ActionTec 1394 Firewire PCI Card

Features:

• Provides 3 Ports for connecting 1394, FireWire, or i.Link Devices
• Capture, Edit, and E-mail Digital Videos quickly and easily on your own PC
• Ideal for Digital Cameras, Digital Camcorders, Printers, Televisions, VCRs, and other compatible devices
• Supports data transfer rates of up to 400 Mbps
• Video editing software included

Accessories:
Adaptec FireConnect Kit AFW-4300	Addonics 1394 FireWire PCI Card

Customer Reviews:

This product ... [Posted on 2003-03-22]
I purchased this product and have attempted installation on 3 different computers, all failed. The cd wouldn't run at all on computers with windows xp and the software would install but not work on windows 98se. I attempted to contact the compny numerous times and got no response. I tried downloading from their support page but it was useless. I have researced this product online and found that everyone that bought the product couldn't make it work and got no support from the company...

Bad Quality Assurance, Worse Customer Support [Posted on 2003-03-29]
The product I received was defective. E-mails to ActionTec regarding this issue were never answered. I attempted to resolve this issue over the phone and spoke with an apathetic customer service rep who *would not* answer any questions. He would only take down my contact information and promised that someone would contact me soon. They never have. If you enjoy gambling, it's hard to beat the price; but if you get a bad one, kiss your money goodbye.

!!!UPDATE!!!

After complaining to J&R Music World, a J&R rep called us and left a better phone number for ActionTec (see below). I called ActionTec and found out that a number of these FireWire cards have compatibility issues with video cards based on the NVidia chipset (which is what I have). That seems to be the determining factor on whether or not the card will work for you. I am now sending mine back for a newer replacement that is not supposed to have the same problems. If the service is prompt and the new product works, I may bump my rating up a bit higher (although not too high because of the hoops I had to jump through to get this far). If you are one of the poor buggers who could not obtain this information, here is the number that took me directly to a live tech. 800.797.7001. That guy was actually really good!

Best of luck.

***Update***

ActionTec sent me a new card that is working fine. I did have to pay my own shipping costs to send the defective one back to them which cost them a star (yeah, I'm sure they care). However, the turnaround time was acceptable and I'm happy to finally have a working card. I'm glad the headache is over.

Bad product, worse tech support [Posted on 2003-04-01]
I bought this product and tried it in a number of different machines--all Win 98 or Win2k. Windows recognized it after some coaxing. But the performance was dreadful in each case--I either got a choppy data stream or none at all. I checked out their website... all in all pretty useless. So I wrote to Actiontec customer service about it and never got a reply. Avoid this company and it's products.

Actiontec Firewire Card [Posted on 2003-04-18]
I had no problem installing the card (I guess I'm one of the lucky ones). It works, but the video editing software that comes with it is useless. I'm not a pro, but it took me forever to figure out how to input the video, and now I can't figure out how to edit it (it did not come with instructions). I'm going to buy some other software. There were no bad reviews before I bought this product, but after reading the others, I'm glad it worked for me. However, I would be cautious about buying this product due to other's experiences. Good luck.

Horrible product with horrible technical support. [Posted on 2003-04-28]
I own an HP Desktop Pavilion that I bought a year ago. I installed this product with no problems by opening up my PC, inserting the PCI card, connecting the power to the PCI card, booting up my PC, and then installing the appropriate driver. I have the Windows 98 Second Edition operating system on my PC.

Then I hooked up my Sony DCR TRV 33 mini DV camcorder, of course using the firewire interface. The ActionTec PCI card failed to recognize the camera. ... the cable provided with the product was bad. ... I will never purchase another product from ActionTec again.

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