Technobabble

Burnt by Firewire Cable!

Posted by on Dec 14, 2006 | 9 Comments

I bought a new camcorder this week at the big box store. It’s an inexpensive JVC DV unit that’s equipped with Firewire, USB, and a SD slot. The salesman was very helpful, but he missed one important detail. I made a point of asking, “is everything in the box, short of tapes and the memory card? Is there anything else I’ll need to get going?”

“That’s about it,” was his reply.

A half an hour after I got home, I found out that it wasn’t it. The box was did not include one crucial piece of equipment: the Firewire cable.

After fifteen minutes of frustration, I eventually discovered that the unit is not designed to download through the USB cable.

A Firewire cable, as it turns out, is required to move those moving pictures to the computer.

There’s no mention of this on the box. Not a word. A Firewire cable is not listed on the system requirements … although it does mention the USB connection. (And the real estate spent on the box’s “Don’t Forget A Back Up Battery!” text balloon could have surely been put to better use … say something along the lines of “Don’t Forget a Firewire Cable or You’ll Be SOL!”)

After determining (at 10:30 PM) that I had to have a Firewire cable to complete the project that had to be wrapped up in 24 hours, I went surfing. Knowing that I’d be passing by a Radio Shack store around lunchtime the next day, I dove into their website to see if they had a reasonably pricedFirewire cable. I found a bunch of four pin to six pin Firewire cables, starting at just $8.99.

I was peeved when I got to the local store the next day. As it turned out, I completely over looked the “web only” tags. (Hey, it was late!)

The only four to six pin Firewire cable they had in stock was a whopping $36.99.

With the deadline looming, I had to bite the bullet.

Why doesn’t Radio Shack stock the less expensive Firewire cables in their stores?

There can only be one reason: profit margins.

The moral of the story?

If you’re buying a new camcorder, don’t forget to check to see if you need a Firewire cable before you head home from the store. If you need a Firewire cable and aren’t in a hurry, you can save a few bucks by purchasing it online.

[tags]Firewire cable, DV camcorder[/tags]

  • Henry A. Frosch

    You hit the nail on the head, but it is not only Firewire cables, but just about all computer cables that are grossly overpriced at retail outlets. It is difficult to conceive why a CD/DVD burner can cost $50.00 or less while a short USB cable to connect it sells at $25.00.

    I have found a source, PI Manufacturing, pimfg.com that charges what I think are fair prices.

    A couple of representative prices: USB-2, A-B, 10Ft…$1.75; Firewire IEEE 1394, 6P-6P, 6ft…$3.64.

    Please note that there will be $4.50 surcharge for orders under $50 and $3.50 for under $100. With that, I think you’ll save quite a bit even for small orders. I try to anticipate my needs so I can hit their minimum, but of course, it isn’t always possible, even by combining with friends.

    HTH

    __

    ==\Henry/==

  • Charles Brown

    You may only be starting your bad experience with JVC. I don’t know how “inexpensive” the camera you bought was, but if it’s a miniDV (tape) model, you had better return it, if you still can.

    I had one for about three years, only recording one or two tapes in that time period, when mine crapped out with a “safe mode” error message. The the message said remove and reinstall tape, but the tape loading mechanism would not work. So now my three years of video is stuck in the camera. BTW, dozens (or more) horor stories on the web of people with the same or similar problem with JVC miniDV’s.

    I had to pay to have a tech remove the tape, but the other problems still presist; the unit is usless. I can’t even use it to download the video.

    The moral of the story, don’t buy a JVC POS.

    Oh, I almost forgot. No firewire cable cable came with this one either. But at least Circuit City honored their web page price. About half of the in-store price.

  • http://www.nscave.com Geo

    I had a similar experience with a Canon ZR80 DV camera a couple years ago. No firewire cable included. It turned out to be a good camera in its price range though.
    A good place to get firewire cables in Canada is Princess Auto. They have these and other monster home theatre cables for less than half of what other places charge. Brand is usually IBM or RCA.
    -=George=-
    (¯`·._.·ns¢ävË·._.·´¯)

  • pdh

    As long as people keep giving in to this kind of deceptive marketing, it will continue unabated. You say you don’t like what they did, but you succumbed to it, so it worked. Here was what I did when I bought a Sony DVD player, only to get it home and find out that it wouldn’t play DVDs or CDs that I created on my computer: I took it back to the store and told them that it was a defective unit and I wanted my money back. When they asked what the defect was I told them that it wouldn’t play DVDs or CDs that I created on my computer. They then said that it was not defective; it was designed that way, which indicated that they were aware of the design but neglected to tell me about it. So then when they asked me if I wanted to exchange it for another unit, I said: “No, I want my money back so I can take my business elsewhere and I’ll tell you why. It’s bad enough that Sony deliberately cripples their players and doesn’t bother to tell people about it so that they only find out when they get them home, but YOU people are colluding with them and it should hurt your business to engage in such practices. You obviously knew about this deception and went along with it. Perhaps the next time somebody wants to buy one of these units, you will remember this exchange and explain to them that when they get it home they will find that it will not play anything made on their computer.” Then I took my money and left.

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  • Ethan

    Are you sure the box didn’t say that it has IEEE1394 support & doesn’t’ include an IEEE1394 cable? That’s the other name for FireWire.

  • Ben

    Did you make it clear what you were trying to do when you say “Is there anything else I’ll need to get going?” to the sales guy? To most people, all they do is film the footage and play it back on the TV. Most people have no need to download the footage into their computer (and edit them as I am guessing this is what you were trying to do).

    And no, I totally disagree with you that “the real estate spent on the box’s “Don’t Forget A Back Up Battery!” text balloon could have surely been put to better use …” because when most people buy a camcorder, they are going on vacation the next day and they don’t realize that the battery may not last long enough while they are out and about.

    Once again, techie that has a “wrap” view of the world.

    Cheers,
    Ben

  • http://www.geekbooks.com/ Dan Gray

    I made it perfectly clear, Ben. The salesman missed the opportunity to pad the sale with an overpriced Firewire cable … that’s where the margin is in these transactions.

    Yes indeed, Lockergnome is a tech website. What’s a “wrap” view?

    The packaging made no mention of either 1394 or Firewire, Ethan. The large System Requirements box would have been the perfect place for this information.

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