How to use FireWire WITHOUT Thunderbolt or adapters to capture DV & HDV tapes with an old computer
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- Apple discontinued the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter which I've featured in all my past videos, which allowed you to use devices like camcorders with modern computers. With that adapter now difficult to find, here is a way you can use FireWire devices WITHOUT the adapter by finding an old computer with FireWire on board, or installing a PCIe card to add FireWire capabilities in a desktop PC. Below are timestamps, as well as links to the hardware and software you'll need.
Time Stamps:
0:00 - Intro
0:08 - What happened to the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter?
0:22 - Does that process still work?
0:34 - People still need FireWire!
0:51 - What you'll need now
1:17 - Choosing a Mac
1:50 - Choosing a PC
2:52 - Choosing an operating system
3:24 - Onboard ports
3:38 - My camcorder needed replaced
4:24 - Unboxing the PCIe FireWire card
5:05 - Installing the PCIe FireWire Card
5:42 - The software you'll need
6:19 - Troubleshooting
6:43 - Transferring the video to a newer computer
6:56 - Wrap up
7:40 - End
Links to the items mentioned in the video:
Laptops with FireWire:
amzn.to/3HCspr6
The PCIe card I showed in this video:
amzn.to/4bo5VI7
Other PCI, PCIe, ExpressCard, to FireWire:
amzn.to/3ueJN27
FireWire 400 to 400 Mini cable:
amzn.to/3vQvi5c
FireWire 800 to 400 Mini cable:
amzn.to/48Rca5o
FireWire 800 to 400 cable:
amzn.to/3UbK4xs
FireWire 400 mini to 400 mini cable:
amzn.to/47Sslyf
FireWire 400 mini to 400 full size adapter:
amzn.to/47W3OrU
Other items I recommend:
www.amazon.com/shop/scottschramm
(note the links above are affiliate links which helps support my channel. Your price stays the same but a small commission may come back to me if you decide to purchase anything using my links. It's a win-win for everyone!)
Software Mentioned:
WinDV: www.videohelp.com/software/WinDV
HDV Split: www.videohelp.com/software/HD...
Windows Live Essentials 2012: archive.org/details/wlsetup-a...
K-Lite Codec Pack Basic: codecguide.com/download_k-lit...
ffdshow: sourceforge.net/projects/ffds...
Handbreak: handbrake.fr/
Other videos I've made about FireWire that may help you:
• How to use FireWire in... - Наука та технологія
Solution: Go back in time.
Hey Scott, good video. I have a Mackie 1640i FireWire mixer. I sue two PCs, an older dell XPS that has FW integrated on the motherboard. I’ve used windows 7 and 10 on it and it works to this day. I also have a new XPS added a PCIe FireWire card and on windows 11, it works nearly as well, just as slightly more latency. FW can be made to work on modern hardware using up to Win11 successfully. Apple, on the other hand decided to remove all FW support from their Core Audio. There may be a way to get it back but at the cost of reduced security.
Scott- Thank you so much for your content. I was about to pull the trigger on a firewire adapter from ebay but saw this and now looking at a 2012 mac mini with a firewire 800 port. for the around same price! hopefully it will suffice.
how did it work?
Scott thanks for putting these videos together. I am now trying on an old Mac running OS 10.5.8 it has Firewire 400 so I am running FW 400 to DV and still do not see either of my 2 Sony cameras. One is a Sony DCR-HC38 the other is DCR-TRV460 NTSC. When I go to check the firewire bus a message comes up in red Waring unable to find firewire devices and max speed is up to 400 Mb/sec. At one time I had it working on my 2020 M1 MacBook Pro using all the adapters. I think my Thunderbolt 2 to 3 went out. On an old Mac do you have to hit a certain key when you boot up the computer for it to recognize an external device?
You may be thinking about Target Disk Mode but that’s not applicable with this. It sounds like your FireWire cable is bad since it doesn’t work with either camcorder or either Mac.
3:39 that is a issue i see on many camcorder forums. The solution i found is that you should never leave any device on when connecting the firewire cable otherwise you can short circuit both of the boards
To fix your camera i would suggest swapping the port of the camera you had with the camera you bought (did this with my sony hvr z1) it should be a pretty quick fix with sony cameras, but i dont know about canon…
Thx. a bunch of my Sony cam 4-pins have crushed in so looking to replace the port inserts.
So I have a MacBook pro 2011 with firewire port. I have been able to transfer video using iMovie, OBS, and LifeFlix. But I am not having success capturing audio. Any suggestions? You seem the most knowledgable and clear in your explanations than others I have seen on YT. I appreciate any ideas you might have.
Check the menus on the camcorder for any audio settings. Sometimes there is a setting called format or sample rate and there are usually two options to pick from. Change it to the whatever the other setting is and that should fix it. Towards the middle of this video I show such settings ua-cam.com/video/P5PdxKTmL0I/v-deo.html
I got my Cannopus Box working by using a Dell Firewire Card with their Legacy Driver for win 10. Works good with DV Video. Before that i used a old vista Laptop Display wasnt working, pretty anoying, i couldnt get the Bios over the external Display. Thats why i changed. But i recomend to use at least something with a dual Core Processor. Core 2 Duo or a Athlon 62x2. Otherwise the CPU get a relative high load. Maybe i will try a Mac, the older ones are also dirt Cheap. A set of Keyboard and Mouse is worth more than the Old Mac Computers itself, many of them have firewire too.
Great video sir. I use an old Sony Handicam 1394 4-pin to older Lenovo 410s, 420s and some 510s, 520s to run older Dartfish software video capture with time code for rowing regatta video replay timing system. Some of those Lenovo's transmit fuzzy analyzer video while others are OK. Can't figure out why. Alos, the 4-pin ports are VERY fragile. If you force the cable in, the pins will crush to the back of the port and render it useless. The Sony hvr z1 or v1 replacement port mentioned below 12 days ago solves this issue if you're a handy fixer. Will check out your laptop list and maybe try a Dell XPS instead of the Lenovo's going forward.
If you buy an old Mac, does it matter what operating system it runs or does it only matter if it has a firewire port? Thanks for your videos!
For FireWire hard drives, no issues, all versions supported. For camcorders, all versions except 12.3 and 12.3.1. For FireWire audio interfaces Apple has discontinued the Firewire CoreAudio driver with macOS Ventura. This means audio products that connect via Firewire will not work on Ventura and must remain on macOS Monterey or earlier.
@@ScottSchramm Just to clarify, so for a camcorder, I should avoid Monterey (versions 12.3 and 12.3.1), but all versions earlier and later will work?
Correct
Hi Scott. I'm looking at a Mac Mini that has a firewire port. I can then plug my Mini DV camera into that port and transfer video correct? Before I buy it is there anything else I should ask? I'm not a Mac user so is there an operating system within there that I should be aware of that may not work with my camera for capturing?
Also do you suggest a certain software with a Mac to capture? I've only done PC so I'm used to WinDV, Adobe Premiere Pro or Virtualdub
If the Mac has a FireWire port built in then you are good to go. You can install any OS and use iMovie to do the capture. Check out my other videos if you need further help.
hello scott, you are a valuable resource.
anyway, i'm in the situations you speak at the beginning, i bought all the cables to make my chain for macbook with m1 pro, couldn't get it to work then i tried to buy a new cable and it worked! but...i had time to scan 2 tapes and now my mac doesn't recognize my Sony DCR PC110E Pal anymore.
I wanted to ask you: I have a windows pc assembled in 2016, which mounts this motherboard "Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3/Rev 1.1"
I would like to try to use it following your video. actually already years ago I used it with a capture card like a usb stick and coloured cables, but that doesn't work anymore and the quality of the footage was very low, what do you suggest me to do? thank you very much...
Your motherboard supports PCIe cards, so the one I show in the video will work for you: amzn.to/3w5WFIs
@@ScottSchramm oh thank you, so i will try this way. if it does not work I will certainly have to change camcorder
@@micheleastolfi6708 what happened?
Thanks!
Wow, thank you so much for the contribution!
I have an older analog hi8 Sony camcorder (has FW 4 pin output), would using the 4 pin to 6 pin method work?
Yes, same method will work
from what ive heard it shouldnt work. updates would be appreciated
@@Obsttellermitbananeif the camcorder is analog hi8 only then it won’t have FireWire. If it’s digital 8 and has FireWire, most are backwards compatible and should do the analog to digital conversion.
Hey Scott, could you help me? My church has an old camcorder, a Sony HVR-Z1U, and we would like to use it for live streams. The image quality of this camera is very good, but I don't know how to transfer its footage to the computer without losing quality. Using this method you showed, can I capture the camera's image in real time to use in the live stream?
Yes, if you put the camera in "record" mode, it should make it appear as a webcam on a PC. Just be advised that audio does not work in this method. If you want audio from the camcorder you'll need to use a 3.5mm cable in the headphone jack and connect that to an input on the PC. However in a church you probably already have an audio mixer so it's best to use the sound from that.
1:40
out of these 4 "heads", i have the very left one that on the other end is similar (so small firewire to small firewire)
does that work? if i get a firewire card that has that small slot, it should fit, while the other end goes into the camera (?)
edit:
so basically that cable shown at 2:32 (bottom left) LBSC
also, my camera side screen (3:44) is dead, but camera still works and turns on etc
will software be able to just record as i put the tape?
@@Populous3Tutorials Yes, you can use the 4 pin to 4 pin FireWire cable and it will work. And if the screen is bad but everything else works, then yes it should be fine because the computer will "run the camera" since it can send commands to start the tape, rewind, etc. If your camera has a small viewfinder/eyepiece you may be able to use that to monitor in case you need to go into the menus.
@@ScottSchramm thanks will try it
I have a 2015 MacBook pro with thunderbolt 2 ports. I want to connect to a 4 pin dv connector on my Sony Handycam. What adaptors do I need?
You need the Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter which was discontuined.
@@ScottSchramm Can I go from 4 pin dv connector to usb 3?
@@TerrydeAlaska No
I did some add'l research. I have a Windows 10 Pro desktop with an AMD Ryzen processor and there is a known problem hooking up firewire ports to it. So I am back to looking at Apples on your list. What do I do once I have uploaded them the miniDV tapes to the Apple-how do I get them off onto a thumb drive? Sorry I've never owned an Apple before. Thank you.
On a Mac you would use iMovie to capture the tapes. When you’re finished you can export the video using iMovie into whatever format you want (MP4) and then connect a flash drive and drag and drop the files to the flash drive.
@@ScottSchramm Ok thank you. I'll keep you posted. I really appreciate your commitment to this puzzle! Seriously it is very impressive.
bought a 2012 mac mini Catalina for $100 last year of firewire plugged it in loaded life flix and everything worked perfectly no extra cables or work around
What kind of camera did you have? Did you lost quality?
@@sl5311 canon ZR 40 small camcorder but you need a 4 pin to 9 pin firewire cable, its dv quality, life flix can combine into 1 file or break it up into many files to edit what you dont want. The older version works great its too complicated with adapters to use on any newer mac past 2012
If you're using Windows, some older Panasonic MiniDV models, such as the NV-DX100B will only work with Windows Vista or earlier Microsoft operating systems, for firewire transfer. Although the computer will recognise and install the camcorder, when you try to capture video you will get a capture of the sound only with no picture. They all work fine with WindowsXP, as does all the old software. I like WindowsXP; it seems bullet proof!
Hmm, not sure why that would happen. MiniDV support should be the same across all OS's.
Yes. When I first came across this, I thought that it must be a faulty camcorder but I tried it with many other camcorders and many other Windows computers. IIRC, the Panasonic NV-DS11 will work with Windows7 and earlier but all the other affected models (NV-DX100B, NV-DS5B, NV-DX110B, NV-DA1B etc.) will only work with Windows Vista and earlier (otherwise, with newer Windows OS, firewire gives perfect sound capture but no picture). These are all PAL system camcorders and mostly (if not all?) have the Panasonic DJ-mechanism. If I ever get a Panasonic NTSC camcorder (I no longer have my AGEZ30UP), with a DJ-mechanism, I'll try that but we don't get many NTSC camcorders, here in the U.K.@@ScottSchramm
So the only way to transfer video from an old camcorder is buy and set up an entire OLDER OS?
No, there are other ways. Check out my other videos on this topic: ua-cam.com/play/PLeiKzXHZh57DW9y3cg_4i8WOeYs6a0O4c.html
Luckily, I got some old Lenovo R400 with 4pin Firewire400 port. I will try it and update to you :)
So did it work ?
@@kevinblanco3244 yes. it work perfectly without any adapter required. only use firewire cable.
can i put a firewire pci card in my windows 11 pc?
Yes
Yes but this doesn’t mean you can transmit videos of your camcorder with it. It depends on your processor. I bought an extension card but my processor doesn’t work with my camcorder. But if you would like to connect other FireWire devices with it, it could work.
@@nash0rn0815that is an issue if you’re using Thunderbolt since newer Intel processors dropped support for that. But PCIe cards are still supported. Check my other videos where I explain more about this. You can also read the comments where people reported success using this method.
@@ScottSchramm Thanks, wanting to sort a transfer method for my uncle and Auntie for all there precious memories. I think this would work better than a capture card quality wise as another video explained I take out the analog and its all in digital. There cam looks to be good quality and well looked after so would prefer this method.
Is there any variation in quality at this resolution for various firewire pci cards. Want something that will get the job done And with decent enough quality, but not looking for that 3 percent that would cost more. Around 20 to 50 budget.
So a newer processor is supported with a pci fire wire card? Or better to pick up and older lappy or desktop?
Much appreciated help.
Nathan.
@@nathanteach7266Because FireWire is all digital, there is no quality difference between brands. Spending $20 vs $200 will give you same quality. Some audio people will say the cards with Texas Instruments chips are better or worse for live audio, but I've seen zero difference or proof of that. Just get the card I have linked in the description and it should work for you. It also doesn't matter the age of the computer. A system from 2001 will do just as well as a system from 2024 for capturing the video. Once captured, transfer it to a external hard drive or flash drive and the use a newer computer if you wish to edit or transcode it.
Hey I got my film uploaded it's Windows XP & Windows 11 Team Advice that you'll like to see.
Why can't you use a modern desktop and just buy a firewire card for it?
You can but I covered only old systems so it could be done as cheap as possible.
This is a lot like me that's working with Windows 11 and XP I kind of think that a USB is handy without the Thunderbolt cord.
I was right.
no one is gonna do this like what
Look at the all the comments and views on my videos on this topic. Others find it very helpful and have been able to transfer their tapes. There are conversion services you can send your tapes to if you want someone to do it for you.