Absolete HDV?

Question

I was told by a major electronics retailer, that my 2 year old canon vixia hv40 HD camcorder is absolete, and therefore not usable with my new laptop, that doesn't have an iiee 1394/firewire port. I spent nearly $1000 on that camera, two years ago, and $100 reinstalling adobe premiere elements.
My new Dell XPS l502x laptop has 2 usb3, 1 comb. esata/usb2, 1 hdmi, 1 mini display port , 1 network connector.
The camera has the hdv/dv , usb, hdmi, and a component connector.
What are my options?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, no. Capture from miniDV tape is ONLY via FW-400 (IEEE-1394a).
Dell is obviously bankning that everyone will be using some form of memory card for Video, such as AVCHD. They have turned their backs on HDV miniDV tape cameras, like the excellent Canon Vixia HV 40. I suppose that their "focus groups" indicated that AVCHD, etc. was the way of the future.
Personally, I would never get a computer, that did not offer IEEE-1394a, and/or have an ExpressCard slot. Matter of fact, I held off updating my Sager laptop, until Clevo adds those back onto the MoBo. Right now, it appears to be April, 2012, but I can wait.
One option, though not ideal, would be to pickup/build a computer WITH an IEEE-1394a connection, and as PrE allows one to have two installations, just not running at the same time, you could do the Capture to that, and then transfer the Captured files over, say with a Gigabit NIC and cable, in each computer. For just the Capture, that computer could be minimal.
Sorry that Dell has moved on to an "less desirable" format, IMHO. However, with all of its problems, and need for CPU power, AVCHD (or some flavor of H.264) seems to be the "winner." Can anyone say "VHS vs Beta?"
Hunt