Capturing DV on laptop without Firewire ports

Edin1 wrote on 9/15/2005, 3:38 AM
I bought this cheap laptop that has no PCMCIA slots, nor a Firewire port built-in. It does have 4 USB 2.0 ports, and I was wondering if there was a USB to Firewire adapter (or vice versa), which would allow me to capture videos from my MiniDV camcorder onto my laptop. The only other way could be a Fast Ethernet to Firewire adapter, as I also have a Fast Ethernet port built-in.
Anybody know of a solution?

Comments

rsp wrote on 9/15/2005, 4:10 AM
Came across a 'bargain' laptop with the same limits and was looking for the same solution. I decided not to go through and search for a different laptop but bookmarked this one:

http://usbfirewire.com/uadapters.html

Perhaps others can comment on this adapter or usb to firewire conversions

Rudi
alexz wrote on 9/15/2005, 4:28 AM
Edin,
I'd also advise you to consider the specs of your bargain laptop before you lay out too much cash. You'll need a reasonably fast processor (1Ghz or above is good), at least 256 MB ram, and a graphics card with at least 64 MB - and not forgetting hard disc space, about 20 GB free space, at the very least.
You can get away with lower specs, but then you can't really do much with your captured video. Also, you'll need a burner or network, or some other way of getting the video out of your laptop again.
alex
Chienworks wrote on 9/15/2005, 4:38 AM
One slight disagreement ... i would say that the minimum necessary video RAM would be 4MB for 1280x1024 or 8MB for 1600x1200. Any more than that is unused by Vegas or VidCap.

There are also PCCard (previously known as PCMCIA) adapters for firewire. These would probably work much better than USB adapters.
p@mast3rs wrote on 9/15/2005, 4:45 AM
"There are also PCCard (previously known as PCMCIA) adapters for firewire. These would probably work much better than USB adapters"

In his original post he said it had no PCMCIA slots. USB to firewire adaptor would be his only alternative as it appears.
Chienworks wrote on 9/15/2005, 6:44 AM
Oops. My mistake, sorry. Man, that must be a cheap laptop. I wouldn't be able to believe that one has been built in the last 8 years or so that doesn't have at least one slot. Wow.
birdcat wrote on 9/15/2005, 8:15 AM
Before I got Vegas, I used Roxio Easy Media Creator and a USB connection to my Sony Handycam HC40 to capture video. I still do that sometimes when the 1394 capture does not work exactly as I want - dirty heads while recording causes unusable results in the DV capture sometimes but the Roxio gets a usable (if sometimes a bit jumpy) result to work with.
johnmeyer wrote on 9/15/2005, 11:19 AM
If you are totally into cheap, then you may be willing to make some compromises. I have in my lap as I type this, a Belkin (well-known manufacturer) composite video to USB device. It is model F5U208. It has a USB connector on one end; a small box in the middle which is exactly the dimensions of an iPod Shuffle; and at the other end four plugs: RCA composite video; S-Video, and two audio RCA connectors.

It captures at 29.97 fps. The compromise is that it only captures at 640x480. It only requires USB 1.1.

I use it so I can use a good camcorder (rather than those horrible "webcams") with various videoconferencing applications, none of which will connect to Firewire, but instead are designed to work with USB inputs. The difference in quality for videoconferencing is enormous.

I just did a quick search on completed items on eBay, and these still are available and sell for between $20 and $40 each.