laptop).

Long Story:


Have about 50 odd miniDV tapes that i want to convert to mp4s - it was a SD camcorder (480p). Have a sony Handy cam (camcorder) with a Firewire interface, RCA interface, USB out. The best video quality output is from <1> Firewire <2> RCA <3> USB per the specs of the handy cam. So want to see if i can get the video out via Firewire.

My problem is that i invested in a Sony laptop with good video processing horsepower thinking that i would edit but it didnt come with a Firewire port or PCMCIA but only USB3.0/USB2.0/HDMI out. Thought it would be easy to find convertors - but hasnt been the case.

Have a USB convertor to interface with RCA on the handy cam - but dont want to use that because of lower quality output. These are some personal home videos, so want to edit it myself rather than give it to some 3rd party.

Can you please let me know if you know of a solution for this ? See that PCMCIA based firewire to USB convertors are in the market, but my laptop doesnot have one - can we use the DVD bay for it instead some how ?.

Thanks a bunch

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Intrigued by your question. I'm sure you googled too. This doesn't look good:

One of the most common requests we get is "is there a cable or an adapter that I can buy" that will plug into my USB ports and give me Firewire on the other end" The short answer is no. Well sort of "no" as some companies claim they have an adapter that will convert USB to Firewire for XP only but we've yet to see it work and the prices are very expensive.

Link: USBNow.co.uk

Just as I guess you googled already, I also guess you must not have an express-card slot on your laptop. I haven't bought a laptop since 2004 --- but I think express-card is the more recent, smaller, alternative to PCMCIA.

 

[raja2001]

Hi Thad,

yes i have googled and searched in many online sites and vendors both in US and India with no luck. Btw hadnt found the link you pointed out (thanks for that).

Most of the solutions i find are, PCMCIA/Express card based solns, unfort my laptop doesnt have either - kicking myself for havent researched this.

So i guess another way to approach this issue is to find out if i can by a Express Card Bay adapter for my laptop. The kind which goes into the DVD slot & provide me a Express slot for my laptop.

And if i find that, i can fire a Express card with FireWire interface. Will go check on startech.com and similar sites. Please let me know if you are aware of any.

Thanks.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

You can certainly find the firewire express card. I don't know anything about Sony laptops though (except that they are not cheap!).

I always check the pics, and look for the ports, as well as checking the specifications, but it is easy to be wise after the event, and the last time I bought a laptop (hands-on too) I made the mistake that the optical drive was r/w for CDs, but read-only for DVDs. I didn't look closely enough at the symbols until I got it home.

 

[vikashdubey]

Even I was looking for the firewire to USB(back in 2005) but could not get any solutions except PCMCIA card. Then I got a Windows Laptop Lenovo t60 it had firewire mini port in the front. I also purchased a software named Pixela to control and capture from the cam. I used it several times uncompressed got a 12gb file off one minidv tape which later could be edited and compressed. The uncompressed format allows editing to be easier and non lossy.

Then later I purchased a Onida dvr(8637 model I guess) It had lots of inputs of them firewire was one. I had used it to convert my tapes(minidv, hi8 etc) to DVDs. It did a fair job, right now I am not using it regulary and packed it off.

 

[anuragn]

Raja,
Do you have a desktop PC?
In that case you can purchase a Firewire adaptor card that fits in the PCI slot of the PC.
I got one for appx. Rs550 (Intex brand) along with one firewire cable for connecting my Sony handycam. These cards are easily available in the market.

 

[raja2001]

Hi Anurag,

have a sony laptop, unfortunately this doesnot come equipped to fit a express/pcmcia card - it would have made the laptop so extensible for alternate ports if they could do it.

Nowadays the trend with some manufacterers seems to be more apple like, keep it closed and ask extra $$$ for any additional interface.

thanks.

 

[anuragn]

Raja, I think the next best option is to use an external video capture card with USB connectivity and conenct it with your handycam's RCA AV out.
Maybe something like this:
Dazzle Video Creator Platinum HD: Pinnacle video capture & video editing software

 

[raja2001]

Thanks anurag. Have a elgato software similar to the one you pointed out.

Noticed that picture quality out of the RCA out is inferior to the firewire out.

The specs of the handy cam say that is expected that quality is lower with RCA compared to firewire.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Only remaining suggestion, apart from taking a big loss on the laptop ... do the extraction on another machine that does have firewire, then move the files to your laptop.

The worst thing about this is that it is only needed for that initial function.