Analogue to Digital

Hi
Is it possible to transfer analogue video from an analogue camcorder or video player to my iMac to copy to DVD ?
Thanks
Phil

There are various analog-to-digital converters. Some low-cost ones suffer in quality. Among the best are those made by Canopus and Miglia. These import the video in DV format for use in iMovie.
There also are devices that can capture as MPEG video such as the EyeTV. The advantage of capturing as MPEG is that is the format used on a video DVD, so it saves time with encoding. The disadvantage is it is a format that neither iMovie nor iDVD can accept. Toast 7 does accept MPEGs for burning to DVD, however.
Yet another option is to get a standalone DVD recorder and leave the Mac out of this.

Similar Messages

Converting handwritten notes: analogue to digital conversion?

I have a box full of handwritten notes that I would like to convert to a digital format (jpeg or pdf), but I know nothing about these formats and so don't know the best method to do so: scanning is feasible, but terribly, painfully slow. I would prefer to snap photos of each page and then convert to pdf but I've had previous experiences with large pdfs generated from jpegs that were unbearably slow to open and navigate because of the size of the file.
I'm not looking for OCR or to buy a new scanner / camera, I was just hoping someone could point me in the direction of learning more about the formats themselves and perhaps recommend an effective workflow or another community that specializes in this sort of thing (all my searches for analogue to digital conversion lead to dead ends). Most of the material is just reference notes that I would like to have, so the quality just needs to be readable. It is written in pencil or pen, some of it is printed.
Thank you kindly for sharing your thoughts.
Best,
Rax

You could try Graphic Convertor. It is designed specifically for the Mac OS to do all the things you are talking about. It has a lot of information in its manual about the different image file types and what you can do with them. There is a learning curve and a lot of it is way more technical than my level of understanding or interest, but the functions you are looking for are relatively simple, once you hone in on them.
I think there is a free or trial version of GC, I can't remember now, but the paid version is very inexpensive, and it is constantly being updated by its developer, lemkesoft. Adobe Photoshop Elements is supposed to be good, but very expensive, and there is no trial version for Mac, and in general the Mac versions of programs originally designed for Windows don't work as well or have all the features of the Windows versions.
If you want to check out Graphic Convertor, I would look for the "convert and modify" function in the file menu. Once you are in there, you can find the folder you want, and select as many image files as you want, and select functions to apply, such as saving WWW ready, converting to another file format, changing the resolution or size, renaming, adjusting/correcting brightness, contrast etc.. There is a way to combine jpgs into a "data stream" and to create multipage tiffs, but what I have been doing is saving things as tiffs, sorting them out and then converting them into multipage pdfs.
One thing I learned is that it is better to initially save images as tiffs, as that is the only common format that is not compressed. jpeg, png, gif, pdf are all compressed, which means that every time you open and save them, they get compressed again, which means you lose data every time you look at them. If you save them as tiffs originally, the file sizes are large, but you can pick which ones you want to be sure not to lose anything to keep as tiffs, so you can go back to them later if you need to.
You can select whatever level of compression you want for jpgs in Graphic Convertor, but there are so many choices it's hard to know which options to pick.You can save jpgs etc without compression with certain settings but the file sizes can still be large. There are different resolutions recommended for diffent kinds of images, for instance a line drawing should have a higher resolution than a typical photograph - the opposite of what I would have thought. Some of the high file size in multipage pdfs etc are not the image itself, but the digital instructions behind the scene so to speak - sometimes I've saved a jpg or a pdf with more compression to reduce the file size, but it ends up larger than I started, because what I told the program to do with it is saved with the image. You have to know what settings to pick to not save or get rid of that extra stuff if you don't want it.
The method described above in Preview may suit your purposes better - it's not that clunky once you do it a couple of times. You can also adjust the image size and contrast etc in Preview, and it works pretty well for the average user. One advantage of GC is the filters. One problem with using a camera for documents is getting the lighting even so there isn't glare on one part and shadows on another. This can interfere with readability. If you are adjusting the contrast etc in a program such as Preview it applies to the whole image, so it may improve one area and make another worse. The filters in GC can correct for uneven lighting to some degree.
I think there is a significant learning curve for all image processing programs. What is quick and intuitive to the eye is laboriously constructed and organized bit by bit in the digital world. If you don't want to spend a lot of time on this, I would really consider just getting a different scanner. I know exactly what you're talking about with scanning, but it doesn't have to be that way. There is better technology out there now.
If you're just scanning documents, the Fujitsu Scansnap scanners are amazing. You can get a portable one to do one-side scans for about $100, very good quality. You can select the file type, adjust the resolution/file size etc before you scan, scan directly to a multipage file, email, etc, without too much fuss. If you can afford it, a better scanner will save you a lot of time and aggravation and you will come out with a more useful and readable product. If the Byzantine world of image processing interests you, go for it.

Capturing footage using an analogue to digital converter

Hi
I've recently edited a 2 hour mutli-camera show from Digi Beta. We captured
the footage via firewire, cut the programme and mastered it to DVD for
duplication. We've now been asked to online the programme for broadcast.
Presumably this should be a simple task:
* capture the footage from Digi Beta with an analogue to digital
converter
* Export the current programmes as an EDL into a DigiBeta (PAL)
version.
* Render anything necessary
* Import the online audio
* Output to DigiBeta with the Digital to analogue converter.
Please can someone recommend a suitable D-A converter? We were thinking of
getting an AJA Kona LH/ LHe.
Also, is there anything else we may have missed in the process / potential
pitfalls?
We usually offline on FCP 5.1.2 and give and EDL to a post-production
facility but figure doing it ourselves will be a cheaper option.
Current kit spec:
Mac OS X version 10.4.8
Processor 4 x 2.5 GHz Power PC G5
Memory 4.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM
Thanks

just on the semantics of it ... analogue doesn't come into it
DigiBeta is digital, so is FCP. you need an I/O card.
the Kona LHe from AJA is a very good choice, as are the Decklink offerings from Blackmagic Design.
the method would be to create an "offline" version of your project with the "online" codec/resolution setting of your choice. you do this using FCP's "File > Media Manager" tool. next you would use Batch Capture to capture the media needed to recreate your sequence at that codec/resolution (using the DigiBeta masters via the I/O card to your Mac). then you'd output the upresed "online" version back to Digibeta (again going via the card)
potential pitfalls ... media manager has a long history of being hopeless
chck this post: http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=1075398
(although apple claims media manager is feeling much better now)
heres a ink to a tutorial on the process ... not new but still relevant
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/basic_onliningjordan.html

How do I collect Analogue and Digital Data

Newbie to DAQmx - I need to acquire analogue and digital channels synchronously at, say, 1000Hz. But .NET Tasks appear to only copy with one type of channel...?
Any clarification or ideas welcome.

If you need to acquire data from two different operations synchronously, one way to handle that would be to set up on task to drive the timing, and have the second task use external timing.
If we assume that the second task is digital, then the second task would need to use something like "Dev1/ai/SampleClock" as the external timebase. There is no way to start both tasks at the exact same time, so it would also be helpful to use the same terminal as the start trigger for the second task.

Connecting Creative Megaworks 510D to Nforce - Analogue or digital bes

Hi,
I am awaiting delivery of a set of Creative Megaworks 510D 5.1 speakers, and have a couple of questions for you..
1) What is the best method of connecting them to my K7N420 Pro?.
I have a CNR (AMR?) card as a plan B, but my first preference would be for a digital connection. Actually, the DAC used on the Nforce and it's AMR card is not bad (Analogue Devices 1885 18-bit), but the phillips 24/96 dac in the 510Ds is probably better.
Trouble is that the 510Ds use a 3.5mm stereo jack for digital input rather than the standard phono SP/DIF interface. Anyone know if an adaptor cable can be made up, or has anyone managed to get this working correctly?
Apologies if this has been asked/answered many times before, but If I must go analogue, which ports on the ANR / MB correspond to front l/r, rear l/r, centre and sub?.
2) What would be the optimum control panel settings for these speakers for games, dvd viewing, and music (stereo CD, MP3 etc?). I'm using 1.13
I would think that there is a set of settings which should work ok for most sources, and then 'optimised' settings for different media. I would be grateful for any pointers...
Cheers,
Alex

Hi,
Thanks for the info...
My speakers do not have a DD5.1 decoder for the digital input, so I'm not sure how it will pan out. I cannot find much information on the format of the datastream - I assume that if the control panel settings are configured for 5.1, then then spdif datastream will be DD5.1 encoded, rather than linear PCM.
I am assuming that the spdif datastream contains channel information for the following channels, but am not sure if my speakers will be able to 'understand' it:
FL, centre, FR, RL, RR, Sub (lfe).
the megaworks 510D manual and nvidia APU white papers are a bit vague, and I'm getting lost!. The 510D shows the digital input as a stereo minijack, but suggests that you use a mono RCA - mono minijack converter for non-audigy cards.
Still confused :(
Cheers,
Alex

Analogue output digital output

Hello,
I managed to create my VI in the proper way I think. I am trying to send a ttl every time my analogue output crosses zero. All whats left now is to transform the analogue data into a digital data and input it into the dammx write for the DO line. I would like to trigger on the zero corssing of the waveform and other intervals which I can select. Attached is the VI, I have created. I have trried to use a loop and find the zeros, but I think its simpler than that. I would also like to add the functionality of triggering eery nth zero corssing since the device I am triggering has a lower max freq then my drive signal
Thank you
Ala
Attachments:
AOTTL.vi ‏209 KB

Hi James,
Thank you for that, Attached is screen shot of the TTL and the analogue output. As you can see the TTL are not trigerring at a specefic instance with relation to the AO, and the pulse width varies(although this is not critical as I am triggering on the rising edge). I think the best solution would be to generate another simple waveform (WV2) at the same time of the equation waveform with the same frequency (low). Then use that signal to generate the trigger at zero crossing (WV2 labelleb in vi). Then to vary the phase with relation to the AO signal shift the simple waveform by a known phase and still trigger at zero crossing. Attached is the trigger illistration and a VI that shows the generation of the other waveform used for triggering. I have been trying to do this but to no avail.
Thank you
Ala
Attachments:
AOTTL.vi ‏241 KB
Trigger illustration.jpg ‏145 KB

Analogue or Digital?

I want to connect my iMacs audio out to an analogue amplifier Dolby Pro logic. In the instructions for the iMac it says,
Headphone out/optical digital audio port. Connect headphones, external powered speakers, or digital audio equipment. This port is also a S/PDIF stereo 3.5 mini-phono jack.
I would like to no if this is a digital output or analogue on the iMac and if it is OK to connect it to an analogue amplifier as it does not mention that it can be connected to an amplifier only to speakers and it mentions digital audio equipment but not analogue. Also what does S/PDIF mean? The iMac is a all white 1.8 Mhz Intel Core Duo 2, 17 inch and the amp is a TEAC Dolby Pro Logic not Pro Logic II.
Thanks for any help.

John A wrote:
I would like to no if this is a digital output or analogue on the iMac
It's both. The jack will accept either a 3.5 mm analog stereo phono-plug \OR
a 3.5 mm digital fiber-optic connector. The same is true of the audio input jack.
S/PDIF is "Sony/Philips Digital Interchange Format" (or sumpin' close to that).
The fiber-optic version of S/PDIF is also referred to as "TOSlink."
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1264784
Looby

Analogue or digital out to 250D megaworks gives best sound quali

Hi all,?I'm currently using a soundblaster audigy and I use the RCA-to-miniplug cable?connected to the?digital out of the soundcard to the SPDIF input on the speakers. I believe this works because the speakers have a digital-to-analogue controller built into them. They're the 250D 2. Megaworks. (http://www.creative.com/products/pro...oduct=24&nav=2)?However, the soundcard also has a digital-to-analogue converter? Is it better than the one on the speakers? Would I get better sound quality using an analogue connection?I'm currently thinking of upgrading to an X-FI Xtreme Gamer, would that change things? (It has a better digital-to-analogue converter, right?)?Thanks in advance for any help!?Matteo

I doubt you will?hear?the difference between the digital and analogue connections. There could be a volume difference but nothing really quality wise. The DACs coming with the cards are generally of a very good level and I suppose the ones in the speakers will also be very similar. The problem here aren't the DACs but the Audigy processor itself. The chip does resampling to almost every signal it gets and it doesn't do?it good enough. This lowers the quality of the signal for both the SPDIF and the analog outs. You can read more here. The things are better with the X-Fi, because the resampling is of much higher quality. Here is another article. They do not test the SPDIF output, but I doubt if it will get better than the analog. Also let's not forget that even if the SPDIF output is nearer the ideal, it will still heavily depend on the DAC circuity of the speakers. As a sidenote, the X-Fis (apart from the Elite-Pro) have the same DACs and OpAmps as the Audigy 2 ZS, which proves the fact, the processor was a major drawback. Also notice, that under Vista, unless you use an OpenAL title or ALchemy, resampling is done by Windows and I think it will be nearer to the Audigy than X-Fi in quality?PS: Sorry if I have not given a clear answer, but I think you can now draw your own conclusions.Message Edited by alexs3d2 on 08-20-20072:54 AM

Compatible analogue to Digital Converters & Macs

Does anyone knows what are the compatible analygue to digital converters for Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder? I'm on a MacBook Pro
MORE DETAILS
I have one of these all-silver MacBook Pro. So it's about 3 years old.
Specs:
Mac OS X version 10.5.8
Processor 2.4 GHZ intel core 2 Duo
Memory 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
So I know it's good to do live streaming.
I have two camcorder.
Neither have firewire.
The Panasonic HDC-TM60 has an HDMI and a AV Multi.
The Sony CX-100 has an HDMI and an A/V R.
I want to use one of these two camcorders to do live streaming on Ustream. I'll use the Adobe Flash Media live Encoder.
I need to know what converter to buy so that I can connect one of these camcorder to my mac and start the live streaming.
No one at the apple store or other store know about live streaming and adobe flash media live encoder. So I'm hoping someone here does.
I really appreciate your expertise and the time you'll take to answer my question. Thanks!

If you have an ExpressCard slot on the Macbook, take a look at the Blackmagic Intensity Pro plus the Magma ExpressBox PCI expansion box.
Tim

Analogue to digital with Elgato Software

I am considering buying this software through my local Apple store for the purpose of converting my old Hi8 camcoder tapes into iMovie so that I can edit them and eventually create some movie DVD's.
Can anyone provide me with any feedback on this product? Google searching provides info which appears to be positive but I have been caught out before with certain products.

None of the Elgato devices are suitable for what you want to do (capture & edit in iMovie, create a DVD). They create highly compressed H.264 files that you would then have to convert to QuickTime/DV or QuickTime/Apple Intermediate Codec in order to edit in iMovie.
Better to use your existing ADVC100 to capture directly into iMovie. The ADVC100 converts your analog video directly to DV, preserving as best as possible the original quality of your videos.

Analogue to digital converter

I have logic pro 9 and am getting started. I want to hook up a guitar, bass and mike to make my own recordings. What would be the best way to get this done? WHich AD coverters etc work best and aren't 10K?

What you need is called an *Audio Interface.* A Hi resolution (24 bits) interface with at leat two line ins and one mic preamp starts at around 150 europoundollar.
In the category up to 400-500 epd's there are more than 100 products to choose from.
Basically there are three types of audio interface:
the PCI card, starting around £€$ 90
The USB interface, starting around $€£200
or the FireWire interface, starting around 350€£$:
Either of those will be fine, but they must have at least three inputs, (one mic and two instrument (preamped) inputs.
O, no, I just read you don't need to play simultaneously. The most value for money would then imo be the Tascam US 122L. Great sound for the price. Around €£$ 120...

How do I convert analogue 5.1 surround sound into a digital signal? (Pioneer SE-DIR800C headphon

I understand that my SB Audigy 2 card will only output 5. sound from games through its 3 analogue connectors. How do I convert this analogue signal into a digital one? What hardware do I need to purchase?
I have read the thread on "Digital Connections, SPDIF and Dolby Digital Info", and also I've thoroughly read the "Creative Speaker Connectivity Guide".
The reason I ask is that I have just bought a pair of Pioneer SE-DIR800C Surround Sound headphones. This are supposedly fantastic for recreating surround sound on headphones because there is a clever little decoder box. They accept a DTS / Dolby Digital signal via the digital co-axial and optical inputs, and there is a single analogue input which only accepts stereo sound.
My XBox and PS2 will output true digital 5. sound via an optical cable and I am confident this will work perfectly with these headphones. I'm really looking forward to playing Halo in surround sound! But for gaming on my PC, I'll be limited to just an analogue stereo signal. Well, unless I can find some device that will convert my SoundBlaster's analogue 5. outputs into a digital signal, which I can then plug into the little decoder box for these headphones.
So, back to my question:
What hardware do I need to buy to convert an analogue 5. signal (via 6 x RCA or 3 x 3.5mm stereo ) into a true digital signal (via optical or co-axial SP/DIF)? Is it some type of headphone amplifier I need? If possible, please recommend makes & models of equipment.

Thanks stefan
OK, basically I have found 3 options for getting digital 5. out of a PC:
a) Creative DTS-60 (approx $90). This converts the SB's analogue into digital, but it's not available in the UK and it also introduces a noticeable 50ms sound delay. Also, who wants an extra box hanging out of their PC?
b) Buy a new sound card which has Dolby Digital Li've output. For example, ) BlueGears HDA X Mystique 7., or 2) Turtle Beach Montego DDL, or 3) Terratec Aureon 7. PCI (NOT the Space, FireWire or Uni'verse cards). I couldn't find the first two available in the UK so I have just ordered the Terratec card from Komplett.
c) Buy a new motherboard that has built-in Dolby Digital Li've output, for example the ABIT Fatalty AA8XE. Unfortunately my PC is only just over year old and I'm not quite ready to replace it.
I hope this info is useful for people. Maybe Creative will start making a card with DDL output too.Message Edited by NinjaHeretic on 2-22-2005 08:46 AM

MacBook core duo Sept. 2006 - the audio is a mystery. Any analogue out has bass boost with bass distortion. With digital out, by USB or Airport Express Airtunes, the frequency response is normal. Somewhere, Apple put in an analogue bass boost.. why?!

Since new, my Macbook core duo has sent all audio to all analogue outputs with frequency distortion. Some physical hardware or firmware in the analogue section adds a bass boost to the frequency response of the audio.... And, this boost adds bass frequency distortion to most, if not all, of the audio analogue output.
This happens for all audio sources, players, iTunes, videos, streaming audio/video, movies... any sound source available to the Macbook. No-one with whom I have talked about this problem, has ever heard of it. Not elegant ideas for reducing it are to use equalisers on players and iTunes. iTunes even has a preprogrammed "bass reduce" on its equaliser, as if it knows already that this inherent bass boost "feature" has been built into the Macbook, and cannot be defeated by the user.
The digital audio is of sufficiently high quality to play well on a very good to excellent sound-system; so, it's a shame someone has mucked around with the frequency response of the analogue conversion, by designing the frequency distortion right into the computer. This motherboard, (which includes the sound-section), has been replaced, along with the speakers, and everything sounds exactly the same as it was before.
To receive a flat frequency response and no frequency distortion, I listen on one receiver using Airtunes, (it doesn't matter whether or not the analogue or digital output jack is wired analogue or connected via optical cable.... the freq. response is flat); and I listen on a high-end stereo system using an USB output port to an A/D converter, passing the analogue result using long patch-cords connected to the "line-in" jacks of the stereo. The bummer is that most of my audio sources are not derived from iTunes... hence, I cannot use Airtunes with Airport express for them. I've tried using "Airfoil" without luck. The sound becomes distorted with sibilance and other frequency anomalies.
Question: has anyone else discovered this sound imperfection in any Mac product? And, does anyone know if Apple is aware of it? Finally, has anyone found an Apple fix for the problem; or, at least, come up with better solutions than I have?
Thanks heaps for any impute and answers you may supply!! junadowns

Army wrote:
This might not help you a lot, but if you want a stable system, try using packages from the repo wherever possible, look at the news before you update your system and don't mess things up (like bad configuration etc.).
When it comes to performance, you won't gain much by compiling linux by yourself! Just use the linux package from [core] or if you want a bit more performance, install the ck-kernel from
[repo-ck]
Server = http://repo-ck.com/$arch
(this has to go to the bottom of /etc/pacman.conf)
(use that one which is best for your cpu (in your case this might be the package linux-ck-corex).
Hmmm, Linux-ck-corex doesn't even load.. I am now trying to install the generic one. Hope it works.
Edit: I will first try linux-lqx...
Last edited by exapplegeek (2012-06-26 18:33:31)

How do I output digital/analogue signals based on a text file

I have a CSV file with three fields in each record; time, rpm, and a voltage. A sample file is attached. The rpm numbers are generated using 8 counts/revolution. I want to replicate this file somehow. At a trade show this past weekend I was told Labview could possibly read this file and output the signals. How would this work? I develop an app in Labview that reads the txt file and then run the app. The app generates the signals using what device? Any info is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance
Toby

Many of the National Instruments hardware cards (or potentially third party manufacturers) can be used by LabVIEW to create analogue and digital I/O signals from a text file.
The PCI cards often have 2 analogue outputs and 8 analogue input channels (often more), as well as Digital I/O's and counter timers.
I suggest that you firm up your requirements and contact your local NI sales office for specific hardware advice.
Message Edité par Conseils le 12-18-2006 03:27 PM

Digital TV doesn't detect analogue channels

new digital tv (26AV700A) doesn't pick up all available channels, in particular analogue channels. our previous analogue tv picked up all analogue channels when connected to the same aerial.
done the setup (wizard) and auto scan which found some of the analogues, but not all.
the setup menu, submenu channels, lacks two menu items specified in the tv's handbook - both refer to analogue channels, ie <analogue manual scan> and <analogue fine tune>
it seems some key analogue capability is missing - is there some setting that turns the whole analogue thing on/off ?

Hi
I dont think you will get proper answer here because this is forum for Toshiba computers/notebooks and all stuff that has something to do with it.
If you have problem with TV I recommend you to contact your local dealer in TV shop. They are specialized for such issues and I hope they can help you with this.
By the way, friend of mine has Toshiba TV and in settings there is option where you can enable channel scanning for analogue channels, digital channels or both of them. There is also option for quick scan. Everything is described in users manuals.

Analogue to Digital

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