My understanding is the Windows 10 does not support firewire boards. So what is the workaround for my Sony z5u ,analogue out to usb through a converter? Loss of data? Buy Sony hard drive developed for the camcorder on EBay $350? Any other information would be greatly appreciated. My old computer running windows 7 with firewire board died. Now between a rock and a had place.
Thanks to all.

Ralph

Have you downloaded the 1394 legacy driver from Microsoft?
It's supposed to add that functionality to Windows 10.

Ken

Thank you. Work around without firewire board?

I have 1394 boards in both my Win 10 PC's. One is Win 10 Home the other Win10 Pro both run fine. Another of my Win10 PC has an interface on the motherboard.

yes me too - firewire still works fine and no issues for me.

A bit if a late response but the HVR-Z5U/Z5N appears to have HDMI output. A HDMI-to-USB capture device might work. or a HDMI recorder might do the trick w/o resorting to an analog intermediate step if installing a $30 IEEE1394 board is out of the question.

Still not sure why the need for Firewire. The camera uses SD cards . When I had one I just used a card reader to PC. Sony has software applications to read the cards etc. I also had the FMU 128 unit that would attach to the PC with USB 2.0 for capture to PC.

Still not sure why the need for Firewire. The camera uses SD cards . W.


The Z5U records on tape, not cards.

yes stand corrected. I had both Z5u and NX5 so got confused and now see the reason for 1394 card.

Don't feel bad. I wasn't sure myself and had to look it up. That camera seems like a hundred years ago already. :-)

I have a Sony FX 1 I have an external HD recorder that uses the HDMI out. The better thing about that is that it bypasses the HDV compression so you have full 1920x1080 recording, although still 1080i. PM if you are thinking about that route. I don't do freelance with my camera anymore and could offer my recorder.

Pick up a used MacBook for buttons and capture away , save to an external drive , problem solved

I have a Sony FX 1 I have an external HD recorder that uses the HDMI out. The better thing about that is that it bypasses the HDV compression so you have full 1920x1080 recording, although still 1080i. PM if you are thinking about that route. I don't do freelance with my camera anymore and could offer my recorder.

Is it possible to capture the contents of a tape from the HDMI out to the recorder or are you talking about live streaming from the HDMI port? I've got important family tapes from a Canon HV20 camcorder with an HDMI out and a firewire out, but it's HD.

If any of your camera kit has an HDMI out, you should be able to capture straight to any HDMI recorder. Or at least I would imagine so. I have a Sony HVR-M25E which has HDMI out and the output can be captured with an Atomos Ninja V so can be captured as either ProRes or H.265 depending on the Ninja's record setting. It can also do a hardware up convert from SD to HD 1080i in the process.

Alternatively:

If you want a cheaper HDMI record solution, around US$130 from Walmart... before tariffs I guess, you could try an AverMedia EzRecorder 330 - ER330 which can take in any of the following formats. (Video Input): 2160p, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i. It does a decent job of converting interlaced inputs to progressive. You can record to Micro SD cards or SSDs. It will NOT record to USB thumb drives.

Though it will take in and pass through 4K, it will only record in HD up to 60p. There are three different compression rates in either H.264 or H.265 to record in. Both H.264 and H.265 goes up to 40 Mbps. In H.265 the 40 Mbps setting gives you a very decent quality image that edits quite nicely in Resolve.

HINT: With an intelligent HDMI splitter it will allow you to record off-air, satellites and streaming services. I have one permanently installed in our main home AV system.

EDIT:
I have an older PC running Win 10 with a IE1394 Firewire card and have no issues capturing with that from Firewire equipped cameras. REMEMBER, make sure camera and PC are turned OFF before connecting them together to avoid the chance of blowing a firewire port on the camera or deck. Been there! One of these is a good investment.

Chris Young

Good investment

https://k.kramerav.com/downloads/pdf/product/1/PT-1FW.pdf

https://www.avermedia.com/product-detail/ER330#specification