A/V Nerd Unite! Needs help with Firewire.

I have a JVC DV (Tape) video camera that I shoot my autocross and track-time with.

I would like to DL the videos to my computer. I bought a Firewire cable to do this, and everything fits, but i dont think the computer is recognizing my camera.

Do I need to enable to the Firewire port?

How does this work?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Howdy! I take it you're running windows. What video editing software are you using? That will help in the transfer of video from tape to the 'puter. Also, you can use device manager to check if the 1394 aka firewire device (pci card) is recognized by windows.

Just did this a couple of days ago. I have a Panasonic DV camera and added a firewire card to my Vista machine.

If windows recognized the card, it's probably installed just fine. I had issues at first and ended up moving the card to another slot on the computer and it all worked fine.

-Rob

Thanks for the info- This computer already has a Firewire POrt on the front, just below two USB 2.0 ports.

The USB ports work just fine, but I get no activity on the firewire port, and I dont see it in my device manager.

I guess I can take the cover off to see if its plugged in to the MOBO.

When I upload video I first open the video editing software and choose 'capture from video device'. This brings up a box with the video capture resource and I can see the video as it is playing on the camera.

I have an HP Media center with a similar setup. The port is proabably physically hooked up, but the port may not be enabled. You should have a "port manager" utility somewhere. This will allow you to choose what ports you want to use to import video/audio. Also, keep in mind that Firewire is not like USB, you have to have a video signal going into the port for it to become active. If you are using Windows Media, make sure that you are previewing the video while you are recording. You can turn that off an you won't know that you are getting a signal.

Okay, so I have to be playing the video on the camera for it to be active?

I tried that last night too and saw no action on the computer.

I will look for the "port Manager" and see if that does antyhing.

Where might that be? In the control panel?

As a for instance, let's say you are using Windows Movie Maker software to import the video. Open Windows movie Maker, choose file>capture viideo.

If the computer is not detecting your camera it will tell you then. The camera has to be turned on and in play mode, but does not have to be playing the video. If your computer still does not see the camera, you may have a port disabled, you may have a bad cable, or you may need to download the latest drivers for your hardware /camera.

I would start with taking the side off the case and tracing the wire from the front panel. It should recognize the camera as soon as you plug it in and turn on the camera.

You'll need some type of video editing/capture software. Windoze Movie Maker would be one. I have a video to firewire box that I used to transfer old VHS tapes with and it came with some editing/capture software. There's some open source stuff out there, I just forget what it is.

OKay, so I found out why my Firewire wont work. There is no place on the MOBO for it to plug in. LOL

I pulled the cover off and saw where I thought it should go... but when I plugged it in, nothing happened.

So, after a bit more research online, I pulled up the board layout for my motheroard (Intel D915GAV) and saw that I should have 2 spots for a IEEE 1394 plug. So, I pulled the cover back off and the spot is there, but the prongs are not. I guess this was an optional item. (grrr)

So, It also said I should have a port on the back of the MOBO where everything else plugs in.

No go there, either.

So, I am Firewireless.

NOw I need to buy an auxilliary card to plug ino the MOBO.

Nice.

At least I know I am not crazy for hooking it up wrong!

Thanks for the tech-support everyone!

Yeah no chip no firewire. Add in cards are cheap though, I probably have one if they are hard to find for some reason now.

I bought one last night from Newegg. It also has an internal port so I can hook it up to the port on the front of my case!