trying to work out if there's any point in using 9-pin firewire (with compatible external drive) for recording direct to laptop.

since the camera only has 4-pin output (requiring adaptor on the cable anyway) would an 800 speed cable be redundant?

any thoughts?

The HVX is a IEE1394a/firewire400 device, so it wont make a difference for the camera cable. But if you also use an external firewire disk to capture to connecting that to the 800 bus will be the best option.

if you have a PC microsoft pretty much killed 1394b with XP service pack 2.
conisider it lucky if you can get 1394a speeds using a 1394b card bus and 1394b external drives.
completely different story if you have XP service pack 1 = you'll get the max thru put of the drive you hook up over 1394b to 1394b .. around 60-65MBs on 400 gig drives

If I'm still using Win2k Pro sp4, will i see the same problems with going to 1394b?