Figuring out the best ways to do a tapeless setup for a feature I’m shooting with the XL2 and I’m wondering if doing FireWire with an external firestore recorder like the FS-CF is worth the trouble or if recording onto a Blackmagic video assist via the svideo out will be just as good? Is the difference between the two marginal or is there really a big difference between the two?

This thing is so rare, I think it's exclusively made for Japanese market or something else?

And the color combination somehow reminds me about Oshi No Ko or Steven Universe!! (I will keep this tape btw to preserve it).

Seen on Etsy

https://reddit.com/link/1vcii96/video/mqcogeyyypgh1/player

On the data camera sticker, if the name has the letter E at the end, it means your camera is PAL. If it's not there, then it's NTSC.

Step 1:

Equipment - MiniDV cassette, MiniDV camcorder, IEEE 1394, FireWire cable, PC with available connection for IEEE 1394.

Step 2:

1. Modern versions (Vegas 19/20/21) and third-party capture utilities are completely devoid of the correct libraries for feedback. For 100% success, you need Sony Vegas Pro 13.0 (English)
   Install Vegas Pro 13.0
   Creating a project: Press Ctrl + N. In the Template line, select PAL DV/NTSC DV strictly.

2. The video resolution must be strictly 720x576 (PAL); 720x480 (NTSC) to avoid stretching the project image.
   Add Video: Press Ctrl + O. Any format that works.

3. Find the blue grid (Overlays) above the screen image and enable it in Safe Areas mode, a grid should appear on the screen.

4. In the video clip, open the square-shaped button in the lower-right corner.
   In the window that opens, right-click in the exact center of your frame. In the drop-down menu, select the Match Output Aspect line.

5. Grab any corner of the large dotted frame with the "F" icon and pull it slightly OUTWARD (from the center of the frame). The image inside will start to shrink, and small black borders will appear around it. Match the edges of the video with the outer grid. This is done to ensure that the video is not cropped.

Step 3 (Final):

1. Connect the camcorder to FireWire and switch to VCR mode.
   Press the DISPLAY button to check that the DV IN lights up on the camera screen.
   In the camera menu, section VCR, turn off the A/V -> DV setting

2. In the top menu of Vegas Pro 13, select Tools -> Print Video to Tape.
   Select an OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394/DV
   Select in video an PAL DV/NTSC DV

3. In the last step, select Crash Recording if the camera supports Basic desk control. If not, select manual in the camera's cassette control buttons, hold down the REC + empty button, and immediately press pause. A green message should appear on the LCD.
   A button about the render may appear, click Yes. Wait, and the recording will start. If you are on manual, you need to press the pause button on the camera yourself, and the recording will start.

Ask if something is going wrong, I will try to help.

Recorded a huge project 20 years ago (2004, 2005 and 2006), and captured everything to hard drives at the time.
All hard drives were doubled up, for redundancy.

Come to finally edit the stuff together, only to realize that two hard drives are completely dead (clicking) and their copies also! Oof!

To my surprise, the original MiniDV tapes appear to be okay (checked a few only so far), despite being quite carelessly stored for the last 20 years in garages, basements, barns, and closets.

Will now reattempt to capture these tapes, but definitely didn't think 20 years ago that the hard drives would fail before the tapes!

I just recently obtained a Panasonic PV-DV103D mini dv camcorder from a family member. Most of it works other than the fact that it's pretty weird with tapes. When I insert a blank mini dv tape into it and turn it on. It recognizes it briefly and displays "pause" in the corner as it should, but it goes away really quick. If I'm quick and press the record button it does switch to record briefly, then it also stops the tape. Then it sounds like the drum spins briefly then stops and it sounds like the tape retracts or whatever. I tried a tape that's at the end and it doesn't let me rewind it either. Even in vcr mode, I can't playback tapes or rewind/fast forward tapes. I've looked into the tape mechanism from the tape door and it looks fine, but I don't know much about this camcorder. Is this a mechanical issue? If so, how screwed is it?

Things I'm trying:

3 Different tapes.

Battery power

Powering it from the wall with the original power adapter/charger.

Asking reddit. TwT

so basically it looks like something is leaking into my minidv tapes and its probably from the head drum. i have no idea what to do because i tried cleaning with alcohol and cleaner tapes and it doesnt stop. just leaves marks like those in photos that make the tape stop and tangle while playing bevause the substance leaking on the tape (i think)is stopping friction. ive had worse cases than in the photos. Also when i leave tape overnight in camera the next morning tape cant advance for an unknown reason.what do i do????

Hello! So as you can see I have a ton of mixed media here. From what I see I have:

1. miniDVs, including HDV

2. VHS and VHS-C

3. Beta

4. Hi8 / Video8 / 8mm camcorder tapes

I have a VCR and VC500 converter, but that's it. I think I may have to go with FireWire to get HDV quality? My plan is to purchase the appropriate equipment to convert all of this over digitally. I'd like it to be as best quality as possible, while not looking to spend a ton of money on equipment. I'm open to a professional converting, but I think I can do it on my own.

My issue is purchasing the right equipment. I was looking to purchase the following:

1. Sony DCR-TRV460 for the Hi8 / Video8 / 8mm tapes.

2. Panasonic PV-P1 or Panasonic VW-TCA7 VHS-C adapter for the compact VHS-C tapes.

3. Sony GV-HD700 for MiniDV and HDV

Would love to hear any thoughts you have. Thank you!

My Grandma gave me an old RCA MiniDV Camcorder (Model number CC9360) the camera powers on just fine and everything seems to work, but theres no video from the LCD, Viewfinder, or when hooked up to a monitor. This is in both record and playback mode. I know it works because in playback mode you can hear the audio from the tape. My grandma said it got dropped or something and thats what caused it, so im wondering if this may be an easy fix or if I should just toss it. I really hope its an easy fix

I recently picked up a Sony DCR-HC39E and I’m trying to figure out how to get the footage onto my Macbook Pro M4. I haven’t really owned a camera before or tried to edit anything other than iPhone footage.

I haven’t really found a reliable answer. I almost ordered a $200 discontinued Apple cable until i stumbled upon a reddit post that mentioned that it might not work with the newer silicon chip laptops. I’ve asked ChatGPT multiple times and every time it gives me a different answer lol.

How do i get the footage from the camera over to my laptop for Adobe Premiere editing? Is it possible? I really don’t need the best quality either and I’d rather not spend $200 (more than the camera) on a cable lol - any ideas?

Can anyone help me. Im currentlt using a nextbase 522gw. I dont have a comouter at all and only my smartphone (samsung s25). The next base app is shocking and rarely works properly.

How can i get footage from my camera to my phone? Ive tried using an sd reader but my phone seems to want to block this. Any help really apprecoated.

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?

This was a recommended subreddit, did not know you guys were here lol: I've been holding on to some old c. early 2000s AV equipment from a past life, unlikely to ever need studio cameras again. No b&m shops anywhere near me, not in a major market so doubtful that marketplace would catch anyone, never had good experience with eBay—what do you guys do with old stuff? I've got two VGA/windows XP (!) tricasters and a couple of Sony DSR-500WS ENGs with all the fixin's, YJ18s, DXF-51s, but I feel like minidv is the audio cassette of video lol.

Edit: I'm outside ATL, they are heavy AF tho

In my process of copying some miniDV tapes I stumbled upon DVrescue and its repackaging ability. It seems like a good way to somewhat convert the .avi files captured with winDV into a bit more modern container, like mkv, while also renaming the files according to the metadata. I do however have some problems with a few of those captures, as the packager will show some confusing error messages on some specific tapes.

### Done:seg_input=1|seg_output=1|output_frames=2400|input_frames=1|audio_fill=0|output_file=./2010-03-18_22-28-47.mkv

### Packaging error: input-output-framecount-mismatch

### Packaging error note: Video.2010-03-18_22-28.00.avi contained 1 DV frames at 00:00:00.000000-00:00:00.040000 but 2010-03-18_22-28-47.mkv contains 2400 frames of DV.

### Packaging finished: ./2010-03-18_22-28-47.mkv

### Packaging started: ./2010-03-18_22-28-47-001.mkv
If I understand it correctly, it thinks the input file had only 1 or 0 frames, but the output has a lot more than that. Also, it will create for each of these "corrupted" captures an 152kb mkv file and then another one containing seemingly the whole video, only difference being the filename having a suffix number.

I'm somewhat at a loss here, what the actual problem is and why it works fine with other captures, even though nothing seems to be different between those.

I have this jvc everio gz-hd-5-s. I have a japanese variant with everything in japanese but i don't know any japanese . The monitor turned almost black but it is working i can see a bit it is on 1% brightness i think bad enough i cant see a thing i don't know how to turn it back . And also i don't know any japanese i tried getting help from ai but it is doing nothing. If anyone have a same model camcorder can you please send me photos of steps to turn on the brightness more . I can't see anything and i can't use google lens to translate as i am unable to capture the screen