Home > Consumer Reviews > Startech.com 4 Port IEEE-1394 FireWire PCI Card with Digital Video Editing Kit ( PCI1394_4 )

Good product if you are going to use firewire peripherials only. Or you just need a fire wire hook up for a camera or camcorder. I have windows XP and it installed flawlessly and so did my camcorder subsequently. Ulead Video studio 6 se, the program that comes with the card is good but it almost never installs from the cd correctly. Don't even try, just copy the cd to a temperary folder on your hard drive and install from there.
Then get your free effects installed and then update with the patch and you won't have any trouble. I wish someone had put this out there I would have saved 2 days of bsing.

I use this card on a windows ME system. It works great. And considering that it came with cable, it is good value for money. Only caveat is the ULead software that comes bundled - it is pretty useless. It is basic version of ulead and doesn't work properly. But the card works great. It was easy to install and came with software.

I had my doubts since best buy would end up charging me $60 at the time I bought my camera for the card and the cable, but this thing works great - just like everyone says. XP recognized it immediately, and I tried my sony DCR-HC30 and it worked the first time - no hassle at all. Don't be fooled into buying Sony's $40 firewire cable, this is the way to go. I didn't try the software, but Windows Movie Maker (included in XP) works fine for now.

Amazing... Installed the board, and that's it, no driver needed. Work great, no error messages. Great value espacially it comes with a Firewire cable that fits my Sony Minidv which by itself is about $10.00). Did not install the software cause I'm using Adobe Premiere Element which I recommend strongly (better off buying it with Photoshop Premiere, they both come in one package).

I inserted this card into my P4 2.4Ghz PC running Win XP Pro and then hooked to my Sony DCR-HC40. The camcorder was recognized, however, the connection was lost after several minutes, then the connection was regained if I turn the camcorder off and back on or unplug and replug the firewire cable. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to capture video, about 100 frames were dropped during 3 minutes capturing then connection was lost for no reason. Amazon replaced my card, the new card was even worse, my camcorder was not even recognized. I bought a Belkin 1394 PCI card and a Belkin 1394 cable. Voila! No problem anymore, camcorder was immediately recognized and the connection stays for ever, and no frame was dropped at all during like 50 minutes capturing. Comparing this card and cable to Belkin ones, these are obviously cheap made and the quality is unstable. Some buyers may not have any problem at all, but I just had bad luck and got the lemons.