This probably has a simple answer...

I can capture HD to both of my laptops but not to my beefier desktop. I have a firewire card for my desktop, but it doesn't recognize either of my FX1s or my HC3. I've tried this with Hdvsplit and in Vegas. The firewire card picks up by external hard drives, so I know the card it good.

Thoughts?

This is probably silly, but are you sure you have XP SP2 installed on the desktop?

XP Pro, with Service Pack 2, yes...

What setup are you running on your laptop? What processor, RAM, etc. Just curious, thanks.

Things to try:

Same fire wire ? Try another one.

In Vegas, are you selecting the internal HDV capture utility ?

Firewire Card could work fine for drives, but not cameras. Try another card ??

What are camera's set at ? DV or HDV output ??? If the cameras are set at DV output, does the card recognize them then.

What brand is firewire card ??