GOT THE CAMCORDER WORKING. finally i can digitize (checks notes) 13-15 hours of footage that, if the first 2 tapes are any indication, consists entirely of an old woman filling up an entire tape for fun while sitting and watching tv sometimes. i fast forwarded thru the tape in the picture. this is all it is. theres the sound of a tv in the background and this woman filmed her left eye for an hour while watching it. probably the seller i bought it from got the camera at her estate sale after she died
welp. better get cracking. these tapes arent going to digitize themselves
i wish this camera had an AC adapter. apparently its "AC adapter" was a dummy battery that you plugged one end into the cameras battery compartment and the other into the battery charger. because why the fuck would you put a normal barrel jack on a device when you could make some proprietary bullshit that will be impossible to find after they stop being manufactured. that would be too not stupid and evil for panasonic apparently
UPDATE: found an adapter on ebay. i will not be getting it
ill probably jerry rig something at some point
already had to do a bit of jerry rigging, had to modify an av cable to get it to work with the camera. it uses the same av connector that sony used for some of its camcorders except the panasonic one has an extra notch in the top, so you cant just use an easy to find cable, you have to use the panasonic one. which is no longer available and there arent generics of it and i couldnt find one on ebay. or you can just cut a notch in a normal one. god i hate consumer electronics. especially from the 2000s. USE FUCKING NORMAL SHIT. USE A NORMAL CONNECTOR. FUCKING ASSHOLES. we must abolish capitalism and kill every head engineer who signed off on bullshit like this immediately
UPDATE 2: made an offer of 10$ to the adapter guy. he did not accept it