I just purchased a firewire to usb cord for my XHA1. I know that this is not the ideal setup, but will this work? For some reason I am hesitant to plug it into my camera. Any thoughts here? My normal system is out of commission and the laptop that I have does not have a firewre port. Will I even be able to use this for my HD footage?

Hi Kevin,

There is no such thing as a firewire to usb conversion. The only way it might be helpful is provide power, but the data transmission is completely different. I think even the voltages for power are different.



I just purchased a firewire to usb cord for my XHA1. I know that this is not the ideal setup, but will this work? For some reason I am hesitant to plug it into my camera. Any thoughts here? My normal system is out of commission and the laptop that I have does not have a firewre port. Will I even be able to use this for my HD footage?

Hey Kevin,

You really need a 6pin to 6pin firewire cord and a firewire card if you dont have one especially if you will be capturing a lot of HD.

I'd go to Bestbuy and get both for fairly cheap.

Joel:

I thought this was odd also which is why I was hesitant to plug it in. The one side of my cord firts into the camera and the other side is a USB port. I picked it up today from aa small computer store that I happened to pass by. As soon as I get home I am going to make sure that the one side actualy fits itno the camera and that they did not sell me something that I cant use. Perhaps this is not actually a firewire cord. Maybe its just another way of connecting the camera. Thoughts?

Ok, so i just checked and the cord does indeed fit into my camera. I have to assume that this is not a firewire but just an alternate way of hooking up to the computer via usb. Will most editing systems recognize the camera if I hook it up this way as oposed to an actual firewire?

If it were me, I wouldn't use that cable. The firewire port is extemely easy to damage on the A1, exspecialy the non "S" version with the 4 pin plug. Just search this forum and others and you'll see that its a costly repair.

It is much less expensive to go out and buy a firewire card and drop it into your PC and use a proper firewire cable than to take the chance of damaging your camera, computer, or both.

I don't know of any NLE's that use USB port to communicate to their software except maybe some of the Pinacle products.

Is this what you have, a cable with a converter in the middle that takes firewire and converts it to high-speed USB?
FireWire to USB Cable, for DV only (http://www.everythingusb.com/news/index/3889.htm)

Here is an article that clearly states you cannot convert Firewire to USB with a cable or adapter:
What is a Firewire to USB Adapter? (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-firewire-to-usb-adapter.htm)

For your laptop you can get a Firewire PCMCIA card that plugs into the PCMCIA slot. However, any specific laptop can interact stranglely with certain PCMCIA cards, so be prepared to exchange it in case there is incompatibility. Here's one on Amazon:
Amazon.com: IO Card, PCMCIA, Firewire, 2 Port, 6 Pin, w/ Cable, I/O Flex: Electronics (http://www.amazon.com/Card-PCMCIA-Firewire-Port-Cable/dp/B00008AB53)

Here are some starting at $20 at newegg.com:
Newegg.com - pcmcia firewire (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=pcmcia+firewire&x=0&y=0)

Here's one for $40 at Best Buy:
BestBuy.com - Search Results (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=1PJLKEXG5VLHBKC4D3JVAGI?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=pcmcia+firewire&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960)

Fry's should also have them.

Jack: that is not the cord that I have. The cord that I have looks like a thing version of a firewire cord. Same type of end that goes into the camera except the other side has a usb instead of firewire. I have a feeling that i probably should not use this cord.

I agree. I think you need a firewire port, and on a laptop without one the easiest solution is a firewire PCMCIA card as I have linked above.