The SR12 (big brother to my SR11) does not have a FireWire (IEEE 1394, iLink) port. You connect it to the computer using the USB cable as it records on a built in Hard Drive in either MTS (AVCHD) or MPG (MPEG-2) formats – depending on whether you chose to record in HD or SD respectively.
It cannot take any tapes you have and convert using a pass thru (like my old HC40 could).
I would suggest you take your old tapes to Costco, Walgreens, or wherever you feel comfortable and have them transferred to DVD. In lieu of that, there are quite few combo VCR/DVD recorders (I have a Sony version) that will record from VHS or any composite video/audio signal and create viewable DVD’s (which you can then take to your NLE and capture for further editing).
