Does anyone know if the firewire port on the Sony DCR-TRV140 can be replaced or repaired? It looks like one of the four gold pins is broken or bent. I couldn't get totally inside to see it clearly but I went far enough in to see it looks hard to replace. Is it possible????
Thanks, Maggie

[MarkE19]

Yes, I would say that the firewire port can be repaired/replaced, but it will be a return to a Sony repair centre to get it done. I would not expect any camcorder repairs to be able to be done by a user due to the very compact design of a camcorder, and therefore specialist tools would be required.

Mark.

The cost may also be prohibitive, get an estimate, and bear in mind that you can buy a new camcorder for £250.

If you are happy using your exsisting cam and want to capture, then an av > dv converter might be a lot cheaper (if you gwet an s-video compatible device the quality loss will only be very slight)

Thanks for the advice. Does the converter work with Macs? I read that Macs only use firewire. And what does the converter plug into? The USB on the camcorder? And then where does it go on the computer, which port? I also have an old PC I could use as well and then burn the video onto CD and transport it to the Mac... maybe... theoretically.. haven't tried it and anything that sounds that easy probably isnt! I don't know if I still have a video program on that though as I wiped it a few times and it is a pain to work on. But worth trying if it saves hundreds of dollars.
Thanks again, Maggie

PS
When I opened up the camcorder and fiddled with it, it looked like the firewire port was soldered on so I'm thinking it will cost a bunch to replace though it seems silly as it is a delicate thing that must break all the time. And when I looked it up on the Sony website they gave me an estimate for any repair (no info on if they could even do firewire specifically) of over $200, parts not included! So we'll see but it isn't looking good. So my last question is, can one hook the camcorder up to the TV and you know how you record video onto a VCR from the camcorder like that? Can you do that with a DVD or are most people's DVD players things you can't record to? Has that option been lost with DVD players or is that something I could possibly do? Ok thanks!
Maggie

[MarkE19]

An analogue>DV converter would plug into the cam via composite or S-Video and audio analogue outputs and into the PC/Mac via firewire. Or you can get an internal version (for a PC at least, not sure about a Mac).
Don't bother with the old PC to CD route. The quality of the video on CD would be far too low to bother transfering to a DVD.

A standard DVD player can not record. You can however buy DVD recorders to do this, and some even have a firewire input, but that is no good for you . You would connect the cam to the DVD recorder in the same way as to the converter above.

Mark.