Comments on: Sony DCR-HC26 Firewire Port Problem: An Update

By: junior

junior — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:44:09 +0000

@Kewl:

Sorry, I haven’t had the chance to get the camera pulled apart just yet, I’ve been too busy with other projects. I expect to get started on this sometime in late July or early August. In the meantime, good luck with your own camera and please – let me know if you find a solution!

@Wilmon: Your problem sounds to me like it’s on the computer end of the connection; all I can say is make sure you’ve got all the current drivers and be sure to experiment with the order of powering things up/connecting cables etc. That does sometimes make a difference, believe it or not.

By: wilmon

wilmon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:21:18 +0000

I have panasonic mini DV camera that used to communicate
with PC thru firewire then stopped. I bought another camera.
It communicated by firewire for 5 minutes then never since.

What the hell is going on? I have tried everything !!!

By: Kewl

Kewl — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:19:29 +0000

I have the same problem, any upates on your experiments yet ?
Thanks

By: Muthu

Muthu — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:59:47 +0000

Hi,

I do have the same problem, let me know if you had any luck in fixing the problem.

Thanks,
Muthu

By: John

John — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:22:35 +0000

You gotta love Vista…Vista doesn’t support streaming USB video. I have contacted Sony and they also confirmed that the only way to get the video off is to use Firewire. I did stream USB at one time on an XP machine and it was terrible. At this point I’m going to borrow a buddy’s camcorder (I’ll be a little more careful this time) and try to pull the video off. Hope all goes well for you when you do make the attempt at the repair.

By: junior

junior — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:00:27 +0000

@John:

First, thanks for stopping by.

Second, I will definitely post an update once I give this a shot – but it’s going to be a couple of weeks at least before I’m going to have the block of time necessary to attempt this repair (which I am quite frankly prepared to admit well exceeds my technical capacity to achieve). I will post pictures and words about it when it happens, though. In the meantime, if you find a solution or attempt the repair, please let ME know what you find out. Also, you know that you can get video out of the camera using the USB port, right? It’s just not as high quality (either video or audio). In a pinch, though, it will do.

By: John

John — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 02:20:26 +0000

Oh please post an update. I was stupid enough to jam the cable into the port on my camcorder and basically destroy pins 3 and 4. I have been contemplating an attempt at repairing the camcorder myself (the wife isn’t too enthusiastic with this possible endeavor as I was the one that broke it in the first place). Would love to hear what you find out. Thanks.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:01:34 +0000

My daughter recorded over a tape that I had copied to a DVD using a Sony DVDirect(VRD-MC5).
I have a firewire card in my computer and wanted to try to record it back to a tape on the camcorder by playing it on the DVR on my computer. I have a 4-6 pin firewire cable. Will it work?
I bought the VRC because I just wanted what was on the tape, not doing any editing. It works great, faster and easier than copying to the pc.

Appreciate any help.

By: junior

junior — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:19:54 +0000

@Steve:

Thanks for stopping by the site. I haven’t yet attempted the repair – need to make sure I do it when there’s a generous block of time available – but I will definitely post an update to the site when I give it a whirl.

In the meantime, if you’ve gone through the list in the above post, check the port to see whether you can see any damage to the contacts.

Be sure to let ME know if you find a solution!

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:09:21 +0000

I have the same exact problem with the same exact camera! It used to capture through Firewire and then it stopped! Please let me know if you find a solution!