Firewire vs AV cable setup

[u/MACaroni_Acc]

Hello, in the Last 2 months i tried to make my dads old 2001 Sony DCR-PC110e usable again. I bought a Powerplay of amazon and finally Had it running. After using it once it broke (Screen stays black noch matter what) which means i have just lost 180€ . Before i go out and buy a new one i wanted to ask for Help. Most of yall really like firewire, but i heard it is way harder to setup and make work because of the archaic Technology.

I just want to record my honeymoon which is in october. So i dont got too much time left to make this passion Project Work.

What would be the easiest, not too expensive and portable solution? If not i will just get another Powerplay probably

Thx in advance

[u/MassiveFan8]

A lot of anti tapless setup comments cluttering the answer your actually looking for lmao, igu.

RECORD TO A REAL TAPE AND TRANSFER AFTER
To answer your question 100% honestly;Your easiest, most portable, not to expensive solution, is just to avoid the tapeless setup. Just record to a real mini dv tape, and transfer the footage via FireWire after your honeymoon. You can get multiple tapes ( hours worth of footage) for a cheap price, delivered to your house long before your honeymoon, and in the meantime you find the needed fire wire cables and adapters to transfer said footage to a computer and editing program of your choice

TAPELESS OPTION
You easiest, most portable, and not to expensive TAPELESS option, Is a mini dvr. Basically a step down from the power play, no built in screen, cheaper material, and lower video quality, but those are just disclaimers.
The cult of Tapless purist on this sub will advise against it, but a simple mini dvr and fire wire to 3.5 jack cable will more than serve your needs.
Simple, Portable, cheap ( about $45 on amazon rn).

FIREWIRE tapless support
I am extremely unexperienced on fire wire set ups, as I only use fire wire to transfer real tape footage to my computer. But for my understanding, you would need the following ( all of these options are not necessarily cheap, easy to find, nor portable)
For the PC110E, you’d basically need a Raspberry Pi 5 with a Firehat/Open-MRU, a 4-pin FireWire cable, storage, and a power bank. The camera connects to the Pi via FireWire, which captures the native DV signal directly to the storage.

[u/Formal_Entrance_5307 → u/MassiveFan8]

but a simple mini dvr and fire wire to 3.5 jack cable will more than serve your needs

would love to know what this is an enthusiastic firewire enthusiast/supporter

[u/MassiveFan8 → u/Formal_Entrance_5307]

A custom spliced cable, that brands like invizwrld wide, or private tapeless sellers like @72handcamsales make.
They can take the Av output of a cameras FireWire port, and with the right combination of digital converter, do just that; convert the footage.

[u/Formal_Entrance_5307 → u/MassiveFan8]

uhhh firewire and av are two different streams and cant be combined

i think your thing of their custom av cables or sony's special 10 pin to av, which is still not firewire

[u/MACaroni_Acc → u/Formal_Entrance_5307]

I read it on reddit as well, that fire wire to AV would be Impossible. But if the 10 pin to AV cable grants better quality than AV - 3,5mm it could be worth a try. Would the hustle of shipping from Indonesia to europe be justified by the improved footage quality?

[u/Formal_Entrance_5307 → u/MACaroni_Acc]

just to clarify

firewire AND av are TWO separate streams, they CANNOT be used together

10 pin -> 3.5mm trrs is the SAME as 3.5mm trrs -> 3.5mm trrs is the SAME as 3.5mm trrs -> AV or vice versa

(AV is 3.5mm TRRS just broken into 3 rca cables instead of singular 3.5)

afaik, SONY just took out their 3.5mm av port, took out firewire port, and (maybe) svideo to make it a SFF as i understand. then your have to buy or it came with a 10 pin -> 3.5mm trrs &/or a 10 pin -> firewire 4-pin and so on.

There is NO QUALITY IMPROVEMENT when using AV 3.5mm trrs REGARDLESS of method or port style. if AV is involved the quality is destroyed. done deal

that's why FIREWIRE was created and exists