Is it possible to use firewire to capture analogue source

[Craig Tucker]

See subject

[Dragonsf]

yes, if you use an analog/digital converter like Dazzle HollwoodBridge or an Analog-In enabled DCR.

[PhArAoH]

Yes, you can with a camcorder that has a passthroigh feature. I use my SONY TRV320 to do this. Input my analogue source into my camcorder with S-Video and the video is tranferred to my PC via Firewire cable. There is no need to record to a camcorder tape first. Very cool feature. You practically get a camcorder and video digitizer all in one.

[Craig Tucker]

Thanks for the quick respose guys

Second question.

Is this method of capturing analogue via firewire likely to give me better results than capturing via my ATI all in wonder 32mb 128 pro.

[Tommy]

Yes the firewire way will produce better quality than the ATI card. I have a ATI AIW 128 and it works fine but it can't match the quality. BTW I use a Sony PC9 camcorder.

[TheInformer]

As I've mentioned in the past, the Sony DVMC-DA1 (and 2) is a great way to convert analog video (TV, VHS, etc) to DV (digital video) format.

You use a capture program such as DVIO or ScenalyzerLive (tremendous program, BTW) to capture the analog video to a DV format file on your hard drive.

The Pros here are:
- painless conversion, as easy as it gets
- zero dropped frames, for me at least
- DV is an easily editable compressed format

Cons include:
- cost of the DVMC-DA1 (or other such device)
- time it takes to transcode the DV file to MPEG1 or MPEG2
- video takes up 216 megs a minute for storage (~ 12 gigs an hour)

For me, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

[Dragonsf]

But beware! the Sony Media Converter works only with NTSC.