My camcorder is 4 wire.

1. My desktop is 6 wire.

I use the 4 to 6 wire cable there.

2. My laptop is 4 wire.

I use the 4 to 4 wire cable there.

Be sure to shop around for the cables. It's not funny that geeks.com newegg.com may sell a firewire cable and PCI firewire card for less than what you see in the stores for just the cable.

My cables were 2.99 bucks each.

Bob