Getting footage into a PC!

W

Winter Dance Party

New member
Okay, I know my DVX100 has a 4 pin firewire connector out on it which 6 years ago my old sony laptop had the same 4 pin in on it. Worked great. That laptop has died and now I find no current PC's with 4 pin connectors on them! I have a brand new desktop, very powerful and with a 1TB hard drive however it has 6 USB ports on it, no firewire. I bought a G tech external drive as it has a firewire 800 in and a USB out on it thinking I could with a 4 pin out cable into a 800 cable that this would work however the salesman neglected to tell me that G tech is formatted for MAC's. Is there any other hard drive out there that is PC formattted and has a firewire 800 in and a USB on it?? Any other ideas on how I am supposed to get footage out of this camera into a PC ??? Thanks much.
 
Get a FW card. Standard cards use 6 pin FW. That is not a problem, you will just need a 6 pin to 4 pin cable.

As for the drive. I don't know of any USB/FW combo ext drives that allow you to input via FW and output via USB at the same time.
 
eSATA??

eSATA??

Networker said:
Get a Firewire card. You can find them at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Staples, or Amazon. Here is one from Amazon that has both 4 and 6 wire ports for $7.23.
http://www.amazon.com/FireWire-IEEE...1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1309247446&sr=1-1
Click to expand...

Thanks Networker...I looked at back of PC and it appears that it will not take cards. It's a mini desktop, Acer AX3400-U4032 to be exact. Looks like I'd have to punch holes and then to make matters worse a fan appears to be in the way, does not look like easy remedy. I did notice however a eSATA port on the back. Would it be possible to go 4 pin firewire out from the DVX to the eSATA port?? Anyone make a cable for that or are they two different technolgies that won't be compatible?
 
Winter Dance Party said:
Thanks Networker...I looked at back of PC and it appears that it will not take cards. It's a mini desktop, Acer AX3400-U4032 to be exact. Looks like I'd have to punch holes and then to make matters worse a fan appears to be in the way, does not look like easy remedy. I did notice however a eSATA port on the back. Would it be possible to go 4 pin firewire out from the DVX to the eSATA port?? Anyone make a cable for that or are they two different technolgies that won't be compatible?
Click to expand...

As far as I know esata cant go to firewire. A Firewire system is required. If you computer can't take expansion cards then I'm sorry but it looks like you'll have to find another means of capturing you're footage.
 
Winter Dance Party said:
Thanks Networker...I looked at back of PC and it appears that it will not take cards. It's a mini desktop, Acer AX3400-U4032 to be exact. Looks like I'd have to punch holes and then to make matters worse a fan appears to be in the way, does not look like easy remedy. I did notice however a eSATA port on the back. Would it be possible to go 4 pin firewire out from the DVX to the eSATA port?? Anyone make a cable for that or are they two different technolgies that won't be compatible?
Click to expand...

I'm looking at the Fry's web site for this machine and it says you can add two PCI-E cards to this model. You should be able to open the box and get to the ports. USB, FireWire, and eSATA are all different protocols. You cannot connect directly from one to the other. Your cheapest solution will be to add the card, if that can be done. The Acer web site doesn't say anything about the PCI slots.
 
According to this pic you have two slots at the top/back. Remove the metal tabs (upper right corner of pic).

acer-ax3400-u2012-inside_maxwidth.jpg


This is an AX3400-u2012 but I believe the case is the same as yours.

Wow, That's a tight case. I'd keep on it as far as dust removal or you could end up with overheating issues!
 
Last edited:
Thanks much Denwa! Really appreciate it. I'll give it a stab though I'm still a little unsure as to where the firewire port will stick out at as there are no pre determined spaces for it. Hopefully, it will be obvious once plugged in! Cheers.
 
Winter Dance Party said:
Thanks much Denwa! Really appreciate it. I'll give it a stab though I'm still a little unsure as to where the firewire port will stick out at as there are no pre determined spaces for it. Hopefully, it will be obvious once plugged in! Cheers.
Click to expand...

The port will be on the back of the machine (where those tabs are). Some cards have an optional front panel that can be installed and wired to your card. Panel goes in one of the bays where an DVD drive etc would go or where a floppy drive would have went (smaller panel).
If you are unsure what you are doing, find a buddy that does. I'm sure you must know someone who knows his way around a computer case. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top