Converting camcorder video to computer. No firewire port. ;p?

Question

I tried buying a firewire and it fit into my camcorder, but then I realized you had to have a special PORT on your computer and my PC didn't have that...

Any suggestions? ;p

Answer 1

If you have a mini dv (cassette) camcorder….

Your dv camcorder needs a firewire connection (ieee 1394) in order to download video, your PC probably did not come with a firewire port, so you will have to buy one and install it, since most computers (except possibly brand new) don't come with a firewire port, your camcorder did not come with a firewire cord so you have to purchase a cord too. Your camcorder did come with a USB cord and that is used for downloading stills from your camcorder. Make sure your camera is in playback mode.

Answer 2

Get a usb transfer cable it works well

Answer 3

You may want to upgrade your computer with a Firewire port if you are going to be doing many videos...

USB does work well.. but is a bit slower than Firewire...

You could also use a video input digitizer board... which I think you can pick up pretty cheap these days...

You will also need software to import and edit your video, Windows Movie Maker or other software.

Answer 4

You need to install a firewire card. They're cheap, easy to install and readily available.  If you're using a laptop, the cards could be Express or PCMCIA - they're not interchangeable, so make sure you know what sort you need.