USB to Firewire adapter
 

I have a PC laptop with 2 USB ports but no Firewire port. I want to edit on Premiere and am considering purchasing a USB to Firewire adapter. I am concerned that the USB data rate is not as fast as the 1394 Firewire data rate. Is this true, and will it drop frames while capturing?
Thanks.

Your concerns are valid... this will *not* work for you. The throughput rate will be limited to USB's bandwidth and therefore it will not be much slower than a true FireWire solution.

What you really need is a FireWire card which goes into your PCMCIA slot. You should have two of these PC slots on your laptop, one above the other. FireWire cards are readily available and that's what you'll need to get. Typically a PC FireWire card for a laptop will have two or three 6-pin FireWire jacks. Be sure to get a 6-pin to 4-pin cable so you can connect your DV camcorder. Hope this helps,