Firestore FS-1 MiniDV capture help

[porkch0p]

Hey all, I need some help capturing MiniDV tapes to a newer usb-c only laptop. Don’t have my desktop pc with a firewire port anymore, and don’t want to settle for composite video. I’ve seen people modify the firestore fs-4 with a compact flash card reader, and was wondering if anyone on here has experience using the fs-4 to capture already recorded tapes?

**This thread was edited on Apr 4th 2024 at 6:33:20pm

 

[jake_s]

I think the easiest way would be to just get the extra adaptors needed to import through a FireWire cable, especially if you already have that cable.

I am currently using a dv-firewire800 cable, connected to, firewire800-thunderbolt adaptor, connected to, thunderbolt-usb-c adaptor, into a Mac Mini.

The other issue I ran into, is that my computer didn’t recognize my camera through the connection, and had to find another miniDV dad-camthat was recognized by my computer, to plug in and iimport the tapes.

Once you sort all that out, you can simply “record new movie” using QuickTime and capture the tapes.

**This post was edited on Apr 5th 2024 at 11:03:58am

 

[LennoxWeber]

Honestly man I’ve found that the cheapest way to get minidv footage is to just look on fb marketplace for a 2011/12 MacBook Pro, you can find some for like 100$ and they have a FireWire port so you can just capture footage directly using QuickTime Player

 

[jake_s]

If you get an old enough laptop, you might be able to use an old version of Final Cut Pro or Adobe CS6 or earlier, so that you can Batch Capture.

 

[porkch0p]

I think the easiest way would be to just get the extra adaptors needed to import through a FireWire cable, especially if you already have that cable.

I am currently using a dv-firewire800 cable, connected to, firewire800-thunderbolt adaptor, connected to, thunderbolt-usb-c adaptor, into a Mac Mini.

The other issue I ran into, is that my computer didn’t recognize my camera through the connection, and had to find another miniDV dad-camthat was recognized by my computer, to plug in and iimport the tapes.

Once you sort all that out, you can simply “record new movie” using QuickTime and capture the tapes.

Thanks for the input. Portability is pretty crucial to my setup, and my cam (dvx) does not work through a series of firewire to usb adapters, so lugging around 2 camcorders is not ideal. Older laptop has some potential but still another bulky bit of gear to haul around. Was particularly interested if anyone has experience with any of the firestore fs direct-to-edit devices as I think with a cf card mod and attached to camera I could go tapeless without losing quality and with minimal gear. Plus it would eliminate the need to capture just grab avis or raw from the cf card. My only hesitation is the firestore’s ability to capture something off of a tape that has already been recorded as I have some tapes I want to digitize.