Anolog to digital

I have read about firewire, and i am still hopelessly lost.

I have a Sony Handycam ccd-trv318

I have 4 ports;

• DC IN
• S Video OUT
• A/V OUT
• RFU DC OUT

Is it possible to transfer footage to a laptop? If so how? If not I'm screwed...

You could get a video capture card for your laptop. Your handycam is a Hi-8 model, so it won't have any digital output like an USB or Firewire, your only option is the video capture card. <a href="http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0292690">l ike this one</a>, and thats about as cheap as it gets. Your laptop needs to have somewhat decent performance though, an Pentium 4/Athlon XP or newer to work smoothly. If you're using a mac, they have other versions of the video capture available for that as well.

Hope that helps.

ok thank you that cleared everything up

You could look into the Pinnacle Systems Moviebox Plus. Based on the original Dazzle technology, the Movie Box plus has the plug in hardware (via USB) which will allow you to capture from DV, HDV, Digital8 camcorders, analog camcorders, 8 mm, HI 8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C, SVHS-C, or VCRs (NTSC/PAL/SECAM). $119. I think it'll give you a lot more options than the DazzleDVD model. (which has been discontinued)