How to capture Mini DV Firewire footage in 2020?

[Drexo]

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. 

[minibois]

Then only sort of modern FireWire stuff I have seen around are PCI and PCIe FireWire cards. Be sure to get. PCIe with FireWire 400 (many only have 800).

But check what Windows it is compatible with too, because it wouldn't surprise me if you need like Windows 7 or something for it to work.

[SupaKomputa]

pre 2010 macs still support firewire.

[lieder1987]

You can also look into a service like this:

https://www.costcodvd.com/services-and-pricing/videotape-transfer

 

It will be pricey, but the convenience might be worth it too you.

[Thanatopsis]

StarTech makes a couple of Firewire Cards and it should be compatible with 10 but double check on your own.  and if you have firewire 800 it is backwards compatible with firewire 400.  This is a firewire 400 card.

[harryk]

6 hours ago, Drexo said:

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.

Unless you have a very fancy camera or capture deck the tapes will only read at 1x speed so an old MacBook will have no issue keeping up. Also you can chain adapters to get Firewire 400 to Thunderbolt 3.

[Drexo]

4 hours ago, harryk said:

Unless you have a very fancy camera or capture deck the tapes will only read at 1x speed so an old MacBook will have no issue keeping up. Also you can chain adapters to get Firewire 400 to Thunderbolt 3.

I don’t have a desktop PC to use PCIe cards nor I’m using an external service, for that I prefer arming myself with patience and do the whole thing with an old Mac. I knew at the end I had to resort to some sort of frankenstein daisy chaining of adapters but so far this is what a I got:

1. OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock with Firewire 800 port. From my memory, this is the only adapter it has ever been made with direct Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. I think this is the first iteration of the TB3 OWC dock back in 2017, current OWC docks don’t have Firewire anymore so I’ll have to find one used. https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/14/review---owc-thunderbolt-3-dock-is-the-only-game-in-town-for-firewire-800. Then You just connect your MiniDV device with a Firewire 400 (6 or 4 pin version) to 800 with either https://www.amazon.com/PASOW-FireWire-Cable-Firewire-9-pin/dp/B00X65XHZG/ref=pd_sbs_23_t_1/143-1198515-3632057?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00X65XHZG&pd_rd_r=9ebacc7a-73cb-4567-9711-c2025655f104&pd_rd_w=KSNWL&pd_rd_wg=5Aedz&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8&psc=1&refRID=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8 or this https://www.amazon.com/Bizlander-Firewire-Premium-800-400-MacBook/dp/B01KPZTZNM/ref=pd_sbs_23_t_2/143-1198515-3632057?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01KPZTZNM&pd_rd_r=9ebacc7a-73cb-4567-9711-c2025655f104&pd_rd_w=KSNWL&pd_rd_wg=5Aedz&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8&psc=1&refRID=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8.
2. The alternative is using a series of adapters:
   • Apple Thunderbolt (version 1? or 2?) to Firewire 800 adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter?referrer=https://www.google.com.mx/ and...
   • Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter.

Worst part of this is that none of this is guaranteed to work.

[harryk]

4 hours ago, Drexo said:

Worst part of this is that none of this is guaranteed to work.

It should. 

 

I personally have use the Thunderbolt 2 -> Firewire 800 -> Firewire 400 combo with success. And there are reports of people using the Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 -> Firewire 800 -> Firewire 400 combo.

 

If you want to save a few bucks you can usually get the Apple adapters in used condition on eBay for ~50% off MSRP.

[Radium_Angel]

On 1/29/2020 at 1:59 PM, Drexo said:

Worst part of this is that none of this is guaranteed to work.

So pick up an old iMac (the all in one jobs) for dirt cheap, transfer files using the built-in FW port, then save to a USB stick, re-sell the iMac, and process on modern hardware?

[Razor512]

If you have an old sound card such as an Audigy 2 ZS, you likely have a firewire port that still works even on more modern systems as long as you have a PCI slot.

 

If you have an old PC that you are using as a home server or NVR and have a spare port, check if you have any old cards laying around that may have the port you need, then use that system as an ingest server for the media.

 

[KarlG93]

I know I'm a bit late to this party but I have an answer for you.

If you have Adobe Premier Pro you can still import tapes over firewire.

Up until two months ago I was still using Adobe for all my video production needs, and one of my cameras which I still use for certain things is an old Sony Z1e which records to miniDV tape. most firewire cards on Amazon still work in Windows 10 with no issues.

 

Now days I'm using Davinci Resolve, which unfortunatly doesn't have the option to capture from tape in the usual sense.

However, I have found that using an old Mac Mini with iMovie installed works really well as a miniDV ingest/capture machine and is also cheap to get hold of.

 

Hope this helps.

[Pasi123]

WinDV still works on Windows 10. I don't know about PCI-E FireWire cards but the built-in FireWire ports on my Asus P6X58D-E motherboard and HP Z400 Workstation works without any problems.

I just recently copied over 80GB of videos from MiniDV tapes

[zbk]

Seconding previous posts. WinDV (and I'm assuming premiere) works great with Firewire 400 (IEEE 1394) PCIe cards. I've been doing the same and its worked great.

 

(Much better than doing it on an mac)

 

The following is what I purchased and works with windows 10, it's currently unavalible but there are many lookalikes on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0753H8GTY/

[BartConway]

On 1/29/2020 at 10:59 AM, Drexo said:

I don’t have a desktop PC to use PCIe cards nor I’m using an external service, for that I prefer arming myself with patience and do the whole thing with an old Mac. I knew at the end I had to resort to some sort of frankenstein daisy chaining of adapters but so far this is what a I got:

1. OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock with Firewire 800 port. From my memory, this is the only adapter it has ever been made with direct Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. I think this is the first iteration of the TB3 OWC dock back in 2017, current OWC docks don’t have Firewire anymore so I’ll have to find one used. https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/05/14/review---owc-thunderbolt-3-dock-is-the-only-game-in-town-for-firewire-800. Then You just connect your MiniDV device with a Firewire 400 (6 or 4 pin version) to 800 with either https://www.amazon.com/PASOW-FireWire-Cable-Firewire-9-pin/dp/B00X65XHZG/ref=pd_sbs_23_t_1/143-1198515-3632057?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00X65XHZG&pd_rd_r=9ebacc7a-73cb-4567-9711-c2025655f104&pd_rd_w=KSNWL&pd_rd_wg=5Aedz&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8&psc=1&refRID=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8 or this https://www.amazon.com/Bizlander-Firewire-Premium-800-400-MacBook/dp/B01KPZTZNM/ref=pd_sbs_23_t_2/143-1198515-3632057?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01KPZTZNM&pd_rd_r=9ebacc7a-73cb-4567-9711-c2025655f104&pd_rd_w=KSNWL&pd_rd_wg=5Aedz&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8&psc=1&refRID=FQJXJCJ6ZY2APHV517M8.
2. The alternative is using a series of adapters:
   • Apple Thunderbolt (version 1? or 2?) to Firewire 800 adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD464LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-to-firewire-adapter?referrer=https://www.google.com.mx/ and...
   • Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter.

Worst part of this is that none of this is guaranteed to work.

Drexo (or anyone):

 

Have you successfully used this 13-port OWC dock, via the FW800 port, to connect to a DV camera (or deck) to capture footage (on a Mac)? After reading this thread, I bought one, and... absolutely no luck. Four different versions of Adobe Premiere (2019-2022) and old QuickTime Player fail to recognize the camera, or my DV deck – I tried both.

 

Premiere 2022 came closest, by actually initiating Device Control with the Sony DV deck. I was able to rewind/FF/etc. from the on-screen window... but NOT play. No image. Period.

 

Has anyone done this successfully? Because I am losing my mind trying to capture reams of old DV tape. And I tried the Apple adapter trick(s), too. Nope.

[Brian McKee]

Syba PCI-Express Firewire Expansion Card

 

 This is what I use for all my firewire needs. Be it an old photo scanner or DV tapes. Has worked perfectly.

[BartConway]

2 hours ago, Brian McKee said:

Syba PCI-Express Firewire Expansion Card

 

 This is what I use for all my firewire needs. Be it an old photo scanner or DV tapes. Has worked perfectly.

I just ordered one. I had considered a PCIe card before, yes, but that's only going to help me out on my Hackintosh tower; I've got several other machines which need the DV transfer capability, and they are laptops and an iMac Pro.

 

FWIW, I had a long chat with tech support at OWC today. They said they can't – and never did – verify that the FW800 port on their TB3 dock would work with a DV camera in this manner. They have no cameras to test. The suggestion was made that it was an issue on my device(s)'s end, but I don't see that as likely. The protocol is the protocol.

[Brian McKee]

29 minutes ago, BartConway said:

I just ordered one. I had considered a PCIe card before, yes, but that's only going to help me out on my Hackintosh tower; I've got several other machines which need the DV transfer capability, and they are laptops and an iMac Pro.

 

FWIW, I had a long chat with tech support at OWC today. They said they can't – and never did – verify that the FW800 port on their TB3 dock would work with a DV camera in this manner. They have no cameras to test. The suggestion was made that it was an issue on my device(s)'s end, but I don't see that as likely. The protocol is the protocol.

Have you tried the firewire to thunderbolt 2 adapter from apple? As far as I'm aware that adapter can be plugged into their thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter. A little pricey but I think it has good compatibility from what I read.

[BartConway]

1 hour ago, Brian McKee said:

Have you tried the firewire to thunderbolt 2 adapter from apple? As far as I'm aware that adapter can be plugged into their thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 3 adapter. A little pricey but I think it has good compatibility from what I read.

Yes. No connection. Works fine for my Duet sound card, but not for my DV camera or deck.

[BartConway]

On 7/11/2022 at 11:00 AM, BartConway said:

Yes. No connection. Works fine for my Duet sound card, but not for my DV camera or deck.

I made a depressing/positive discovery worth sharing: the T3 OWC dock works, after all. Much to my chagrin, the FireWire output on my Panasonic camera seems to have died (both directions). It worked two weeks ago, but... it took connecting a Sony DSR-11 DVCAM deck to the dock, instead, to determine that it IS possible to capture DV using the dock.

 

Some hitches I have found: on Big Sur, at least, Premiere Pro (v. 2018-2022) will not actually recognize a device. The capture has to happen with other software, such as the old QuickTime Player. Other users' mileage may vary, but that's the result I am getting.

[rrats]

You might consider using a forum page such as doom9 or videofaq as they are very smart when it comes to video transfering and filtering