Using an old Sony media converter to digitize Hi8 footage

[Barlo Winnis]

I have a Sony Hi8 camera connected via an S-video cable to the Sony DVMC-DA2 media converter, which is connected to my Mac via the DV in/out port on the converter into a USB port on my laptop. I'm currently unable to get Premiere to "see" the converter.

Is USB the right port for this? Should I instead be using a firewire to thunderbolt converter to enable going from the DV in/out to a Thunderbolt port?

Would it be helpful to use the LANC port on the converter?

Or is the connection not the problem and I need some sort of driver software?

Or perhaps it's neither of those and somehow I can trigger Premiere to recognize the converter?

Any advice very much appreciated!

UPDATE 2/21/20:

I'm very happy to confirm that I am now able to capture that Hi8 footage with Premiere! To recap, I'm going from a Hi8 camera via S video and stereo mini to S video and RCA ports on a media converter (Sony DVMC-DA2), then from there via the DV in/out port (which is Firewire – 4 pin, I believe) to Firewire 800 to a Thunderbolt converter dongle and into the Thunderbolt port on my 2015 Macbook Pro. Premiere now sees the camera and I am able to digitize the media! One thing to highlight is that Weirdsmobile has warned me in this thread that Mac OS Catalina has apparently removed DV capture capabilities, so I will hold off on updating as I would like to be able to continuing being able to capture archival footage without relying on a transfer service. 

In short, it is not true, as I was told repeatedly in this thread, that Premiere can only capture over Firewire. It can also capture over Thunderbolt (at least prior to Catalina).

Side note: I was getting some tracking issues with the capture (scrolling horizontal discoloration) until I considered that the power source I was using for the media converter was a bit weak; once I switched to the recommended 6V power source, that problem was solved.

I hope this little odyssey of mine might prove helpful to others!

[Ann Bens]

Premiere will only capture over firewire.

[Barlo Winnis]

Thank you for your reply. Newer computers don’t have FireWire. Does this
mean it’s not possible to capture into Premiere on newer computers?

[Ann Bens]

I have a new computer but had a firewire card installed separately.

[Barlo Winnis]

Thanks for the reply. That's crazy. I'm shocked that there's no way to capture footage through thunderbolt or USB. Can this really be true??!

[Peru Bob]

Ann is correct. Firewire only for Premiere Pro capture.  

[Barlo Winnis]

I'm seeing reports online that I should be able to use an adapter to plug a firewire cable into my Thunderbolt port and capture the footage that way. Is this not true?

[Peru Bob]

I have never known any Firewire adapter to work.

[Barlo Winnis]

I've seen numerous firsthand reports online of people succcessfully using firewire to thunderbolt adapters with Macs to capture footage. Can anyone here confirm? I would really appreciate the vote of confidence before investing in these additional cables! By the way, there's no reason this has to use Premiere, since all Macs have iMovie; I'm picturing capturing with iMovie and editing with Premiere. However, I'm still flabbergasted that you apparently can't use Premiere to capture footage on a modern Mac...

[Peru Bob]

"I'm still flabbergasted that you apparently can't use Premiere to capture footage on a modern Mac..."

That's because capture is not used for modern media from modern cameras. 

[Ann Bens]

That is how oldfashioned dv tape cameras work: firewire.

[Barlo Winnis]

Actually, that’s how planned obsolescence works: convincing people that a lack of backwards compatibility is normal and inevitable.

The reports I’ve seen elsewhere online are encouraging, but Ann and Bob don’t seem to think it’s possible – has anyone out there used Thunderbolt (or another method) to capture footage, either through Premiere or iMovie?

[Ann Bens]

We are both windows users. This might help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15QjTTF8_I

[Barlo Winnis]

Thank you, Ann! This is the sort of setup I've been encountering elsewhere in my search. He's using QuickTime to capture through the Thunderbolt port. My situation is very similar to his, except I'm running the footage through a digital converter, since the footage is analog. I'll report back to the community how it goes once I've rustled up these cables! 

[Jeff Bugbee]

Take a look at this article: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/cant-capture-dv-hdv-video.html

You might be able to use a third party application like Quicktime to capture the video, then import that footage into Premiere.

As others have said, Premiere supports Firewire capture only.

[Barlo Winnis]

Thank you, Jeff! Yes, I'm fine using other available software such as QuickTime or maybe iMovie to do the capturing, then edit in Premiere. I think I overemphasized my desire to use Premiere to do the capturing in my initial post. Just want to get the dang footage in there!

[John V Knowles · Accepted solution]

Hi Barlo,

I was reading the whole thread and I decided to pop back out to the main thread here instead of getting buried in the replies.

You most definitley CAN use a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter to capture DV on a Mac. I do it all the time on my older laptop (2014 MBP) and my Sony DSR-11 deck. I'm running Mojave and Premiere CC19 (have not tested CC20 yet). Do NOT upgrade to Catalina – they removed DV capture entirely from the MacOS so no amount of adpaters or software will help in that scenario.

If you have any issues capturing in Premiere, open up Quicktime X. If the Mac recogizes the deck then it will pop up in there as a source to record from.

You may want to invest in new cables so that you have the least amount of adapters plugged toegther. I have a 4-pin to 8-pin cable – the small DV connector on the deck into a Firewire 800 plug which is what the Apple Thunderbolt domgle accepts. A lot of the older cables are 4-pin to 6-pin (Firewire 400) so you'd need an additional adapter in-between to convert the FW400 to FW800. You can still get these cables on sites like monoprice.com.

HTH,

WM

[Barlo Winnis]

Thanks a lot, WM! I'm excited to get these cables tomorrow and hopefully begin capturing this footage. I appreciate the warning about Catalina. Luckily, I have not updated yet.

[Stan Jones]

Some time ago, users were having trouble using Mac captured .dv files in PR. I don't know the status of this, but test your workflow once you have some files.

I'm mostly curious: once you have your cables and are up and running are the files you capture .dv?

And do they work in PR CC?

Stan

[John V Knowles]

Hi Stan,

Allow me to answer, since I've done this a lot. The captured files on a Mac are not .dv, they're .mov.

So it's a Quicktime wrapper around a DV/DVCPRO - NTSC codec.

WM

[Barlo Winnis]

Hi Stan,

Just to confirm Weirdsmobile's reply: the files generated are .mov Quicktime movies. I'm using Premiere 2019, and, so far at least, the files seem to work great. (Updated to reflect that I haven't tested this yet on my machine running Premiere 2020)

[Barlo Winnis]

I'm very happy to confirm that I am now able to capture that Hi8 footage with Premiere! To recap, I'm going from a Hi8 camera via S video and stereo mini to S video and RCA ports on a media converter (Sony DVMC-DA2), then from there via the DV in/out port (which is Firewire – 4 pin, I believe) to Firewire 800 to a Thunderbolt converter dongle and into the Thunderbolt port on my 2015 Macbook Pro. Premiere now sees the camera and I am able to digitize the media! One thing to highlight is that Weirdsmobile has warned me in this thread that Mac OS Catalina has apparently removed DV capture capabilities, so I will hold off on updating as I would like to be able to continuing being able to capture archival footage without relying on a transfer service. 

In short, it is not true, as I was told repeatedly in this thread, that Premiere can only capture over Firewire. It can also capture over Thunderbolt (at least prior to Catalina).

Side note: I was getting some tracking issues with the capture (scrolling horizontal discoloration) until I considered that the power source I was using for the media converter was a bit weak; once I switched to the recommended 6V power source, that problem was solved.

I hope this little odyssey of mine might prove helpful to others!

[John V Knowles]

Glad it all worked! 

FYI I made myself a little boot drive with an SSD in a USB enclosure; it has OSX Mavericks on it and a copy of Final Cut Pro 7. If I ever upgrade my 2014 MBP to Catalina I'll still be able to boot from this drive and use the older software to capture DV tapes with. You could do the same thing on your MBP, with a copy of High Sierra or Mojave on the drive along with a current Adobe install.

Best,

WM

[Barlo Winnis]

Hey WM,

Clever! Thanks for the great advice!!

[MOOBAKS]

Hey Barlo! I have been doing something similar but on both a MacBook Pro 2012 and a MacMini 2010. I have a JVC DVHS DH3000u from there S-Video / Compenent Audio into the same SONY DVMC DA-2 from there FireWire DV single cable mini/400 with 400/800 adapter straight into the FireWire 800 port on the computer.

Premiere CS6 recognizes just fine and captures "most" of what I try. I saw "most" because, either the SONY device or the Adobe Software does NOT capture if there is any distortion in the source tape. It does this whole "drop frames / no capture" or it will capture for a while then as soon as it doesn't like the signal it stops and saves the clip and then you have to start capturing again, but that section of the footage is garbled.

Have uou experienced this at all? 
Is there a way to tell Premiere to capture the entire input stream no matter what the quality is? 
Or is this the SONY device no converting the Analog signal properly when it comes across any tracking or other tape issues?

I feel like Premiere is trying too guess too much instead of just capturing the raw footage.

Thoughts?