No Firewire Input on new laptop, help

[Mike Petrie]

Until recently I have been using VideoStudio 10+ with my Toshiba Satellite Laptop running Windows XP SP3 with a Firewire input to the Laptop. I use a Sony Handycam DCR-HC19E camcorder which has Firewire, USB and AV outputs. My Toshiba died a month ago and I bought an ACER (7715Z) laptop as a replacement running Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit). It doesn’t have a Firewire input!! I know from the forum that W7 won’t run VS 10+ and I am happy to buy a later VS if only I can get my DV video downloaded. I have tried plugging the camcorder in to the USB socket, using a new USB cable from the camcorder USB output, but I can’t seem to download a USB driver for W7 (via the Internet) (I get 2 out of 3 downloads but not the 3rd). So I assume that there is no driver available for the camcorder. It has been suggested that I get an AV to USB Converter (eg AVermedia DVD EZMaker USB Gold) and use eg VS Pro X3.
Does anyone know whether this would work? Would it provide “split by scenes”, if not would VS be able to do this (I seem to remember the old VS 10+ being able to do this). Any advice would be gratefully received, I can’t believe I have to buy a new camcorder, most laptops don’t now have Firewire inputs, so there must be a solution.

Thanks
Mike

[Black Lab]

I think what you need is a Firewire PCMCIA card, similar to this: http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-3 ... gpf113.htm

[Mike Petrie]

Thanks, Black Lab, but the laptop hasn't got a PC Card slot either.

Mike

[DVDDoug]

The best technical solution might be to get another (desktop) computer. But, that assumes you have the space & budget. It might not be the best practical solution.

The AVerMedia device looks like it should work. They do have Win7 64-bit drivers on their website. But I do have a couple of concerns...

It requires a digital-to-analog-to-digital conversion. There is potential for quality loss with these extra conversions.

I assume you were previously capturing to DV/AVI... The AVerMedia device converts to MPEG. "Traditionally", MPEG has been difficult to edit. (I don't know if this is an issue with Video Studio X3.) When you edit MPEG, it generaly has to be de-compressed and then re-compressed, which is another potential source of quality loss.

And, if you choose the "wrong" bitrate during capture so that the file won't fit onto a DVD, another (lossy) encode step is required.

On the plus side, MPEG files are smaller and if you're making a DVD the process can be faster since no conversion is necessary (assuming DVD-compatible MPEG-2).