Question Panasonic NV-GS130

Aparametric

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Good morning,
I've been searching around for information on this camera for a few days and I'm struggling to get anywhere.
Basically, my dad has a Panasonic NV-GS130 (at least that's what I believe it's called), it's from the early 2000s anyway and uses the small mini-DV cassettes. He hasn't used it a great deal but it was quite expensive, so wants to get the most out of it and really likes it. He finds it fairly straightforward: just point, press record, then switch it off. Job done.
The main problem I'm facing is that it's difficult to get the recordings off the camera and into the computer to be used. The only way I've been able to watch the videos is by connecting it up to a SCART cable and plugging that into the TV, or apparently using a FireWire port on my computer.
He wants to buy a new TV in the near future, which won't have a SCART socket, and FireWire has been more-or-less discontinued, so ports are quite tricky to come by and I've not been able to use iMovie (he has a Mac computer) to import it.
What I'd be interested to know, as you're probably experts in this field (or know significantly more than I do!) about this technology, is what I should do. Should I just suggest that he gets the recordings off that camera ASAP and tell him that it's only going to get more difficult to get the videos off the camera in future, and buy a new one. Some of the videos have sentimental value to me as they cover a bit of my childhood, so I'd like to keep them, if possible. Or should I just let him carry on using it and hope that when the camera bites the dust it'll be possible (and ideally, affordable!) to convert them to DVD?
Clearly, I'm tending towards the former but I'd be interested to hear what your views are and what other options are for this problem?
 
He might get a Firewire card for his PC or laptop. Then download all the videos to the PC.
A good video editor will allow him to tidy the videos and then render to a DVD or USB stick.
Firewire is still the best option, A/V cables (SCART) to USB are notoriously unreliable some work but it is a lottery.
 
Should I just suggest that he gets the recordings off that camera ASAP and tell him that it's only going to get more difficult to get the videos off the camera in future, and buy a new one.
Yes, that is the best thing to do.
 
Hi Terfyn, thanks a lot. I used one of those SCART to USB grabber once to get my Hi8 camcorder videos. It worked when I first used it. Did all of the cassettes I could find. Tried again a week later doing exactly the same thing and just couldn't seem to do it (after hours of trying!). So I'd agree that those are unreliable.

I should say, I've got a early 2008 MacBook Pro with FireWire 400 and 800 ports, so I've bought a DV to FireWire 400 cable, which I'll try later. I tried a DV-to-FireWire 800 cable last night, and it didn't register in "System Profiler" with Mac OS El Capitan. Then I tried using the Mac OS Snow Leopard and it didn't register either. I'll try that with the new DV-FireWire 400 cable later and see if I get any luck.

Hi Emerton, yes that was what I was hoping for. Now I can let him know that I'm not the only person who thinks it's a good idea. I'm thinking that if he does get a new one, he should use one with an SD card because they seem to have stood the test of time and I can't see them disappearing as quickly as the mini-DV ones.
 

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