MiniDV to Windows 7 laptop via Firewire

[kiwikraut]

Hi,

I have been reading through a number of threads but unfortunately can't find the answer, so hopefully someone can help. I want to transfer my MiniDV from a Panasonic NV DS-150 to my laptop. Fortunately I kept my old HP ProBook from way back when and it has a Firewire connection (as does the camcorder).

I downloaded WinDV 1.2.3 and also HDVSplit as well as Scenalyzer but none of them pick up the camcorder. The firewire cable is brand new and the driver says it is working.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

[Alwyn]

Have a good read through this excellent document:

https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Firewire-1.htm

HDVSpilt is only for camcorders in HDV mode, so it won't work with your DS-150.

I've had consistent trouble with WinDv, whereas Scenalyzer is very reliable.

[october262]

Hi,

I have been reading through a number of threads but unfortunately can't find the answer, so hopefully someone can help. I want to transfer my MiniDV from a Panasonic NV DS-150 to my laptop. Fortunately I kept my old HP ProBook from way back when and it has a Firewire connection (as does the camcorder).

I downloaded WinDV 1.2.3 and also HDVSplit as well as Scenalyzer but none of them pick up the camcorder. The firewire cable is brand new and the driver says it is working.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

see this PDF guide page 85 - https://www.manua.ls/panasonic/nv-ds150/manual?p=51
the firewire cable is only used to connect from one camera to another. to connect to a computer,
see page 87, there's an adapter that you'll need.

[dellsam34]

No adapter needed for firewire, that is referring to transferring digital stills stored on a memory card.

[kiwikraut]

I have installed the legacy driver for the Firewire as per https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Firewire-1.htm but still laptop does not recognise Camcorder. Feel like I am running out of options

[Alwyn]

I'm away from my computer at the moment so going from memory...have a look in Device Manager, in Imaging Devices I think it is, is your DS150 shown?

[Bwaak]

Some people say you don't need drivers for Firewire, but my practice says the opposite. The DV camcorders that I can use with a computer have native Firewire drivers installed on top of a standard driver. I have a 1999 DV camcorder that I was not able to connect to my Win7 computer. Yours seems pretty old too, considering references to Win95/98 and i486 CPU. I bet there is no driver for it, it was not meant to transfer video to a computer via Firewire.

I may be wrong, and maybe some universal Firewire driver will work for it. If you make it work, please share, maybe this will help connecting my old DV camcorder to a Win7 PC.

[dellsam34]

I believe it uses a very old protocol to connect a 3.5mm jack to a serial port on the computer like the ones used in analog VCR's and camcorders to connect to a computer or a printer to take snapshots (Sony called it LANC and JVC has JLIP, not sure about Panasonic), The firewire port I believe is strictly for dubbing tapes from one camcorder to another, I hope I'm wrong.

[kiwikraut]

Hi Alwyn, I had a look in Device Manager, in Imaging Devices as well as in Sound or under the actual Firewire connection but no DS150 shown anywhere.

[kiwikraut]

dellsam34, I hope you are wrong, too. ��.

[kiwikraut]

Bwaak, mine is a 2000 model...was our wedding present

[Alwyn]

I hope I'm wrong.

You are wrong (unusual for you, Dellsham). LANC has nothing to do with video transfer; it is a Sony remote-control protocol for using a wired remote control to control cameras (video and still alike). Besides, LANC is not fitted to this cam, by the looks of it.

The firewire port I believe is strictly for dubbing tapes from one camcorder to another, I hope I'm wrong.

In my view, the only reason it was added to camcorders was to provide a fast-enough continuous-flow method of getting the video off the tape and into a PC (or another "digital device", as that pic shows). Camcorder to camcorder was a gimmick. Camcorder to a DV deck, now you're talking, but that merges into a computer (remember Apple started FW off).

That quoted image, on page 87 of the manual, is clearly off on a tangent because the only video flow goes to a VCR, and I suspect that that "21 pin adapter" is nothing more than a boring old SCART plug.

I believe the relevant diagram is the one on the previous page titled "Using with Digital Video Equipment (Dubbing) (NV-DS150 only)".

Some people say you don't need drivers for Firewire

That'd be me and I'll say it again. Never, in 20 years dealing with firewire camcorders, including two Panasonic DV cameras, have I installed a unique "driver". I have always only used the Windows driver. The only problem I have had is recently, when I changed my computer and had to install a firewire expansion card. With Win 11, I am using the bog-standard Win 11 driver ie not "(Legacy)" with a cheap VIA firewire card. On my old Win 10 machine with built-in Firewire, I had to use the "(Legacy)" driver.

I had a look in Device Manager, in Imaging Devices as well as in Sound or under the actual Firewire connection but no DS150 shown anywhere.

OK, you need to see your camcorder under imaging devices, like this:


[Attachment 71784 - Click to enlarge]

Have a look in the menus to see if there's a DV In setting/switch; the 150 looks like it can do DV In, which you'd want turned off. Apart from that, and swapping the Windows driver to try both combos, and trying various sequences of powerups and connections, I can't suggest much else except for installing one of those Firewire cards in a PC (easy to do if you can take left-side off a PC box).

Other, more drastic options:
-Buy another MiniDV camcorder; they are cheap as chips here (just run a spare tape in it first to make sure it's not going to ruin one of your good ones)
-Run S-Video Out (and AV for the audio) to a USB digitiser (the quality will be surprisingly good compared to a pure DV signal)
-If you have a DVD recorder with DV-In lying around, you could try that to verify that there is something coming out of the Firewire port.

[dellsam34]

Besides, LANC is not fitted to this cam, by the looks of it.

Off course it's not, It's a Panasonic camcorder, It uses a different sceme to transfer stills shown in the above diagram posted by Bwaak, The adapter is required to transfer images to a serial format a computer can understand and again this is for stills not video. Yes LANC is for controlling from external peripherals I used it to control Sony camcorders from a tripod, but my memory of these proprietary names is too short.

[kiwikraut]

thank you, all. I'll try all those work arounds. Will take me a while, especially because I'm off on holiday next week.

[Alwyn]

It uses a different sceme to transfer stills shown in the above diagram posted by Bwaak, The adapter is required to transfer images to a serial format a computer can understand and again this is for stills not video. Yes LANC is for controlling from external peripherals I used it to control Sony camcorders from a tripod, but my memory of these proprietary names is too short.

Yes, I know that. That is why I never mentioned it in this topic. There is a memory refresher called Google.

[Bwaak]

thank you, all. I'll try all those work arounds. Will take me a while, especially because I'm off on holiday next week.

Per Tape Formats Compared: How do DV formats measure up with Betacam SP and 601?, "DVCAM with Y/C output performed only about 0.5 PQR worse than DVCAM and DVCPRO with SDI out—an impressive result, suggesting little added degradation", meaning that capturing digital video through analog connection with separated luminance and chrominance like SVideo could be a usable workaround compared to native digital copy. Many consumer-grade MiniDV camcorders only have composite analog output, but yours have SVideo port, nice.

But I am really interested to see you succeeding by connecting it via Firewire, without needing any drivers per Alwyn.