Camcorder Analog to Digital

What is the best converter reasonably priced to do a decent job? I have been looking at this one:
canopus ADVC-55 A/D Converter
Any thoughts or anyone that has used it?
Thanks for any and all help.
Hoping you all have a great Holiday Season!
Margit in Minnesota

"Reasonably priced" and "decent" are pretty vague and subjective terms, so it's hard to give a suggestion.
My seven year old Canon ZR-40 MiniDV camcorder has analog to digital conversion feature. I have used it often to import analog AV into iMovie. It has worked quite well. Perhaps a friend has a similar one you can borrow. You could also search eBay for old similar camcorders. Even broken models sold "as is" for a few dollars might have the analog-digital feature still working. Good luck.

Similar Messages

  • Analog to Digital conversion of hi8 tapes

    I have many hi8 video tapes that I have been trying to digitize so that I can import them into my imac. I have connected my analog hi8 camera to a Sony DSC-PC350 mini dv camcorder that has an analog to digital converter (pass through). In the VTR mode I can view my movies on the Sony camcorder. However, when I connect the Sony to the iMac with a firewire, I get a 'no tape' message on my iMovie screen. At the same time the video screen on the Sony camcorder goes blank. Can someone help me with this problem? Or is it possible that you cannot import a conversion on iMovie '09?

    Hi again ftts (having a little trouble pronouncing that)
    I went to the Sony web site and simply downloaded the operator's manual for that camcorder...
    http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DCRPC350
    I also compared it to the manual of my TVR-330 which is a Digital8 camcorder and does have the pass through functionality. I did that to find the wording they use when talking about pass through (Sony never calls it "pass through"). All indications of the manual for your camcorder indicate you can input an analog signal and record it to digital tape. But nothing indicates you can use the camcorder as an A2D pass through device like you can with my Digital8 model.
    So you will have to go through the two step process of first recording onto the MiniDV with tape. Then secondly importing it to the Mac. If you want to use that one.
    For the DCR-TRV22 ...
    http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DCRTRV22
    it looks like that one WILL do the pass through function (see page 173 of the manual). So if you want to skip the tape part then use the TRV22 camcorder instead.
    Cheers,
    Patrick

  • Analog to Digital (ie VHS to DVD)

    As much as I love the internet I think I've overloaded myself with information, lol.
    I have some home movies on VHS that I would like to transfer to DVD and have them be compatible with tweaking in iDVD or iMovie (I'm totally new to Mac BTW, I've only had my Macbook Pro for a little over a month).
    I know I need to buy a VCR.... this is where my confusion comes in ... should I just buy a VCR/DVD combo (I'm looking at an LG RC797T for $250 @ Best Buy) and record the VHS tapes to a DVD on the machine? Will that video on the newly burned DVD now be digital video that will be importable and editable (are those words?) on my MBP with iDVD and/or iMovie?
    Or, do I need to go w/some sort of analog to digital converter? I was looking at purchasing either a Canon Elura 100 Mini-DV or Canon ZR700 Mini-DV camcorder since they do analog to digital conversion (would have to go from VCR, out via S-Video into the Camcorder and then out of the Camcorder via Firewire into the Mac (actually an external HDD will be necessary so I don't suck up all my space).
    I'm not a guru when it comes to file compression and rendering and video formats and all that happy stuff - I'd like a simple method that works well and produces a decent quality DVD.
    I think if I can do it w/just the VHS/DVD machine that'll be the route I take (it'll be least expensive). If I have to buy a camcorder along w/a VHS machine then that's adding $$ to the project and I still need to buy an external HDD - scouring good sales for that info.
    Thank you a million times over in advance, I've researched and read and dug and shopped my brains out for the past week and it seems like there is no simple solution.
    B's Fan

    Just a question.....if you have all these old VHS home movies, don't you already have a VCR? What have you been playing them on all these years?
    I agree w/ Sue and Kirk. If you want to edit these old movies, you need to digitize the footage onto DV format.
    I just connected my camcorder to my VCR (It is the VCR/TV combo unit and worked fine for this) and recorded the raw VHS footage onto DV tapes. Yes, there were a lot....I think I have about 150 DV tapes (one hour each).
    I have been slowly importing them into my iMovies as I create them. I put my still photos and videos in chronologic order, so I import about one or two tapes per movie. Usually the 60min tape gets edited down quite a bit before I am finished. You know, you have plenty of bad shots, blurry images, terrific movies of the floor, ceiling, your hand, etc that can be cropped out.
    If you really don't need to edit your movies, and just want them preserved as DVDs, I know that the Sony VHS/DVD combo unit works great. My brother copied some of his old Muhammed Ali fight tapes that he had recorded from tv. He didn't need to edit, just was afraid that the VHS tapes were degrading.
    However, I recommended to him that he do the same as I, and get the footage on DV tapes to preserve them. I am sure that DVDs are not going to be the technology of the future. They can become broken, melted, scratched, etc. I save all my edited movies on DVDs and on more DV tapes. I (almost)always export my finished movies back to my camcorder after I have made my DVD.
    The DV tapes are small, can be easily stored in a cool dry environment, and your memories are not lost.
    Because VHS tapes are not great quality to begin with, you could (and I have done this also) copy the finished DVD to your camcorder by connecting them and recording from the DVD. Supposedly there is a quality loss, but you will not notice because the digital version of your movies will be so much better than the original. I have occasionally had to do it this way when I deleted my iMovie after making my DVD, but forgot to export it back to the camera.

  • Analog to Digital Converter boxes

    Does anyone think Apple will ever fix iMovie to restore usage of many analog to digital converter boxes that were broken by iMovie 5?
    I have a SONY DVMC-DA1 firewire unit and wish I could use it again in iMovie. Does anyone know what the exact component is that they left out or changed that would cause this problem? I'm just trying to understand.

    The ADVC-55 is capture only. It includes composite & s-video inputs and stereo audio inputs. Firewire output.
    The ADVC-110 is bidirectional (meaning you can both capture and output through it - this is a very good way to monitor your video during production as you can see the actual quality on a monitor/TV rather than just your computer screen, which has limited capability to show you the actual video quality.) It includes composite & s-video inputs and outputs; stereo audio inputs & outputs; Firewire input & output.
    The ADVC-300 is also bidirectional and includes composite, s-video and component video i/o (D1 connector) inputs & outputs; stereo audio inputs & outputs; Firewire input & output; and software that enables you to tweak its video settings. Helpful in cleaning up particularly bad analog videos.
    I've used these things for years and they all work great. I do not believe there is any difference in the internal conversion hardware ... The primary differences are support for one-way vs. bidirectional conversion; input/output connectors; and the software that comes with the ADVC-300.
    If you have basically clean analog video, any of these units will be fine. You can use any analog source (VHS deck, camcorder, DVD player, etc.) and would typically use iMovie or Final Cut Express to capture your video on a Mac.

  • Analog to Digital Converter-- What's A Good Product For My System?

    What would be a good analog to digital converter for Final Cut Express HD 3.5 on a Mac OSX 10.4 system? I've used a Canopus on a MacPro with Final Cut Pro before and liked it, but wasn't sure what would be a good product for my macbook. I've looked at the Canopus advc-110 and 55 but am not clear on the difference and if it would work with what I have.

    The ADVC-55 is capture only. It includes composite & s-video inputs and stereo audio inputs. Firewire output.
    The ADVC-110 is bidirectional (meaning you can both capture and output through it - this is a very good way to monitor your video during production as you can see the actual quality on a monitor/TV rather than just your computer screen, which has limited capability to show you the actual video quality.) It includes composite & s-video inputs and outputs; stereo audio inputs & outputs; Firewire input & output.
    The ADVC-300 is also bidirectional and includes composite, s-video and component video i/o (D1 connector) inputs & outputs; stereo audio inputs & outputs; Firewire input & output; and software that enables you to tweak its video settings. Helpful in cleaning up particularly bad analog videos.
    I've used these things for years and they all work great. I do not believe there is any difference in the internal conversion hardware ... The primary differences are support for one-way vs. bidirectional conversion; input/output connectors; and the software that comes with the ADVC-300.
    If you have basically clean analog video, any of these units will be fine. You can use any analog source (VHS deck, camcorder, DVD player, etc.) and would typically use iMovie or Final Cut Express to capture your video on a Mac.

  • Analog to digital video

    Does anyone know the quality difference between the analog to digital video converter in the Canon Elura 100 camcorder vs stand alone converters. I own an Elura and am converting older Hi8 video to my Mac and it is hard to find specs on these devices regarding resolution, sampling rate, etc.  Has anyone noticed any problems with video converted using the Elura ?

    Faedo,
    Cheapest ways:
    1. Do you have a DV camera? If you do and it has "digital in" then you can take the output from your VHS player, route it through the camera and into your PC. The manual would explain if it is a feature.
    2. Secondly, search ebay for Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge. This is a hardware converter that takes the analogue and does the conversion for you.
    Good luck.

  • Archiving analog video digitally for later editing

    Hi:
    I'm a newbie to iMovie and have been through the discussion threads without finding an answer. Thanks in advance for any help.
    I have about 16 hours of analog tape from a Hi 8 Sony camcorder. I just picked up a Canon ZR200 which allows me to use the analog to digital passthrough feature to move the old analog tape to the computer. I've been able to import some video and have some rather huge files. I see in the forums that an hour of DV video is about 13 GB which is consistent with what I have on my computer.
    I have two objectives here. First, I want to archive the clips from the analog tapes to DVD in a raw and unedited format. Essentially, I want to have a DVD copy of the tapes I have presently. However, I also want to later be able to go back and edit the video backed up on DVD into more concise clips using iMovie and put together several separate DVDs of the edited material.
    I don't want to just backup the raw DV files to DVD as data files because they're so huge. I have about 20 G free on my computer, so I can't archive there and I'm trying to avoid buying an external HD.
    Is there some way to archive the unedited video on DVD (as data or movie) so that I can later reedit?

    In reading your response and other threads, I am
    assuming that when I Share to a Full Quality movie, I
    am making a quicktime movie as the output which will
    be much smaller than the DV file; is this correct?
    The Shared movie is smaller because it is shorter. But in terms of quality, the Full Quality export is exactly the same content as the DV video used in the iMovie HD project.
    In iMovie HD, a "Full Quality" export creates a movie that matches the natural video of the currently active iMovie project. The video format varies by project type. A DV project exports to a different movie format than an HDV 720p project, for example.
    (Note: The image quality of the DV you see in QT Player may not look very good by default, but that's because its High Quality playback features need to be turned on. In QT 7, you can do it in QT preferences.)
    With no discernible loss in quality?
    That's correct. There will be no loss of quality.
    Thanks again for your help, Karl.
    You're welcome.

  • Advice Wanted: Analog to Digital Conversion

    I have a load of Hi8 tapes requiring analog to digital conversion.
    My initial thought was to buy a Canopus ADVC-110 for conversion and transfer into Final Cut Express. However, once converted, I would never use the device again (because I would buy a digital camcorder for future use).
    Alternatively, I could buy a top-of-the-range Sony Digital8 camcorder for a similar price to the Canopus ADVC-100. This has the ability to play-back and convert Hi8 tapes for transfer to Final Cut Express. The problem is that Digital8 is a dated format.
    Third, should I instead buy a MiniDV camcorder, and use my existing Hi8 camcorder connected to the MiniDV and transfer from Hi8 to MiniDV?
    Does anyone have experience of these alternative solutions, and what is the better solution in terms of ensuring quality of video transfer?
    Also, from what I've read elsewhere, is Firewire still a preferable transfer method over USB?

    I have both methods covered.
    I have found that using the ADVC-100 gives better results, especially as I time base correct the Hi-8 first with a standalone TBC from GTH electronics.
    The Hi-8 in a Digital-8 camera works OK, but clips the peak whites a little, losing some detail in any over modulated footage. I can tweak the vision signals, with the GTH TBC first, to avoid this.
    I now use the ADVC as a digital converter for recording television programmes, and I can use if necessary (though not strictly legally) for nabbing clips from DVD or VHS for some home movie fun as my GTH removes the macrovision pulse.
    On the camcorder front I would always opt for Digital-8, here's why.
    Mini DV had significantly reduced head life compared to Digital-8, and has always suffered from compatibility issues between machines, thus footage shot on one camcorder will not necessarily play on another.
    In my job I have encountered many problems because of this. Also, Mini DV tapes should only ever be used for one recording. They are very fragile and prone to slight stretch and many drop outs. They are not to be considered for archive purposes or data backup.
    Digital-8 on the other hand copes well with old Hi-8 tapes I had long ago consigned to the no good pile. The transports are very stable, being based on proven video-8 technology, and the heads seem to last for ever!
    I have abused my Digital-8 camcorder (a DCR-TR7000E) for 6 years, its been on my motorcycle tank many times, and despite being shaken about like a monkey on a spin cycle, give consistently perfect results. I cant remember losing any footage through drop outs. I also use for data back up (using DV backup) of very valuable files, tape still having the longest shelf life of currently available large storage media.
    The digital 8 camcorders are rather larger than Mini DV, but if you are serious about video then a tiny camcorder will not be required.
    If you are entering the semi-pro arena, and require a high quality front end camera on the camcorder you will be stuck with mini DV. However I get near broadcast quality footage from my D-8, with nothing more than a circular polariser stuck on the front.
    Note also that some mini DV camcorders do not have an analogue recording capability, even if they have DV in enabled.
    Firewire is better than USB2.
    Sorry about the length of this post, but I am passionate about video formats (its my job) and am annoyed when inferior formats win out.
    Powerbook 17", 1.67   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  
    Powerbook 17", 1.67   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

  • General analog to digital question

    I bought this Pinnacle MovieBox DV product some time ago and am just getting around to using it. Thought at the time it would convert analog vhs and camcorder media to digital. My efforts so far have only included attempts at vhs conversion. Seems the video imports just fine but there is no audio.
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    Thank you
    Now if I had an extra $300+ (this time of year).
    If there's a means of getting this Pinnacle product to work ... I'ld prefer that for now. Wondering if the quality of the VCR/P could be an issue? Or if there's an audio setting I'm not using?
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  • How does ipad digital AV adaptor works? does it have a Analog to Digital conversion?

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  • MBP video out to TV using DVI - both analog and digital?

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    Thanks
    Frank
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    Type: GPU
    Bus: PCIe
    PCIe Lane Width: x16
    VRAM (Total): 256 MB
    Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
    Device ID: 0x0407
    Revision ID: 0x00a1
    ROM Revision: 3212
    Displays:
    Color LCD:
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    Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
    Main Display: Yes
    Mirror: Off
    Online: Yes
    Built-In: Yes
    VGA Display:
    Resolution: 800 x 600 @ 60 Hz
    Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
    Mirror: Off
    Online: Yes
    Rotation: Supported
    Macbook Pro 2.4 Leopard 10.5.2 Mac OS X (10.6.4) Brand New 3/08

    I made an account and am replying to this because i have the exact same computer as you and i was also at best buy at around 3pm wondering the exact same things you were! The DVI port on our MacBooks are different than the standard DVI ports. Freaking weiiiiiiiiiiiiiird! Get out of my head!!!!
    I ended up buying a VGA cable and using the converter that came with my MBP because the DVI to VGA cables at Best Buy had a different VGA than what the MBP has.
    Our goals were slightly different though, I wanted a cable so i can connect the MBP to my Toshiba 42inch HDTV. VGA works but doesnt support 1080p, only 1024x768, which is not a fullscreen resolution. So i will be returning the VGA cable tomorrow and looking for a VGA to HDMI cable, if that exist.
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  • How to store the output of a analog to digital converter into an 2D array

    Hi
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    nitinkajay wrote:
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  • Analog to digital protocol

    Hi again,
    I got a lot of help yesterday on hardware devices that allow capture of analog video. Thanks.
    That got me to wondrin... If I'm going to try to do this, I might as well learn the basics.
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    Hi
    Just some thoughts.
    In my mind the videoconverter converts an analog video + audio signal
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    So at least there is an analog to digital converting chip inside and in more
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    My Canopus ADVC 300 can alter the video and sound so I get a better
    material to work with and I get the feeling of that it even fixes some drop-
    outs on the VHS tape. This I think can be worth to pay for.
    Yours Bengt W

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  • Analog to Digital VI

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    Solved!
    Go to Solution.
    Attachments:
    ADC_Sample_rate.JPG ‏54 KB

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