A PCMCIA f/w card? Would that do it? Or s all that "old hat" now? I still 'ave my PCMCIA f/w doubler socket. AND my Dell 8000 Inspiron - my schlaptop.

Grazie

PCMCIA died ages ago. Replaced with the Express slot which is much faster. If the OP's laptop has neither firewire or an Express card slot he is out of luck.
One of the even more frustrating things is it's very hard to find out if a laptop has or hasn't that Express Card slot. I got lucky and picked up a Dell Studio 15 at a bargain price. It has both firewire and an Express 34 slot. So it works just fine with my SxS cards and our VCRs and cameras.

Bob.

I don't know if tis will solve your problem, but it *looks* like it gives you firewire ports on a USB hub.

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=203160

I don't think it helps.
It's a firewire hub and a USB hub in the one box. It doesn't convert between the firewire and USB interfaces. The Mac already has a firewire port.

Bob.

Mark,

The reason you didn't realize that it didn't have a firewire port is because when you buy it, it doesn't tell the customer what kind of ports it has.

Take a look.

John

I've run into this kind of problem before with other devices.

You buy new "stuff" and you assume that it will have things that have been on the old "stuff" forever ... and, for whatever reason, it doesn't.

I've had this happen with two way radios .. that always have had a jack to plug in 12 volts external power .. but one radio I bought did *not* have that jack .. and I didn't find out until after I purchased it.

This can happen with most anything .. cars, DVD players, computers. After you've got stung once or twice you get into the habit of CHECKING new things .. just in case.

After you've got stung once or twice you get into the habit of CHECKING new things .. just in case.

Why should one have to jump through hoops to figure out what kind of ports Lenovo puts on their laptops? Why isn't it on the product page I linked when you go to buy it? It was on the product page when I bought my Dell.

John

Man that is pathetic.
I clicked through the whole process until just before I was going to pay for the thing and I still couldn't find if it had any ports at all.
It's even worse trying to find out of a laptop has the Express Card slot and even then...That interface is supposed to have two connections in it. USB and what is pretty much a SATA connection. Except it seems not all laptops implement both and the SxS cards only talk over the SATA connection.
When I went to buy my Dell, which the retailers website said I could only buy online, I took a card with me just o be sure the darn thing would really work. Of course not every retailer is too happy to let you plug some device they've never seen before into a computer on display.

Bob.

When Compaq introduced their new "legacy-free" line years ago, they touted it as a wonderful improvement, but nowhere did they actually say what it mean. We bought a bunch of them as upgrades to old workstations because they were Compaqs, were on sale, and seemed to be a good choice. I got the lot in and started unpacking them only to discover that they had no keyboard port, no mouse port, no printer port, and no serial ports. All they had were 4 USB ports. So now i had a bunch of dead boxes that i couldn't connect to our keyboards, mice, printers, modems, or file server. This was an improvement?

I bought some combo parallel/serial PCI cards and some USB mice & keyboards. Sadly this brought the total price up higher than other PCs that weren't on sale. Also the bios Compaq put in them refused to let the parallel ports work so we had no printer connections after all. Complete waste.

Bottom line ... that was the last Compaq purchase we ever made. I took some rather perverse gratification when they ceased to exist a year or two later.

I just bought a VAIO F series laptop with Firewire and XpressCard and Esata and a Blu-ray burner.

I purchased it on the Sony Configure To Order site which gives the option of including Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas Pro 9. THE ADOBE IS $100 LESS THAN THE VEGAS ON A SONY SITE!

Somebody in marketing needs to wake up!

"Somebody in marketing needs to wake up! "

They're getting better, not so long ago you just got PPro Light or whatever it's called pre-installed. Keep in mind the division who makes the laptops has nothin to do with SCS, not by a long shot.

Bob.

Bob, you're absolutely correct.

However, it's difficult at best to think that the folks at Sony who put the package together are oblivious to the fact that another division of Sony makes an NLE (which they aren't, because Vegas was provided as an option).

Your mistake is using the word "division". As I understand it it's a wholly owned company. You do realise at NAB there are four (4!) Sonys exhibiting. Sony AU provide us locals with a free lunch.

Years ago I worked for a similar company. After we were bought by another big company (Invensys) it took us 3 years to discover that our largest competitor was also part of the same multinational. The reason I think these things are done is so it's easier to sell off the companies.

Last time I checked Vegas Pro is imported here by Intelliware, a company whose main line is video games. Sony AU knows nothing about Vegas. The reseller is New Magic who also sells turnkey Adobe systems. VMS is sold retail through the Sony retail franchisers.

Bob.

Thanks guys! At least I feel a little less stupid! They said they would work with me on a trade in and I have somebody else that says they're interested in it so it should work out. Live and learn! I tell people I learn something new everyday, the problem is I forget 2.
Thanks again!
Mark