Finally a Stand Alone Recorder for MiniDV/DVCAM/D8/DVCPRO/HDV

[dellsam34]

The long waited stand alone Firewire/iLink recorder has finally metalized that hopefully puts an end to the IEEE 1394 hardware, software and compatibility problems.

The main board : https://www.crowdsupply.com/computer-equipment-group/firehat

An assembled final product: https://equip-1.c-e.group/firehat

Github page: https://github.com/computerequipmentgroup/equip-1

[VWestlife]

I must be out of the loop because I have no clue what the HAT in "FireWire interface HAT" stands for. Nowhere do they explain it.

It would be better if they described it in less circuit design jargon and in more approachable terminology.

[dellsam34]

The firewire hat is the DV interface that collects DV data, The other part is sort of the computer part that stores the data, it can be a Raspberry Pi or other single-board computers, You don't have to do it yourself, The second link above is for an assembled and programmed ready to go device, The only problem is that there is no units available in stock due to chip shortage.

The closest I can find to this is the legacy Sony HVR-MRC1, The down side is, it is based on flash card that is limited to 4GB being FAT32, It also requires a special Sony battery although it can be powered via firewire if the playback camcorder or deck has a 6 pin FW port, Plus it is too expensive as it is still wanted by the tape-less camcorder community.

While posting I found another device:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/612325-REG/Focus_Enhancements_ASYF_1390_01LF_FS...DTE.html/specs

[VWestlife]

It took me way too long to find out that in the context of the Raspberry Pi, HAT stands for "Hardware Attached on Top"... which sounds like a backronym to me.

[dellsam34]

I think it's a term used by the camcorder community, Although this entire project was designed around the need to ditch the tape, Thanks to the firewire two-way protocol that can work in either direction, So you can capture a tape with it and control the camcorder as well.

I take the FS-4HD above link back, It only has firewire output, so the only way to get the footage out of it is to connect it to the computer via firewire, which kind defeats the purpose of avoiding firewire on a computer.

[aramkolt]

Pretty sure there were several Firewire Standard Definition DV and HDV to SSD/CF/HDD capture devices back in the day which you can still find used. Datavideo even made a few. This project mostly just seems like a shrunk PCI card that goes into a compact PC as opposed to a full size one.

[dellsam34]

Yes, Unfortunately all legacy DV/HDV recorders are based of off FAT32 disk system, which limits the file size to chunks of few minutes each, It adds unnecessary steps to the workflow.