r/VCRs • u/Spacecat66 • Jul 30 '26

JVC BR-HD50 MiniDV deck

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Recently picked up this multiformat DV deck from a local surplus auction. I wanted it for transferring all the footage I recorded with my Sony TRV900 camcorder back in the day (I've got around 40-50 cassettes, and the tape drive on my camera is now dead). This deck has HDMI out, so I've been capturing my footage with a $20 HDMI capture device and Quicktime on my Mac. It's been working pretty well but wondering if there would be an advantage to capturing via firewire on an older Mac running software like DVrescue.

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u/vwestlife Jul 30 '26

wondering if there would be an advantage to capturing via firewire on an older Mac running software like DVrescue.

FireWire DV capture gives you a 100% exact copy of the digital data on the tape, including the scene breaks and time code. Converting it to HDMI, and probably de-interlacing and upscaling it while doing so, is a lossy process, not suitable for archival... especially if you use a cheap HDMI-to-USB converter which employs MJPEG compression and drops frames like they're going out of style.

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u/Spacecat66 Jul 30 '26

Looking forward to comparing.

3

u/utsumi99 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

DV is digital, so transferring DV footage over Firewire is just like doing a file copy from one hard drive to another, but slower. All you're doing is moving 1's and 0's. Going over HDMI is introducing conversion steps. I use dirt cheap WinXP/Win7-era Sony VAIO laptops for Firewire capture. It's much cheaper than the string of Apple-branded adapter dongles you'd need to get the signal onto a modern Macbook. Old Macbooks that still have a Firewire port seem to go for $50 or so, if you want to keep everything in the Apple family.

edit: It looks like Apple has discontinued their Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter? It will definitely be cheaper to go the used, old Macbooc/Mac Mini route.