internal ones are cheap an slot it in and thats it.
External one look on ebuyer.com personally ive never had a external one.

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I've never heard of any external box you can just plug into your computer to get firewire ports--I think the only port/slot with bus speeds fast enough to handle firewire is PCI, so you're probably stuck installing a card. Don't worry, though. The past few years it's gotten fairly easy to do.

Now to the dramatic monologue...

USB 2.0 data rates are a tremendous, multi-tiered public-relations conspiracy to trick consumers into buying an inferior product that can be made for less money. If you take a quick look at the speed firewire (400 megabits per second) and USB (up to 480 megabits per second), you'd say that USB is good, if not better, right? Wrong. Notice the phrase "up to" adorning that proclamation on every USB 2.0 product. USB 2.0 uses a variable bit rate that sends data in bursts, meaning that transfer speeds rarely (if ever) exceed 400 megabits. This makes it patently unsuitable to use for realtime video capture or output because the connection can't keep up with the steady stream of high-bit rate video being generated. Firewire, on the other hand, is ALWAYS 400 megabits per second. That bandwidth is preserved even if the signal being transmitted doesn't require all of it, meaning that it can easily handle video.

So no, USB 2.0, although sometimes useful, is not well-applied to video work.

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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my vodcast on iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=96931870
and my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com

My computer is a bitch to open, and Dell likes to make everything positioned so you can't mess with their setup. But yeah I could probably find a pretty cheap one.

But is it worth it if I'm getting one for quality?

Thanks for the information guys. 🙂

I use firewire. It costs 30 bucks for a cable and it cost me 30 bucks for my card. But you can get wires/cables on ebay for 10 bucks. Which is what I did the third time around. Apparently when you move they like to escape their boxes and make lives in other states far, far away from you. In fact, I just got a postcard last week from a firewaire cable that was missing since may 2004. He is living in Omaha and has two kids.

Anyway, firewire works. Its fast. Most, if not all of the high end editing programs take it. Personally I just use Adobe Premiere though. And it fits into that little firewire plug in your camera.

Go for it!

So the cheaper sets work real well then?

I've heard of people spending high end cash for cards and everything.

And yours was a PCI card right? Can you reccomend one or tell me what you got, I'd love to know because it sounds affordable.

Thanks.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=6307392&type=product&id=1074787927900

Thanks!