Firewire cables

Hardware and technical stuff
1

So my wife was having trouble downloading the video from our vid camera (Sony, I think) to her PC, using USB.

I ordered a firewire card and cable, which arrived today.

But, the jacks on the card are of a different size (larger), than the jacks on the vid camera (smaller). The cable has the smaller sized connector on both ends.

It’s not a male/female issue, as both the card and the camera have female jacks, and the cable is male on both ends.

So, are there two different sized connectors for firewire?

And also, is there any reason why my wife might have more success downloading video from the camera via firewire than USB? i.e. is there any real difference other than speed (like, say, the firewire has a better ability to control/communicate with the camera)?

2

There’s the small connector, and the standard connector.


Standard.


Small.

You can get adapters.

Just google for “Firewire adapter”

3

Let us not forget FireWire 800 connectors, which are different from FireWire 400 connectors (mini and full size).

4

Is your pc USB 1.1?
The camera will be 2.0, so trying to transfer using 1.1 could be causing the troubles - but there’s no logical reason that it works better for your wife.
But USB 2.0 is fine for transferring digital video - I never use FireWire.

But since you bought the card, you might as well get the adpaters for the cable and use that (but your pc being without FireWire built in makes me suspect it’s old/budget enough to only have USB 1.1 as well)