sony minidv cam help

[sox2112]

i have a sony dcr-trv11 minidv cam, the firewire port on it was DOA when i bought it. i recently had it replaced, they said it was a dead board so they put a new one in. i get home and connect it to my pc via 4 to 6 pin belkin cable on my soundblaster audigy 2. turn on the camera and nothin happens, same as before when it was broken. win xp doesnt recognize it or anything. i dont know what the prob is, could it be that sony cams only use the 4 to 4 pin "i-link" for editing or what. please help i feel like i just blew 200 dollars to have nothing fixed

[troyvcd1]

Wow that sucks. I feel for you. I use the 4 pin to four pin connector going to a dedicated firewire card. I think that this is generally the best way to do it. If you got a firewire on your motherboard you can also do this but I heard that sometimes people have trouble with these motherboard firewire ports.

[Redd]

Sony uses a four pin to six pin I-link connection. I've used OHCI firewire connections on my sound card, combo analog DV capture card and a dedicated OHCI IEEE firewire card.

Maybe you should...
1. Try another cable. Maybe you've got a bad cable.
2. Try another port. That may be a bad port your connected to.

[sox2112]

hmm, i only have 1 firewire port thats on the card, and only 1 cable, ill try to bring it into my class at school next week see what happens

[proxyx99]

Looks like you are not the first one here having issue with Soundblaster FW port/drivers (I've seen some posts be4). Try a separate FW card for a starter.

[sox2112]

do you think its worth a shot trying my other audigy on my dads pc?

[proxyx99]

If a PC store is closer to your location then your old man's PC room then NO.

[sox2112]

well just tried it on his audigy and no luck, hmmm...i feel like ive been ripped off . im gonna go back to the store and give them hell, they didnt seem to fix anything. i dont wanna buy a firewire card and not be able to return it.

[Royor]

Apparently, it seems that a lot of times the 6 to 4 pin cables are known to blow up the iLink connection in the camcorder. In the Sony manuals, although in small print and somewhere in the back, they say to use only the 4 to 4 pin kind.
The difference ? 4 pin cables only transport data, 6 pin has a power line also. Easy to understand what happens if the power line somehow connects to a data line.

So it's not all that far fetched that you blew up your iLink port on the camcorder, that it did got fixed, and that by connecting it again with a six to four cable, it blew again.

[sox2112]

damn, you might be right. do you know where i can get a 4 pin firewire card?

[Royor]

I see on their site that Circuit City and Best Buy have several choices, but they only state the number of ports, not the kind (4 or 6 pins). So I guess you'll have to go down and check it out before buying.

My PC (Sony Vaio) came with a 4 pin in the front and a 6 pin in the back, and although I would rather have the cable in the back, after reading several posts about the problems with the 6 connector, you can imagine I only use the front one for the camcorder!

I bought my cable (4-4) through Ebay and it's great quality for only $4 to $6, depending on bids, but the guy has em all the time, just search for Firewire cable. He might also have cards, I dunno.

But buying a card with a 4 pin connection plus the cable will regretably not solve your problem. Most certainly you're facing another $200 repair note to have your iLink working again in your camcorder, point to remember.

The iLink is an invention from Apple, and later on became known also as Firewire or IEEE 1394, and should always be constructed in the same way, and thus give no problems. But if you search a bit on the net, it seems that somehow, some brands of cards or even cables (the 6 to 4 kind) have it connected in the wrong way, so that the power line somehow connects with a data line. That's 18 to 25v going into a data line, so obviously, stuff blows up.

Maybe at some point they changed something in the specs, and some didn't follow yet and are still on the market in the previous layout ?? I don't know, but this is interesting though :
http://www.1394ta.org/Technology/Specifications/Descriptions/TB0002.htm

For pin assignment of Firewire connectors, see :
http://www.zytrax.com/tech/pc/serial.html

[firefoxx]

I recommend that you try connecting the camera to a different computer (not one with the soundblaster, and not using your cable). You might try it at the store you bought it. If it still doesn't work, then get it fixed, then try it at the store. THEN take it back, try it on your computer.

I've only heard of one case where the cable was poorly made and fried the connection. I personally use a very cheap 4-6 pin cable to a 6 pin connector, and it works well.