Woo Hoo! My DVMC-DA1 is here...

[TheInformer]

I won an auction for it on eBay last week, and it arrived in the mail yesterday.

Setting it up is a no-brainer:
1. Plug power in
2. Plug composite cables from VCR to DVMC-DA1 input
3. Plug DV cable to PC firewire card from DVMC-DA1
4. Turn unit on
5. Run DV capture program

That's it. That's all.

I did a short test by capturing part of the ending action sequence from Aliens: Special Edition (it's the part right after where Ripley opens the airlock and the alien gets shot out). I figured converting to digital format (DV, MPEG-1/2, etc) from VHS tape is something lots of folks (me included) want to do.

I pressed play on the VHS player, and clicked on capture in the DV capture program. After about a minute, I stopped the capture and pressed stop on the VHS player. Not too much work there.

The DVMC-DA1 converts between analog and DV format. Once the capture was done, I encoded the video to MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 format using TMPGEnc v2.02 (free) and Vegas Video v3.0 (x-pensive). The results were inpressive! Sad (for them but great for most of us) to say, TMPGEnc held its own against the commercial Vegas Video when it came to the quality of the encoded files. BTW, I encoded using the VideoCD defaults in VV and the default VideoCD template in TMPGEnc.

If anyone has any questions regarding this unit, feel free to ask. I will be doing more conversions from VHS and TV to DV format in the immediate future now that I have the DVMC-DA1.

[sommersby]

It would be nice to have an honest comparison to capturing with a good video capture card using vdub to this box, I would be interested in the results.

[zx80]

I have the DVMC-DA2 and also capture to DV.
Yet I cannot read those clips into TMPGEnc.
What codec/OS do you use to do so?
Thanks.

[TheInformer]

zx80: I honestly don't know which DV codec I have installed at the moment. I've installed many 'demo' video apps to see how well they work (and uninstalled after). Possibly one of their codecs remains and is being used?

What you can do is go to Google (http://www.google.com) and search for:
canopus dv converter

Canopus puts out a free program to convert between DV types 1 and 2. My guess is that you need to convert your DV file to the other type and then TMPGEnc will read it in.

sommersby: If I had the money to buy a capture card, I'd compare it to the DVMC-DA1
All I can say is that it's a piece of cake to set up and puts out DV files with a minimum of fuss.

[TheInformer]

A quick update - the DVMC-DA1 can capture TV

Here's my setup (each connection here is via coax cable):
CABLE FROM WALL ---> VCR#1 ---> VCR#2 ---> WINTV PCI/FM

I've connected the yellow, red, and white composite cables from VCR#2 to the DVMC-DA1. When I turn the unit on and run a DV capture program, I can capture the TV signal and convert straight to DV format.

BTW, DVIO is a nice little DV capture program.

[jtor]

here's the link to the canopus file converter

http://www.justedit.com/products/fileconv.php3

I'm considering this analog-to-digital converter gadget also, but what's bugging me is macrovision. is there a workaround, or should I not worry about it?

Thanks.

[TheInformer]

Macrovision is basically an aberration in the video signal that causes copies to look like crap (in a nutshell).

The SIMA CopyMaster strengthens and cleans the video signal from one video source to another.

I'll let you do the math

[jtor]

================================================== =======
I'll let you do the math
================================================== =======

Thanks.

I was considering this.

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/advc100.html

[TheInformer]

jtor: The Canopus converter looks good, and I believe it has one feature that the DVMC-DA1 doesn't - it can work with PAL video. I do not believe the DVMC-DA1 works with PAL video (please correct me if I'm mistaken!).

The CopyMaster runs about $50 from Circuit City and the DVMC-DA1 was $200.
It costs a bit of money for these, but the time saved was worth it.

I chose not to go the USB Instant DVD route because I wanted to be able to edit the captured video,
and MPEG compressed files do not lend themselves to easy editing.