Camera into my computer?

Why won't my video camera connect to my computer?

• I have a sony something (its about 5-6 years old) its just a little hand held camcorder. It just won't connect to my computer! It plugged into my old computer because i had a specific cable for the camera to that computer. But, i got a new computer a while ago and now i want to get my videos and whatnot on my current computer. I can't use the chord that i used on my old computer because the one i use now doesn't have the same ports as that one had. I have a usb cable that i tried using (not sure if this is the problem. It's the usb for my phone, I don't think the camera came with one.) The usb is the only thing i can attempt to plug it in to, but no matter what i do, the computer won't recognize it and the camera wont either. So my questions are, could it just be because the usb isn't specifically made for the camera? Do i need to buy some kind of special connector? Is there any thing that i can try that won't end up costing me hundreds of dollars??? The camera is still in really good condition so i don't want to buy another at least not for a while... Help? Thanks in advance if you can help.

• Answer:

  What camera is it? At the very least, what kind of media does it use? I'm going to take a wild guess here that you're using MiniDV tape - if so, that USB cable would be for any still images on the camera, and to get at the video, you'll need to use a FireWire cable. Sony calls it "i.Link," but you'll also see it called "DV" and "IEEE 1394." By any of those names, it's all the same thing. Your computer may or may not have FireWire - if it does, it might be a 4-pin, 6-pin, or 9-pin port, so get whichever cable will fit both your camera and your computer (if your camera is a MiniDV camera, it will have a 4-pin port). If your computer doesn't have FireWire, you'll need to purchase and install a FireWire card, which actually is quite easy and not very expensive. Keep in mind, FireWire and USB are completely different things, and any kind of converter/adapter between the two will NOT work for video. It will be a waste of money. If there's no way at all to get in there via FireWire, you'll need to think about downgrading your video through a USB converter like Avid/Pinnacle's "Dazzle."