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I have some old family videos on miniDV tapes. Since it's a digital format, it should be possible to get a 1:1 copy of the bits on the tapes. I'm trying to find a hardware/software combo to achieve that. Equipment available to me: • Camcorder the miniDVs were recorded on, with 4-pin FireWire DV output. • Custom-built PC running Ubuntu 23.10 • MacBook Air M1 running macOS 14.0 Sonoma • Power Mac G5 with 6-pin and 8-pin FireWire ports, running Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard What's my best option for capturing a 1:1 copy of the bits on the tape?? • Modern PC with OBS (needs FireWire —> USB cable) • Modern PC with dvgrab (needs FireWire —> USB cable) • MacBook Air M1 with OBS (needs FireWire —> Thunderbolt cable) • Power Mac G5 with Final Cut/iMovie (FireWire native)

I'm trying to plan out a project for a portable pc setup that needs to as compact and light as possible, has an external pcie riser (only needs to support 1 lane), and likely needs to be x86, (so no raspberry pi). The purpose is to replace the uncommon and overpriced firewire recorders such as the SONY HVR-MRC1, or Data Video DN60, which are used to make old MiniDV and Digital8 Camcorders functional without using tapes, and retaining the original quality that they're capable of. They work by taking the signal out of the camera via firewire and writing the same data to an internal drive as the camera would to a miniDV tape. They're especially useful to skaters who have a cultural attachment to using specific period cameras and other people like me who just want to shoot using old cameras for the fun of it. But the tape drives of minidv cameras are prone to failure and the skaters have been buying up any remaining stock so prices on new tapes are getting unreasonable for 25 year old technology. Other Firewire equipment is plentiful but these recorders are a PIA to get ahold of, so I started imagining how to build one, or a rude imitation of one. I've done a bunch of googling and scouring and my current leading ideas are, in order of complexity, find an old tablet or single board pc that has a firewire port AND still works. I've tried looking around for one but looking up old HP model numbers and looking for signs of a 1394 port got old, and at this point you might as well have an old MacBook hanging off the side of the camera. And if this was a good enough solution for the skaters there would just be a run on all the remaining units like has been happening to tapes and to the recorders. I'm only considering this as an option incase I come across something randomly in a thrift store, and even then who knows how long it would continue to work for, its just not future proof enough. get a minipc with either a pci slot or an m.2 slot and an extender to slot a firewire card into, and rig up some battery setup to power the pc and probably the pci riser too, a little screen, just enough i/o to start a capture program like winDV, maybe I could even set up scripts so that it can capture as soon as its plugged in and you don't have to even have a screen and i/o. That seems like a good backup plan if this next one isn't possible, and I'll make a new thread for it if that's the case, The next one is almost the same but its seems difficult, and its the idea that I titled the thread after: 3. a really mini Stick PC, none of which to my knowledge have exposed access to pcie, and performing a procedure like this (link) on the usb or wifi chip in order to get a riser coming out of it like in the 2nd idea. That article is for a Pi, which you can get a real exposed PCIe bus for now, but Jeff Geerling couldnt get a firewire card working on a PI so I really doubt my own abilities to. So I'm not considering ARM SBCs, and I don't have any experience capturing DV on linux so even if it would be more reliable in the long run I'm envisioning doing it in windows since win10 still has native, driverless DV capture that has worked well enough for me. The lack of USB port or Wifi functionality may not matter cause the device only needs to be used for such a specific purpose, (starting and stopping captures) I wish that they just had clones of the sony mrc1 on AliExpress, but the fact that firewire's firewire probably means that it was too locked down, documentation nonexistent, and demand too little for those to be created. If someone way more knowledgeable than me wanted to, would it be possible for a regular person to recreate the internals and print pcbs on something like PCBway, and harvest controllers from firewire devices to make your own bootleg device in the 2020's, lol I wish there was a scene for that. Do any of you know that the usb controller would likely be PCIE under the hood on a stick pc? or that theres actually a stick pc out there with m.2? or that m.2 to full size pcie wouldnt work for these reasons? Sorry if this doesnt make any sense. I'm already out of my depth especially with anything relating to actually making this portable and making a battery rig, but I'll deal with that after I've learned that the idea is even possible. I'm very willing to hear anyone's knowledge that contradicts any part of my thinking, so that I can get on the right track. edit: also if anyone knows of a more specialized forum on the web that this would make sense to ask in, please let me know!

Hi All, I'm trying to digitise my Dad's old Video8/Hi8 video tapes and am running into a few problems installing the Legacy IEEE 1394 drivers onto my Dell XPS 15 9550, running Windows 10 Home 22H2. I'm using a Sony DCR-TRV238E Digital8 camcorder with a Firewire DV port (Sony iLink), connected to my laptop, first via an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, then to an Apple Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire 800 adapter, then finally with a RhinoCables Firewire 800 to Firewire DV (iLink) cable. I have downloaded the Legacy driver and unpacked it, then installed the x64 driver from the .inf file. Unfortunately, whilst a dialog box appears claiming that "The process has been completed successfully", I cannot find any reference to the IEEE 1394 driver in Device Manager, nor will Adobe Premiere recognise the DV device when I open the Capture utility. Could anyone offer any advice, what might I be doing wrong? Many thanks!

Hi, I have an old Mini DV Camcorder of mine, with many many videos of friends and family. I want to "digitalize" them and store them as mp4`s on my computer. So i bought a Firewire PCI-E card and tried capturing the videos through Firewire. However Windows Device Manager and Premiere Pro will not recognize my Camcorder. In Premiere it just says "Capture Device Offline". Even regardless of the DV or HDV setting. I know there are a lot of problems and solutions out there regarding Firwire and capturing video thorugh it. But nothing worked for me so far. I updated the Standard Driver to the 2013 Legancy one. I tried different Firwire Cables (800 to 800 and 800 to 400) and I tried restarting my PC and reslotting my PCI-E card several times. But so far nothing worked for me. There isnt even a "ding" sound when plugging the cable into my PC I made sure the Camcorder is in VTR mode and the Tape is playing back inside the Camcorder just fine. I have no idea what could be causing this and my only guess right now would be that the Firewire Port on my Camcorder is dead (Which is very unlikely given that the Camcorder is in great shape and the port was protected by a flap) So if there is anything i could have missed, or if you guys know any solution, i would really appreciate it The Tapes really mean a lot to me. Greetings, David Sorry for my bad grammar and so forth, just trying

Thunderbolt 3 to Firewire is totally possible for connecting to the new macbooks, yet you have to use thunderbolt 3 to adapter and then another adapter to get firewire, im a music producer theres still alot of firewire interfaces about jeez

So I am looking for a friend on a laptop that meets the below requirements, beyond finding outdated laptops, expensive Macbooks, and telling the dude to build a PC, I am out of ideas. The tricky thing is the fire wire 4 pin that the dude tells me that he needs. Is anyone aware of a adapter that works that I could get for my buddy? Or any other ideas? Requirements - laptop i5/i7 4-8GB of Ram 1TB HDD fire wire 4 pin

Hi there. Just one question. I have this motherboard , can this video capture work with that motherboard? Thanks for help .

I really want to go small form factor (mini ITX or Intel Skull Canyon) but also have to have firewire to connect to a Saffire pro 40 and can't use a PCIe slot as I need a graphics card. Is it a bad idea to connect a firewire to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and then connect that to a thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter then to the motherboard/NUC? Unless there's a thunderbolt 3 to firewire adapter out there I haven't found yet.... Any thoughts appreciated.

Hi. I think the title says it all. I have a COUPLE of TRUCKLOADS of footage on MiniDV tape I need to capture and save, I don’t even want to think about what is waiting for me on VHS. It’s all home video from family trips that I never had the chance to edit but now I waited too long and the damn Firewire 400 port has gone obsolete. What is my best way to capture this footage in 2020? I can’t find anything around. Seems like it cannot be converted to USB since Firewire works through streaming while USB works with packets of data, so what am I left with? Thunderbolt 3? Lastly I was thinking I had to resume my brother’s or my mom’s old Macbook Pro and white Macbook, capture all and transfer it to a hard drive but I really hope there is a more efficient way of doing this since those dinosaurs must be slow AF. Thanks.

Hello everyone Short Summary: I added a PCI Firewirecard to my System (Asus Z97-A, I7 4790k). My System failed to post. I removed the Card. It booted normally. Once. Then It took about 10 attempts for a second successful boot. It posted a couple of times without booting aswell. Long Explanation: When I put my Gigabit Ethernet Card into my father’s computer I saw his Firewire Card. He does not need it for anything and the only reason why I put it in my Rig was so that I could digitize old family footage of our camcorder. After installing the PCI Firewire Card my Pc would not post. Removing the Card led to one successful boot and then it failed to post again, and again. The LED’s lighting up on the motherboard are, according to the motherboard the Dram Led and the CPU led. The VGA Led and the Boot Device LED. They light up in that order, but it must be said that the Dram and Cpu Led does not light up each time and only for a short moment. Here the Quote from the manual: “POST State LEDsThe POST State LEDs provide the status of these key components during POST (Power-On-Self Test): CPU, memory modules, VGA card, and hard disk drives. If an error is found, the critical component’s LED stays lit up until the problem is solved” The Boot_Device LED stays lit the longest, about two seconds. Then the System proceeds to do nothing but moving air with the fans. I am somewhat unsure what is going on. I don’t think the system is dead. After all I was able to boot it twice already. It just took many attempts. I am also pretty sure that removing the Ethernet Card should not cause issues. I could obviously put it back in. The Leds do not tell me much. Especially the Boot Device LED is confusing. The Motherboard Manual talks about hard disk drives. I do have a HDD, but its not my boot device although It does see activity when I start the PC. Even if adding the PCI Card messed something up in the Uefi, I don’t see why I should not be able to get to it. I hope someone knows what happened here. I attached the Motherboard Manual just in case. Thanks in advance DivusJulius E9378_Z97-A_UG_V2_WEB.pdf

Hii, am first time on forum so i dont know am i doing this right, but i have i question, can i use my old sony camcorder to make skype and viber calls? Model number is DCR-HC27E and i have i firewire cable and pci card and thats how i connect it to my pc. I couldnt find any driver on sony support site, but windows 10 automaticly installed some driver for pci card and sony camcorder and its recognizing it. Skype is also recognizing my sony camcorder but when i chose to use it as camera for calls nothing can be seen, just black screen. So am wandering is it posible to work like that at all??

Hello everyone! I would like to record my DV tapes from my cam recorder by using the capture of Premiere Pro CC 2018. A mini DV cable goes from the cam recorder to the firewire pci card. To make it work, the firewire card driver needs to be "394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)". However, in the process of updating the driver, it crashes my PC. Does anyone know how to update the drivers to "394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (Legacy)" without crashing? Or another firewire card I should purchase that supports this driver? Thanks in advance!

I have maybe a silly question regarding the Focusrite Saffire Pro 24. They have discontinued the DSP version, but it looks like the new Pro 24 still has DSP? Can anyone help me with this? lol

Hi folks, A friend of mine asked me to build a PC mainly for use of Pro Tools. He's looking for a small form factor desktop and to spend around $600CAD (more on this in a bit) primarily for music production for his band. This is sort of venturing into new territory for me, as I've never built anything in the Micro ATX or Mini ITX ranges and I'm having a hard time putting a list together with a good price/performance ratio. I don't need a GPU, in fact he needs a Firewire interface so if it comes to only having one PCI slot, it should be used with a Firewire card. This is also something I don't really know much about, except some light Googling revealed that Firewire appeared to be a more Mac-specific connector and that for around $13 I can get a PCIe card with Firewire ports on it. So, a few questions: 1) I don't know anything about Pro Tools. Is it (or can it be) CPU demanding, and is an i5 necessary like it says here for recording and mixing? If there's different versions of Pro Tools, I don't know yet what exactly he's using but I can find out and update this post if needed. Can someone recommend a good CPU and motherboard that offers good price/performance for this particular application? 2) Is using Firewire as simple as buying a PCIe card with the necessary ports and away you go, or are certain motherboards/BOISes better for this? 3) If someone wants to have a crack on making a full parts list, here's everything to consider: - Looking to spend around $600 CAD, but he can be flexible. I think he's not too sure about a starting point and just sort of threw that out there. Does not need a GPU. - Needs FIrewire ports. - 1TB of storage at least, up to 2TB would be preferred (disk storage is fine as I don't think even a small SSD can be squeezed out of such a tight budget). - Needs Win10. - Must be a very small form factor, like Mini ITX. - No peripherals or monitor needed. Will only be driving one monitor and an audio interface. The main things I need today is advice on a good CPU and motherboard and clarification concerning Firewire. Thanks in advance for any help, and a reminder that I do live in Canada and all parts need to be in CAD.

Hello! Have lurked a while, now looking for advice - please move this post if I'm in the wrong place. My partner and I are looking to build a new PC this week. We're happy with the build we want (current part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/skankyfish/saved/3eKL) but we do need to add a firewire card. My other half's a music producer, and he uses a FocusRite Pro DSP 24 audio interface. We're currently using this via firewire to our 2010 iMac, and we'll need a firewire card in the new PC to accomodate it.The soundcard is Firewire 400, but the specs say it'll connect to Firewire 800 (which TBH I think the iMac is using right now). Can anyone recommend a card for us? There are loads available, and the prices seem really variable. None of them are particularly expensive, we just want to make sure that the first one we go for is reasonably reliable, and works without too much arsing about. Thanks!

I've got a Sony DCR-TRV315 Handycam with alot of home videos that were recorded on casette tapes. I'd like to get the full video files off the cassettes before the device dies, and I've been told that I'll need a firewire port on my pc. I have a second PC that's got a P67 Board with PCI/PCIe slots if I need a Firewire card. My question is: -Has anyone done something like this with the same or a similar handycam? -Can someone recommend an (ideally) external firewire adaptor or a firewire card for this purpose? (I live in canada as well)

I got a Node 605 and my MOBO doesn't have a 1394 header. Is there ANYTHING that I can convert into a 1394 header? USB 2.0, SATA and power, I'm not picky, but I'm apparently a little OCD.