Firewire to USB 2.0 Cable

Rassilon · Post by **Rassilon** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 7:42 am

Hi,

I recently purchased a laptop, and one of the things I planned to do on it was edit video's using VS8. Having already used it on my Girlfriends PC she wanted it removed!

So I uninstalled it from her PC and installed it on mine. It then highlighted the one failing in my plan.... my laptop does not have any card slots! doh!!

So I am looking at other ways in which I can add firewire capability. The laptop does have USB2.0 so thats a plus and I found this http://www.pixela-1.com/capycable.htm cable which is firewire -> USB2.0. But it leaves the question as to whether VS8 will recognise the connection as Firewire rather than USB. Has anybody tried it / heard anything about?

thanks

Lewis

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:25 am

It's fascinating that such a thing exists, and thank you for bringing it to our attention. I for one would be fascinated to hear the experiences of anyone who actually has one.

I note that it is not exactly cheap ('reduced' price currently is US$90). I wonder if you have considered any other alternatives. The one that springs to mind is a PCMCIA card for your laptop. Although my laptop already had a Firewire/iLink port, you can buy PCMCIA cards which give you at least two Firewire ports. Some come with one Firewire and one or more USB 2.0 ports. Of course your laptop would have to have a slot (in the external case, often with a fake card filling it) for such a card. And the other caveat I would add is that these cards usually come without a power adaptor, though they have a plug for one. Sometimes Firewire/USB devices won't work properly through the card because they cannot find sufficient power. The Firewire/iLink port, for instance, is usually only a 4-pin mini port, and the two missing pins which distinguish it from its larger, standard 6-pin equivalent are precisely the power pins. I think you can get a PCMCIA card which has full size 6 pin Firewire ports, but I cannot comment on how they might work, particularly if the card is not independently powered or otherwise does not tap into the computer's own power source either sufficiently or at all.

Rassilon · Post by **Rassilon** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 8:30 am

heh, you may have noticed in my original post I purchased a laptop without PCMCIA slots doh!! So my options for trying to add firewire are pretty much reduced to USB2.0

Lewis

GeorgeBW · Post by **GeorgeBW** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 12:57 pm

Hi Ken..Hi Lewis,

a bit of deja vu here Ken..?

Lewis.. recognising that you have no other way of importing your video to your laptop other than USB 2.0 .. Make no mistake.. the DV signal delivered to your PC interface will not be the original Firewire... it will be down-converted by the In-line modulator on the cable using hardware compression for passage via the USB 2.0 port. So, if you have a USB port on the camera, you may as well connect this to your PC and save yourself 90 bucks..

If the camera has only an iLink port for DV transfer, then at least you should be able to transfer video to the PC compressed for USB 2.0...using the adapter cable.. But your PC will only see the USB port and all the conditions will be as for USB 2.0 ..for any transfer. Could still be a fair result though... but $90 ...??

Sorry, it's probably not what you want to hear, but it's a kind of Giraffes and Wombats thing.. to coin a phrase... This thread explains the foregoing comment.. http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0

Good luck
GeorgeBW

GeorgeBW

Rassilon · Post by **Rassilon** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:57 pm

hmm...

Well my camera has both a firewire and an USB2.0 streaming output. However when using the USB output I can only get a max resolution of 640x480, certainly not good enough for DVD.

Not sure where to go from here as the girlfriend doesn't really want me cluterting up her PC with programs she doesn't want to use

Lewis

GeorgeBW · Post by **GeorgeBW** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:49 pm

Hi Lewis,

Yes, I should have continued to say that the USB 2.0 transfer is at a reduced frame size to keep to full motion DV standard. This probably being the simplest form of linear compression available under the circumstances. Ironically the USB 2.0 port is theoretically faster (480Mbps) than Firewire (400Mbps), but in practice works out slower because of the way that USB involves other PC resources..

At least, you can capture at USB 2.0 settings ... still pretty close to Hi-band quality, and it won't cost you the extra $90.. As for not being up to DVD standard... Give it a go.. you never know until you try it out... and if that turns out to be a coaster, settle for SVCD... and your media costs won't be so high.

No criticism intended, but laptops without serial ports, parallel ports generic floppy drives... yes, found all over the place... but laptops without a PCMCIA interface... that's almost 0 expansion potential and are not that common... surely..??

GeorgeBW

Rassilon · Post by **Rassilon** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 3:56 pm

heheh well the laptop was an impulse purchase really. I have an aged desktop PC (333Mhz) and decided on the spur of the moment to buy a laptop. In all the excitement I forgot to check for PCMCIA slots!!!

Won't do that again!

Having read the advert again it does seem to suggest

It's patented micro chip technology within the cable module ensures that data is preserved from its original format

Which sounds like the resolution is kept intact, can't see how though. So I will drop them an email to see what they say.

Lewis

GeorgeBW · Post by **GeorgeBW** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 4:03 pm

Hi Lewis,

Seriously, I would give DVD a go ..(I added a short edit to this effect in the last posting).. What have you got to lose..? A coaster or two... who hasn't produced a few of those.? I have been putting Hi8 analog material onto DVD, and am generally impressed with the quality... even though the source material isn't great. You might be pleasantly surprised.

GeorgeBW

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 9:41 pm

If your camera has USB 2.0 streaming, then it is almost certain that it came with software (not Ulead's) which should be able to capture high quality video from the USB 2.0 port on your camera. What does the camera manual have to say about that? And do you still have the CD that (again almost certainly) came with the camera package?

Rassilon · Post by **Rassilon** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 11:36 am

The software that comes with the camera enables me to capture upto 640x480 resolution - not quite 720x576 PAL resolution.

Lewis