Sony HandyCam doesn't connect to computer using 1394

[hellokitty[hk]]

Hi everyone,
I have a Sony DCR-HC96 miniDV camcorder and I want to transfer the video to my computer in high quality with a 1394 cable.

So far however, I haven't gotten it to work out.
I'm using the handycam docking station and my computers are running windows XP.

One of my computer's cases did have a 6-pin firewire port, and I tried that, but it didn't work; not too unexpected.
I picked up a PCI firewire card from newegg and tried it with both of my desktops, neither worked. Both computers recognized the card on device manager. On one of my computers, the camcorder showed an iLink icon, but my computer didn't show anything on Sony's included video capture tool, or another 3rd party tool I tried. I tried both a 4-pin and 6-pin cable.

Again, I picked up another VIA based PCI card, and it didn't work on either computer even though the 1394 card was recognized in device manager.

I even tried a laptop with a built in 4-pin firewire, but that didn't seem to work either.

 

[LookinAround]

No personal experience using 1394 but did some, uhhh, looking around and found some (maybe) useful info. See HERE

While one person spoke about 1394a vs 1394b, i checked and seems 1394b has been out quite awhile and i would think (i.e. guess) current 1394 drivers would be backward compatible (if need be)

Tho it also turns out the OP of the old thread ended up discovering it was a bad cable. Have you also tried a different cable?

 

[hellokitty[hk]]

I have two 6-pin cables, and a 4-pin cable...
Thanks a lot.