How rugged is DVX's Firewire port?

A

Aejaz

Well-known member
Despite its ability for two way transfer of data through the firewire port, the DVX is nonetheless originally desigend to be recording on tape.

With the arrival of new devices such as FS4, the workflow would mainly shift to the firewire port. My concern is how labour intensive and technically stable is DVX's inbuilt firewire port...for say an almost of 90%shift of the camera workflow through it....instead of tape. Would it get 'fried' after a certain number of hours of use or one can use it with some peace of mind. I think this is important to know, beofre one invests further on any additional equipment.

Can someone from Panasonic comment....Jan?
 
Jan has said that it's very important that the camera be "off" when connecting/disconnecting the IEEE1394 cable. Otherwise the circuit board can get fried, and this has happened to many folks.

Don't jiggle the cable around--pins could break. I think you can find cables that have angled connectors. Also, you should support the cable to immobilize it at the connection point. Like double wrap it around the hand strap or something. Anyway, that's what I would do.
 
Thanx for the comment Frizzle fry

Actually what I am interested in knowing is whether the circuit board of the firewire port is ready to take all that load, if one starts using it as say...primary port of import or export of digital data for the DVX. Or should just keep it as an exclusive option for the captures where a lossless capture is needed?
 
1. You shoudl try to use another camera/deck for capture and pritn to tape to avoid wear and tear on DVX.
2. Firewire out (and any output from DVX) has already had compression applied. There's no quality difference going from DVX directly to a computer or going from a tape from the DVX in a deck.
 
Should be no problem handling full-time use as primary output. If not, you can always get it repaired, right? But it's worth the risk, imo.
 
What about semi-permanently installing a very short male -> female firewire cable on the camera, well-secured at the plugged-in end, and using the free end for routine connection/disconnection...

btw now re-reading my manual cuz I missed the part what sez that one pluggeth not in the cable whilst the power is upon the camera...
 
well, i broke the port on my first DVX, one of the pins got hooped, but it was my fault. Turned out to be good, because it makes sure i dont get lazy and try and use it as a deck.

Only crappy thing is that nobody would want to buy it used now.
 
My uncle who works at a repair shop has always been really upset about the firewire being a "standard". Thats because he thinks it really is one of the most hopeless designs ever, and why do they have to make the 4-pins so small? He also told me that if Im not very carefull when connecting it (putting it straight in and not bending it), I would bend the pins inside the camera, and repeating this would finally break them. And that is the most usual camera mafunction he repairs.

Now why dont they make 6-pins for plugging into the camera? Those have got to be more rugged.
 
To venture a guess, 6-pin connectors are used for devices that receive their power from the firewire bus, i.e. external hard drive. To have a 6-pin on the camera would require a larger circuit board as well, and space is limited in these days where small size is virtuous.

Even though most of us don't use our DVX as a deck, Panasonic should have had more foresight to assume lots of us would be using the camera to capture to a laptop or other ext. hdd. Yes, these connections should be much more rugged than they are.

After much searching, there are a couple of right-angle cables out there:
http://www.cooldrives.com/6to4fiildvca.html
http://fwdepot.com/thestore/default.php/cPath/2_18?osCsid=6ba6221dcfd31257f92221a1dfe8d8ce
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/professional/tib/tib7087.jhtml?id=0.1.14.34.5.186&lc=en

Maybe something could be riggeed with this:
http://www.cablesnmor.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=88

Use cable tie straps to secure the cable into a position that will not allow any movement at the connection. The moral of the story here is be very gentle when connecting the cable and be very careful once it's connected.
 
All Firewire ports as any mini pinned plug types are very delicate. Try jamming a USB cable into a Firewire port by mistake, like I did once, and you'll learn how delicate those little pins are.
 
Lol, well I once plugget a USB into a firewire port, and it fried the firewire interface of my "good" old trv255... *scared*
 
I think the concerns for the fragile inlet of the firewire port are well known now.

But what about the circuit board of the firewire port in the DVX?

Does any one has any comments?....Specifically about the durability of the minute circuitary therein. How much you guys think one can relay on this port for regular tapeless acquisition. I mean no capture or tape invloved ....mostly. I have a hunch that if the 4 pin inlet is so delicate, the circuit board would not be a very different story either.

MiniMan....what your uncle has to say about this?
 
Aejaz, I think the circuit board is no concern. It's not much different than a connection in, say, an iPod. And people transfer large volumes on and off all the time. What's going to fry the circuitry, if anything, is electrical surges, such as one experienced when hot-plugging.

But, official Panasonic confirmation would be appreciated. Aejaz wants expert opinion, not anecdotal evidence.
 
A 4-pin 1394 connection has no power in it, just data/strobe. I'd think any electrical disasters would be caused by bending/shorting the pins, or a really crappy 6-to-4 cable that put the 30 volts on a data line or the shield.

Dan
 
Sad Max said:
What about semi-permanently installing a very short male -> female firewire cable on the camera, well-secured at the plugged-in end, and using the free end for routine connection/disconnection...

btw now re-reading my manual cuz I missed the part what sez that one pluggeth not in the cable whilst the power is upon the camera...
Click to expand...

This would be a good idea, It would beat my idea of screwing in a small stiff spring to the dvx (like the screwed in comp. monitor cable end you screw into the tower) and weaving inside the spring the firewire. Kind of like old guitar amp cables. It would "spring" out any movement from the other end of the firewire. But this idea is a bit obtrusive for the handheld DVX!

different question --Is there any safe way to replace the ports on the dvx with gold plated ports? Has anyone done this :beer:
 
Gold plating might help if there was a conductance problem (dirt,etc) but the big problem is the small pins if the cable isn't plugged in correctly/gently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top