I have a Cannon digital camcorder that requires firewire i don't have port on pc. What do i need to buy?

Question

I'd like to know if there is an external drive I can buy so i can then put on dvd....thank you.

Answer 1

Go to your local electronics store, and ask for a PCI firewire adapter card. This will often cost less than $40. Then you have two options: go to a computer guy or install it yourself. If you are up to it, you can install it yourself, but it's really not that hard, and the adapter will come with instructions. If you don't want to install it yourself, your local computer guy can install it for $15-20. After installing the card, turn on your camera, put it in the VCR position and plug it into the computer. Windows should detect it. If not, go into movie maker and click capture video, and if connected properly and camera is in VCR mode, you should be able to start capturing video. Follow the steps, and capture in the DV-AVI format, not WMV. It will take up a LOT of hard drive space, however, so be prepared. But don't worry, it's temporary. Edit the video, and then use a program like nero to burn onto a DVD. After your DVD is finished burning, you can delete the AVI files on your hard drive. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Just make sure the firewire card you buy is OHCI compliant - just about all of them are, but it's worth asking. I'd plug everything in first and then switch on the camcorder and pc. I've never had a problem, but I've heard of a few people frying their cameras by plugging them in with the equipment switched on. Be prepared to experiment with switching the camcorder on and then booting the pc and doing it the other way round - some people have had problems with their camcorders being detected the first time they tried connecting them.