There are express card adaptors (34 mm) which can provide usb as well as firewire ports. You can plug in these cards in the express card slot of your laptops and can connect to firewire devices.

Lots of posts on this but no real answer or agreement. Some say no way to use firewire to usb adapter, or media card. Looks like it's impossible to get to Vista and it only would work with Windows XP? How do I get my Sony Handycam (mine is DCR-HC28) videos to a computer or DVD burner that does not have firewire ports and only has USB ports.

As I understand it one cannot go from Firewire to USB, but can one go from a USB device to Firewire on a PC? I saw a Firewire cable with what look like the mini-connector found on USB devices, i.e.: my JVC HDD camcorder has this mini-connector as does my VHS to DVD VIDBOX. Would this in fact speed up the data transfer or it simply not communicate because of the different protocols?

i have jvc camcorder and need cable to download and edit my movie. i have a dell laptop but has no firewire just usb. is it possible there is a different dv cable for this purpose? what can i do?

Please, can somone help me out?

Surely in this new millenium there is technology available to transfer the happy holiday/school play videos onto my laptop somehow?

I have a Sony Digicam with digital tapes.

Has anybody got any advice? I'd be truly grateful :¬)

Since Firewire and USB are two totally different interfaces (not only hardware wise but also the protocol) I cannot see how connecting USB to firewire on a electrical level would solve the protocol issue. Firewire uses a kind of handshaking mechanism where USB is master-slave. So how do these hubs handle this? They problably don't I suppose

Hello folks old dino here. Kindergarten level of computer knowledge lol! My question: I have a Canon Camcorder that uses a DV cable to transfer video to a PC, but my PC only has USB ports. It also has an Av cable to view videos on TV. I have Windows Movie Maker, and ROXIO Creator (not sure how updated). I would like to transfer my videos from the camcorder which uses mini DVs and I would also like to transfer standard VHS tapes. I'm a complete idiot so please bear with me. My CPU has Windows XP. My computer is a Dell Vostro 200 it has an Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2160 @ 1.80 GHz processor, and 1.79 Ghz with o.99 GB of RAM . Can you tell me if my CPU has enough capability and if so what accessories would I need to get there? Thanks so much!

I am in the same dilemma with most of the posts above. I want to import videos from a camcorder with firewire port but only have a laptop with usb ports. Bought a fireware>usb cable and nothing happens when I connect the camcorder to the laptop. Would expect that the cable has a chip that does the conversion since it doesn’t come with an installation disk. Spent the past couple of hours searching for a driver online without luck. I am yet to read of anybody that has success with the cable and am also asking the same question as anon6218, why are sites selling the cable when it does not work? Anybody knows where I can get a driver or something to make it work?

doubtful as dual access hard drives (usb/firewire) still have to be written/read to from the connecting device so unless your camcorder has the option to record or transfer data to an external hard drive, there's no way for you to get the data from the camera to the hard drive.

as for you folks trying to use a cable to connect firewire into a usb port, unless the cable comes with the required software drivers (windows doesn't have one built in) you can't do it, simply because firewire and USB are not just about the cable, they're actually compression algorithms, so by plugging a firewire device into a usb slot would be like having a Chinese person trying to speak to a Russian, without an interpreter(which would be the driver) they wouldn't understand each other and you'd get gibberish.

okay, so i bought a cord ("Simo" is the brand) that connects from multiple othe cords on one end (including fire-wire 4-pin, most importantly) and then USB and normal firewire on the otherside.

now, the laptop i use does not have a firewire slot on it for some reason, and when we bought a firewire CARD*card* it did not work.

so i bought the multible-cables one, and it still is not registering that there is a camera.

it's making the sounds recognizing a usb being plugged in, but that's it.

does this mean i got ripped off and it really *doesn't* connect firewire to usb?

its got this little box between the bundle of other cords and the two, is this almost like a hub?

anon2502 posted that all macbooks come with firewire connections.......unfortunately the newest macbook does not. I found this out when I bought my daughter a macbook for Christmas for the purpose of making movies. Does anyone have a solution for transferring video from a Sony DCR-HC21 to a new macbook?

I've got a problem with my mac book: My USB ports don't work...so now, I can transfer files only by the firewire 400 port and my external drive has only a USB 2.0 entry.

I would like to plug into the firewire port an adapter to USB 2.0, and then connect my external drive to the adapter.

I've read some posts here at seems to be impossible, do you think there is an other solution?? Thanks a lot in advance!

All MacBooks come with a firewire port.

I just bought a MacBook alu. Sadly, there is no Firewire port on it. Is there anyway to use Firewire with it? I have a firebox (by presonus), and I fear that it may be useless now! Any ideas?

Firewire to USB is not possible!!!

if you try to change a 400/800Mbps to 12/480Mbps what do you think will happen??? the data will become corrupt and the devices will be damaged

Also DV (the standard set by sony for digicamera etc) is different to Firefire but has similar standards.

I just received a 4-pin firewire to usb adapter (about 2 inches long) from Hong Kong. I am in the central US. It cost me $2.69, which included shipping, on eBay.

why would you need to? the usb would severely bottleneck the speed, what benefit is gained?

I'd like to connect USB 2.0 devices - through whatever miraculous blackbox - to a Firewire port. More and more devices are USB 2.0, but I've got an early G3 Dual USB iBook (yes, this Mac still works fine ... perhaps the last one on the planet) and there's obviously no possibility to upgrade to USB 2.0 (and I'm not planning to spend my coming vacations waiting for 40+GB to be transferred at 1.1 USB's "breathtaking" 12Mbps).

Firewire to USB for $119, boy oh boy, just buy firewire card only $19 included cable.

what a rip off.

The statement "...it is not possible to connect a USB device to a Firewire port either directly or through the use of a Firewire to USB adapter" is false if we assume the term "adapter" to mean more than a simple cross-wired cable. Several previous posts have correctly outlined how such a conversion could be done. This is also already being done to convert several legacy protocols: Serial->USB (not as simple as one would think and requires chips-on-cable); PATA/SATA->USB; PATA/SATA->Firewire; SCSI->FireWire; etc. Pretty much any USB or Firewire device is already doing similar types of bridging -- Ethernet->USB; WiFi->USB. Unfortunately, as far as i know, no one sells a generic USB->Firewire or Firewire->USB converter -- yet! I'm hoping that at the very least the USB->Firewire video cable mentioned by several above gets Mac OS X and Windows Vista driver support.

I have a standard USB on my Toshiba Tecra and I want to connect my Sony PCR9E Camcorder and download from the tape so i can edit and copy to CD/DVD. the Camcorder has a USB connector on it but when I attach it to the Laptop it is not recognised. Anyone have any ideas how I can transfer from the digital tape to the laptop? (I have read somewhere about possibly 'Firewire' but not sure how to go about it/hardware to buy etc?

"Although there is no such thing as a Firewire to USB adapter ..."

Wrong.

I found two -- visit the "usbfirewire" website or google for "USB to FireWire adaptor" and it should be the first hit. It is a small pod with a normal USB-A male connector on one end, and a 4-pin FireWire connector on the other. If you want to hook a FireWire-only DV camcorder up to a computer that only has USB ports, then this is the adaptor you need. Not cheap, and it is limited to Windows XP, but it does work.

I have a laptop that only has two usb ports and i want to download video from my camcorder but it can only be done with a firewire port wich my computer doesn't have I also don't have a slot for a card bus is there any hub that actually works that anyone knows of???

I am using Vista on a new laptop with only usb ports, I would like to connect a firewire from my canon 1d to operate tethered. Please does anyone know if this can be done and if so how, Thank you

About that post above this one: you can add firewire to your laptop by adding a Laptop FireWire Card, connected in the expansion slot. I found one for my levovo laptop, at the ibm site...quite expensive but worth every penny.

I also found a usb to firewire cable

Runs about 120, but says it's guaranteed to work. Guess it must...

Where can i find a dual/usb hub? my laptop doesn't have an express port or a firewire port and thus has no way of getting firewire, however according to this article there are usb/firewire hubs but so far i haven't found any online that does this. ADS DLX-182 Tech Dual Link Hub and the weird LaCie hub were ones i was looking at, however on the bottom of the ADS one it says note: this unit does not convert USB to FireWire or vice versa and i have no clue how the LaCie hubby connects to the computer or if it will connect a firewire device through usb. If anyone knows a device that works can connect a firewire device to my usb port or if anyone knows more about these two devices please respond thanks.

I have a cable that has the DV connector on one end and a USB plug on the other. My computer calls this "an unrecognized device". My computer does not have a Firewire port. Am I wasting my time and four dollars trying to use this cable? Is there any way to use a Firewire to USB cable without any additional hardware?

A USB 2.0 to Firewire adapter does exist. However it only works with Windows XP (does not support Vista of Mac)

I'm a film student who does a lot of editing and I'm even looking into concentrating solely on editing. I have a Lacie external hard drive, but is unfortunately a USB connection. I'd really like to know if there's any way a duel USB/Firewire would allow my hard drive to connect to a computer via firewire. thanks!

There is a firewire to USB (2) connector. You can get one made specifically for cameras and camcorders. It's quite steep but it's better than logging around my dock with my Sony UX ultra mini computer. I'm going to try it tonight if I can capture in real time from the camera to the computer with DVSPLIT. Hope me luck.

craig,

have you tried using a card reader? you can pick one up fairly easily and inexpensively, and some are adaptable to read several different types of memory. i had to buy one when my built in computer card reader stopped working, and my usb cable on my camera gave out. it works great!

i have a pc with only usb 2.o ports and camera with only firewire 400. is there a solution?

I got an external hard drive on usb, with movies on it, and i got a tv with a firewire input, how would somebody connect the hard drive to the tv?

Hello, why are sites selling USB to 6 Pin FireWire converters if they are completely different technology, and it couldn't possibly work?

You say firewire and usb are two different technologies!? How come some sites are selling adapters from firewire(4&6 pin) to usb?

We're trying to import video from the Sony DCR-TRV19 Handycam onto a Mac. Unfortunately, it's not being recognized as a drive. It supposedly works on the camera owner's Mac at home, and did not need any separate software or drivers. I didn't find any Mac drivers for this device anyway when I searched. The owner seems to think the problem is due to the camera needing a firewire cable to import, but the socket is clearly for a USB cable and is marked as such. The owner believes he used a firewire cable to import before and that we need a "USB to firewire" cable. This article claims that no such thing exists, so...can anybody else offer any ideas on what the problem might be?

I have an imac flat screen, the usb ports have been damaged so only the firewire port works, the machine is unusable, can't connect the keyboard or mouse, any suggestions?

I have an old iMac, a similar problem to the one above. I have a TV device which requires a USB 2.0 port and I only have Firewire 400 ports and USB 1.1 ports. I need a cable or a hub that will allow me to plug the TV device into it and I need the hub/adapter to plug into my Firewire 400 port. Is there anything out there??

The best way i can think to bridge a firewire to a usb device would be to get the chipset for both a firewire and a usb port and put a piece of flash memory in the middle so that one device can store to the flash memory and the other can read from it, the flash memory will just have to have multiple inputs and outputs on it.

I would like to connect my 16GB flash memory drive to my iMac. The drive is USB 2.0 of course, and my iMac's USB ports are SLOW (USB 1.1). My iMac has a nice juicy Firewire connection (fast) that I would love to plug my 16GB drive into.

Obviously just converting the connection form factors is not sufficient as Firewire and USB protocols are completely different, plus the data rates are different. However, there is no question that such a conversion can be done by means of a "bridge" acting as a broker between the Firewire and USB connections. The broker basically "translates" between the 2 different protocols and does some buffering. This is what the "movibox" mentioned above is doing.

I have searched for an external device that can act as such a bridge/broker but with no success. Adding a fast USB port to my iMac is not an option; all of it's slots are full. If anyone runs across such a device please post the info here! I'm tempted to build one and sell it as it appears no one is serving this need.

I have a PCMCIA firewire card that allows me to add firewire capabilities to my laptop via the PCMCIA slot.

I also have a PC that does not have a firewire port. The PC has USB 2.0 running WinXP. My question here is can I buy a USB PCMCIA card adapter which I can fix on my PC and use my PCMCIA firewire card with it?

I have recently bought a laptop which has 3 usb port but no firewire port. What should I do to be able to connect my Digital Video Camera to my laptop?

In the light of the above,......how does a pinnacle moviebox work.....the output is usb2.0 and the input either analogue video or ilink / firewire / mini-dv using a six pin firewire connection directly to 4 pin dv out from a camcorder. dv in and out are supported and the computer 'sees' the camera which can be controlled from the pc console.... that must be converting something ??????

I don't really know anything about lingo or computers.... but how do I install a "firewire" if I want to take pictures with my camera phone and then download them onto my computer (I don't have a Mac)???

Is it possible to use an external hard drive to 'convert' from Firewire to USB i.e. download from my camera to my external HD using Firewire and then upload to my computer using USB?