Capturing video without firewire

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum, having ordered a G53JW-A1 a couple of weeks ago (still waiting for it to come). It occurred to me that companies are getting rid of legacy interfaces and ports, and my new laptop has USB 3.0 but no firewire. I have an old Sony camcorder with a million tapes that need to be captured to disk.

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as a USB 3.0-to-firewire adapter on the market yet? I can't imagine I'm the only one in this situation.

 

Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything like that for an adapter. The only thing I have seen a firewire port adapter for is the express slot expansion cards, which the ASUS doesn't have that port. You could always get one of the adapters if you have vga outs on the camera and do a capture with software. It isn't a digital connection, but it is one way to get that done.

 

Blackmagic Design: Intensity


It's what I use for work, and everyone uses in the iundustry.

 

That Intensity Shuttle looks cool. However, I'm trying to find something that will convert firewire to USB 3.0 for MiniDV tapes that have already been captured and compressed. Seems like the Intensity would be used for the original capture straight from the camera to disk? if not, might be a good backup option for capturing analog if I can't get a digital transfer.

 

Hmm. You are confusing me.

Do you just have tapes that you want to get on disk? But no camera? If that's is the case then you need a tape deck which is expensive.

If you have tapes and the camera that they fit in, the you just need to capture using the camera, and the shuttle. If the camera only has firewire out then I understand the problem a bit more.

Unfortunately, converting firewire to USB (be it 2 or 3) doesn't really exist yet, except with some dodgy work around and a million different convertor adapters daisy chained together.

But then it becomes a hassle. And nothing is guaranteed. Firewire and USB run very differently i'm afraid.

 

Hello,

I found this USB/Firewire Hub - I am not quite sure if the hub actually connects the USB/Firewire ports together within. Or if you need a seperate USB and a seperate Firewire cable from the computer to the hub.

I did find one cable at USBfirewire.com but it was sold out and was over 100.00 for the cable. - Maybe you could call them and see if they know of another source.

Also - You might consider looking through your local yellow pages and working with a local camera/video shop. They often offer services to transfer home video/movies to digital format. It might be cheaper in the long run.

In Peace and Agape,
Trav...

 

Judging from the spec image, the PC has 2 connects, so no, there is no FireWire to USB bridge

 

Yes, I have the camera and it only has firewire out. This is my issue. I'd rather avoid the degradation from an analog transfer to disk if I can find a reliable digital method.

I checked the cable out. If you build a custom cable on their site it says USB to Firewire is incompatible, so I'm assuming a single cable isn't really an option. You'd need a board in between to convert it, I think.

I checked this hub on NewEgg and it's true that you have to use one of the firewire ports to connect to the computer, so you're right that it doesn't convert firewire to USB internally.

It looks like firewire-to-USB 3 isn't a viable option yet. Somebody should start a business to sell something that bridges firewire to USB 3.0! Would be a niche market but you might make some money for a couple of years on it...

Thanks for the input, everyone. I appreciate the help figuring this out. I may either have to get a cheap old desktop with a firewire port or pay some service to transfer my tapes for me. Glad to know what my options are.