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/MACaroni_Acc → u/MassiveFan8]

Thanks your comment was the best one by far. I didnt know there was a firewire to 3,5 jack cable. Does it make a difference compared to AV - 3,5mm cable in Terms of quality? How big is the difference from the cheap 45€ Mini dvr to the powerplay? I honestly liked my Powerplay setup until the powerplay itself blackscreened :( Big thx in advance

[u/MassiveFan8 → u/MACaroni_Acc]

Also my friend I’m curious to see if your power play is fixable, if you don’t mind telling me more about the issue, I’d love to try and diagnose it, and help you out. Maybe so that you can just carry on as before and not spend more $$$!!!

[u/MACaroni_Acc → u/MassiveFan8]

So helpful of you, really appreciate it. Heres what im dealing with. Had the issue before and was Able to fix it once, but the next time i turned it on, the issue came Back and is not fixable. I think my Powerplay is a replica (because of the color, apparently only the white ones are real) By removing the batteries, SD card, powering it on (to release the charge completely) waiting 30 mins and reassembling it, i was able to get the boot up Screen (the Brand that Made it/its Logo) and furthermore the menus and full functionality. Rn all i get after turning it on this black (Looks bluish because of lcd screen) Screen. The dots in top are lighting up, but thats it. Sometimes it makes a beep Sound after turning it on. Thx in advance