Capture mini DV without Firewire?

M

MarcRoberts

Member
So it has been a long time coming but my firewire port on my HVX200a is now completely dead. It has been acting screwy for months. I have mostly just been using USB via PC (I use both PC and Mac, FCP and Premeire) to get the data from my p2 cards. I have some DV tapes I need to log. Is there absolutely any way I can capture them without firewire? I don't feel like wasting the $500 on repairing the firewire port since this seems like a problem likely to happen again. With a dead firewire port am I completely out of luck when it comes to the DV deck on my camera? Is it possible to dub from the DV tape to a p2 card? I would like to bypass using firewire on this camera all together. Thanks for any input!
 
You can get an old, used, low quality camera for less than the cost of repairs. Use that as your capture cam, since the answer is no. Or at least no to capturing without firewire, the dubbing idea might work.
 
Thank you for your response. Can anyone speak to the quality level of the RCA output? Lets say I go RCA to a capture card. How much quality have I lost? Footage is 480i/60
 
You might consider a bi-directional DV converter like the Grass Valley ADVC models. They range from $120 up but even the basic models will allow you to ingest Composite and S-Video along with audio and will output DV via firewire to any Mac or PC. The better ones have controls and line TBC's to help stabilize the signal upon conversion.
 
Thanks for all of the information! I have decided to purchase a cheap mini DV cam and use it as a deck. I have found one for $120. Are there any quality problems purchasing one this cheap or is it the same either way for my use?
 
DV is DV. 1's and 0's don't change quality when ingesting from tape. I would suggest pricing out a repair to the firewire though. It might be close to the cost of that camera, depending where you go.
 
Great thats what I was hoping! I have read that to repair a broken firewire port on the HVX is anywhere from 350 - 500 with a 3 week turnaround time. Plus I cant find anywhere in the Dallas area that can service it. My main concern is that I will spend the money to fix it and it will just break again. Anyhow thanks for the info all! Cheap DV camera it is.
 
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