How to connect old D8 cam with FireWire to new PC USB2/3?

[ebcthom]

Hi,

I have an old Sony Digital 8 cam TRV-730 from 2001 with FireWire connection, which I also use to see oeven older Video 8 recordings. I have done some copying from tapes to my old laptop, with a FireWire PC-card. Unfurtunately, this is a very slow process, and I have lots of tapes to go through.

Now, I just bougth a new laptop ASUS K55-JM, discovered that most new laptops do not come with IEEE FireWire interfaces, just USB 2 and 3, and it has no slot for PC-cards like my old laptop where I use FireWire-card.

Is there any possibility to convert FireWire to USB 2 or 3 with a cable or/and an adapter? Does anybody have experiance if this really works, without any loss of quality? At least in Sweden, I cant find any of this in the two biggest chains selling adapters and cables.

Thanx in advance!!!

BR Thomas in Sweden

[blaireau_photo]

Hello Thomas - Welcome to the Sony Forums

This is a very common issue that I have seen during my time on these forums. More and more cameras now have no use for Firewire and at the same time, laptops are getting smaller and smaller and there is no room for additional cards to be fitted. In my opinion, it may be best to try and use a regular desktop computer for transferring this video as it is far easier to buy a standard Firewire expansion card and install it inside a PC. In the past, any products that I have seen which claim to convert a USB socket into a Firewire socket do not always work and if you can use a regular computer, this would save you a lot of time and effort.

On the other hand, if you are happy to transfer video in real time, you could always use an analogue video converter that plugs into a USB socket. Some people do not notice the small loss in quality with devices such as the Easy CAP adapter.

Thanks,

Simon