Connecting Camcorder To Laptop Via Firewire

[mrdee 1]

Hello,I wish to connect my camcorder to my laptop to do video capture and editing.I have, however, no Firewire on my laptop, nor do I have any slots which would allow me to install a Firewire card.I bought a USB to Firewire cable on Ebay, when connecting it to my laptop I got the message it was not recognised.Then I connected my camcorder to the cable, I also downloaded the drivers from the Samsung website and I got the message the drivers were installed correctly.Yet, when I tried to connect the camcorder, I once again got the message the device was not recognised.My son also tried it on a PC and on a Mac (the description said they were PC and Mac compatible), but it did not work on any of them.According to what I read (very quickly) on a forum somewhere, those cables do not serve the purpose I want the cable for.Is that true?If it is true, could anyone tell me how I would be able to get a Firewire connection on my laptop in order to connect my camcorder?By the way, my laptop is an Emachines E520 running the preliminary version of Windows 7, due to lack of drivers for that OS, I downloaded the Windows Vista 32-bit version, which has so far worked for other devices on Windows 7.Any help will be gratefully accepted.Thank you in advance.Or maybe I should rephrase my earlier question and break it down to something simpler:Since I do not have any Firewire connections on my Emachines E520 laptop, is it possible to connect my Samsung Digital-cam VP-D351 to it by whatever means?The camera only has Firewire connection available to connect to a computer.So, is it possible to connect it to the laptop in any other way to allow me to do video editing?

Edited June 12, 2009 by mrdee (see edit history)

[Saint_Michael 3]

Hmmm...If the Firewire to USB didn't work hard to say since your video cam only allows Firewire. Was the PC running XP at all or Vista? Another question I have is does your Video cam use SD cards because if it does and your laptop has a SD card port, then purchase a 8GB or 16GB SD card and store them that way. You mentioned you had downloaded the drivers/software for the camera, but odds are you have to find a computer running XP with a Firewire port on it.

Try out this topic about someone asking the same thing, it might give you an idea what to do outside of looking for another computer that has everything.

[serverph 0]

when i experienced the same thing as you, i had to buy a firewire card and had it installed on my desktop PC. dunno if there's some addon for a laptop though.the usb to firewire connector you bought, didn't it come with it's own set of drivers? maybe you got to install that instead, not that i think it will be compatible with windows 7 already, but you can still try. or try it on another with a much older windows (XP for less compatibility issues).speaking of macs, don't they have firewire ports built into them by default? since your son has access to a mac, have him check it out.otherwise, short of buying a new firewire card, you can just go to local computer shops in your area... then ask if you can have them transfer and burn your videocam content to a DVD. then you just do the video editing you want after. :angel:hopefully it will cost less than a purchase of new peripherals which may or may not work on your existing system. weigh your options though, since the firewire you buy can be cost-effective especially if you intend to do recurring work on your videocam files.when i experienced the same thing as you, i had to buy a firewire card and had it installed on my desktop PC. dunno if there's some addon for a laptop though.the usb to firewire connector you bought, didn't it come with it's own set of drivers? maybe you got to install that instead, not that i think it will be compatible with windows 7 already, but you can still try. or try it on another with a much older windows (XP for less compatibility issues).speaking of macs, don't they have firewire ports built into them by default? since your son has access to a mac, have him check it out.otherwise, short of buying a new firewire card, you can just go to local computer shops in your area... then ask if you can have them transfer and burn your videocam content to a DVD. then you just do the video editing you want after. :(hopefully it will cost less than a purchase of new peripherals which may or may not work on your existing system. weigh your options though, since the firewire you buy can be cost-effective especially if you intend to do recurring work on your videocam files.