Hi,

I have just purchased a new Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop. Somewhat naively, I assumed a PCMCIA slot was standard. My old laptop had such a slot, as such I bought a Firewire PCMCIA card to connect my Panasonic DVC camcorder to and could capture video no problem.

Do I have any other options? I've seen USB > Firewire cables, but I doubt it's as simple as this?

USB to IEEE 1394 4 PIN FIREWIRE TRAVEL Adapter CABLE on eBay (end time 09-Dec-09 14:53:45 GMT)

Just to confirm the Dell laptopn has no PCMCIA or the more recent 34 mm ExpressCard slot (unless I'm missing the obvious?).

Thanks in anticipation.

This is also my problem .... I recently bought a Packard Bell laptop - great little laptop - but alas no firewire and no pc card slot :(
Even PC world were no help when I asked how I could get firewire - I had thought about buying a smallish external harddrive - with firewire ports - but would this work - I also thought about taking it back to PC world and asking if I could change it for another ( even if more expensive) laptop which did have firewire - but don't think I could do that as I have been using the laptop for a couple weeks now ....
I also looked at some of the PC's when I was in and checked if they still had firewire ports - most of them don't !! unless you want to pay the earth for them ... and these seem to be all the new ones running wiondows 7 which my new one is .... any help would be much appreciated .... Valerie

I already have that cable - came with the camcorder - but it won't work anyway .... I have asked on other PC help forums and all came back with the same reply - you can't have firewire running of a USB connection - so how come soooo many new PC's in PCWorld running windows 7 have no firewire ? I guess we are stuck ..... Valerie

My guess is they assume that anyone buying a new laptop couldn't possibly have anything as "lasy year" as a camcorder that uses TAPE. Which, unfortunately, will become a self fulfilling prophesy as no-one will be able to capture tape anymore.

A simple case of marketing winning out over capability.

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Tim

Well I have only had this camcorder a few months, so hardly 'last year' after having the last one for 2 or 3 years .... both use tiny DV tapes - I never wanted one which used DVD's .... the guy in PC World said he had been asked the same question by quite a few folk - luckily I kept my old PC so can still do editing on that - but a bit of a nuisance .... I did wonder why there was a USB lead in the camera box ?? This camcorder doesn't take stills the way the old one did, so what use would it be ? .... I have e-mailed Sony but of course got no reply ... Val

Valerie: I meant it was "last year" in terms of marketing people. Genuine users like you and me still have a need for (and see benefits in) using tape.

I don't think even PC World assistants would suggest DVD cams though. It's all flash memory or hard disk nowadays)

If you have a PC with a firewire card, one workaraound would be for you to capture footage to that PC then transfer the footage (via external USB hard drive or networking) to the laptop. Long winded, but at least it would enable you to edit on your laptop.

PChapman: according to the Dell website, your 1545 does indeed have a 34mm express slot (on the RH side, to the left of the DVD rewriter)????

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Tim

Thanks Tim .... actually I never thought of capturing it to the old PC then transferring to the new laptop ! Guess I could easily do that, however I might as well keep the old PC for doing home movies .... not that old really as I got it when Vista first came out ... yes ! I am a little old lady in my sixties who just happens to like technology and keep up to date ha ha! so of course when the new win 7 came out I thought I would have a new one while I could afford it ( just retired) as money will be short after this .... must have just been bowled over by the shiny new laptops and forgot something so simple as firewire and not even a PC card port !!! I actually thought all laptops came with one of those at least .... never mind - I had thought about clearing up the pc and selling it on but will keep it now - wouldn't get much for selling pc nowadays anyway .... thanks for all your help .... Val

What you guys need is this.

http://www.st-lab.com/assign.asp?keyid=bo1


Plugs in a port on the side of the LT.
Around A$70.00....

Unfortunately I don't have a port to plug it into with this new laptop Val

What model laptop are you running?