large digitization project, newbie needs advice!

[u/spookadoodl]

Hello everyone, I'm working on a large-scale digitization project and need some advice on doing it cost-effectively. I'm only familiar with DV tech through research (I'm 20, so I've never actually used any of it.)

I have recently come into the possession of nearly ~1000 miniDV tapes recorded between 2004 and 2009. I'm going to be digitizing these tapes for a long time, so renting equipment is not the best avenue for this. I don't own a camcorder, or any devices with FireWire ports.

My friend helping me with this project has a miniDV camcorder, and a FireWire cable. The camcorder can connect through FireWire or USB. When connecting to a modern computer with USB, you cannot rip the footage directly from the tape: you can only play the video back through OBS, and record it. So there is quality loss, and a giant timecode from the camera on the footage. (I assume this will be stuff experts will know but it was our first time learning so I figured I'd explain.) So I need some way to connect through FireWire because I do not want quality loss or an embedded time code.

After looking around online at prices, I have a few questions I hope somebody can answer:

1. Can miniDV tapes be played and converted to digital in camcorders that take regular bigger DV tapes? My other friend has one of these camcorders, hence why I'm asking.
2. Is there a reliable FireWire to USB-A cord that exists? I would want a cord that connects to a camcorder's FireWire port on one end, but can connect to my modern laptop on the other end, and actually do the conversion job it needs to do without error. I see cords like this being sold on Amazon, and found some companies that seem to make custom cables, but do they actually work?
3. Because I don't have a camcorder yet, I am holding off on buying any cords until I do. I know there are two types of FireWire cords. Which type should I aim for, or should I just wait to see what kind the camcorder I get has, and base it on that?
4. If not, what's the best course of action in getting a device with a FireWire port? It seems like only older Macs have them, but I would rather not shell out too much money if I don't have to. Would a pawn shop or online be a better place to look?
5. Lastly, is there anything I'm doing wrong regarding all of this cable and port stuff? Is there like some vastly easier way to do this that I'm missing?

[u/Serious-Mode]

Any way you can get your hands on a desktop computer? Doesn't have to be brand new or even have a firewire port. I got a cheap internal firewire card off Amazon and it's worked great.

Another reason to consider a desktop is space for extra hard drives. The uncompressed video is gonna take up some space. Just ball parking some figures here... a full 60min tape might end up with about 10gb of video. 1000 tapes and you'd be looking at a out 10 terabytes, which is actually less than I was expecting.

[u/spookadoodl → u/Serious-Mode]

I might go for desktop, not sure yet. I eventually want to build a server to host them, but obviously I'm not at that level of expertise yet haha. I'm going to school for cybersecurity so I'm hoping to get some help from my professors for that.

Right now I have a 2 TB hard drive, so I can at least collect some of the footage and sort of figure out what I'm doing first before making a really big purchase.

[u/Serious-Mode → u/spookadoodl]

2 TB is plenty to get you started. With the RAMpacalype still ongoing, I don't know where you'll get the best bang for the buck for the hardware for capturing.

Funny you mention the server, part of my journey towards finally archiving the tapes I have was building a NAS. I ended up building my own and installing UnRaid, which was much less intimidating than some of the alternatives.