computers
No, you need a 1394 firewire Expresscard
A FireWire card adds a FireWire socket to your computer. FireWire is a type of cable and plug (like the more widespread USB) that is used to connect some video cameras, hard discs and audio equipment to a computer.
I know the high end models of Dynex brand offer firewire support.
Yes. While not as popular as USB, firewire is still definitely used today. Today, firewire is the dominant way of transferring digital video from a camera to a PC. Update: Yes if you have a free compatible expansion slot (e.g. PCI), your Firewire or 1394 card will still be usable. I recently added a my old PCI Firewire card to one of the new machines. These are used primarily for Video capture/transfer or even for some external HDD or DVD drives which have a Firewire interface. - Neeraj Sharma
i am assuming that you know what a firewire is. not all computers come with a firewire input. if your computer doesn't have a firewire IN. then you have to buy a card, which gives you the acessability to plug a firewire cable into your computer.
If the computer is able to accept PCI cards you will need to add a FireWire card to the computer and connect the camera to that. (See links below)
firewire and usb
Any Firewire adapter will work great with a dell notebook, as they all have a standard firewire outlet or can use an adapter card.
MiniDV video is captured to a computer in real-time as it is played back on the camcorder. A Firewire DV card is by far the best to use, it was designed for video and has a vary high transfer rate, make sure your camera has firewire, a lot of time it is marked as DV out. You can also add a firewire card to your computer fairly easily. Search for 'PCI firewire card' for desktop computers and "PCMCIA firewire card' USB won't work because the transfer rate is not fast enough. Another option is to use a professional video transfer service. They use super high quality audio cables that connect miniDV decks to high quality video cards directly. This would get you the best quality. StashSpace.Com offers this transfer service for $6.95 a tape.
First make sure firewire is enabled in bios, assuming firewire is integrated on your MB. If you have a FW card, make sure the drivers are properly installed.
An ethernet (NIC) card, a wireless card, a bluetooth card, a firewire card, a USB card, a Sata card, a pcicia/cardbus card, etc.
FireWire (technically known as an IEEE 1394 interface) is an interface developed by Apple that allows you to plug peripherals such as video cameras into your computer. Most Macs come with a FireWire interface, some Windows PCs have fireWire built in or they can have it added by adding a FireWire card. Some manufacturers adopt their own name for the IEEE 1394 interface; Sony, for example, call it an iLink. If you have a camera, or some other peripheral, with a FireWire interface it will have come with a FireWire cable which you plug into your computer to allow the two to connect so you can transfer your video/images from the camera to the computer.