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Using an old Sony media converter to digitize Hi8 footage

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 18, 2020
8 replies
4800 views

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!

Import

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer John V Knowles

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

B

Betabob

Participant

I did everything that you did with my late 2015 Imac.

Worked good with capture in to IMovie. I use Davince Resolve to edit clips.

Just updated to macOS Monterey 12.3.1 and now DVMC-DA2 is not supported.

I am not sure how to roolback macOS. I am thinking about getting a used Sony Digital 8 cam to digitize Hi8 and 8mm tapes

but what model works with IMovie?

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Dont think Monteray supports firewire.

Get yourself a D8 which can play hi8 tapes. Not all models can.

M

MOOBAKS

Participant

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?

Barlo WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hey MOOBAKS!

I'm sorry to say I don't have much insight to add on this. Luckily, I don't need to do a lot of analog capture these days, though I have experienced similar issues, and my approach has just been the obvious, rewind as close to the gap as possible and restart the capture. At least you still get all or almost all of the non-garbled material, but it can be a hassle frequently having to restart the capture. Best of luck, and let us know if you find a solution!

J

John V Knowles

Community Expert

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------JVK | Editor/Designer/Software Instructor. Pr, Ae, Ch, Ps, Ai, Id

Barlo WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hey WM,

Clever! Thanks for the great advice!!

Barlo WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

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!

Stan Jones

Community Expert

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

J

John V Knowles

Community Expert

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------JVK | Editor/Designer/Software Instructor. Pr, Ae, Ch, Ps, Ai, Id

J

John V Knowles

Correct answer

Community Expert

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------JVK | Editor/Designer/Software Instructor. Pr, Ae, Ch, Ps, Ai, Id

Barlo WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

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.

Jeff Bugbee

Community Expert

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 WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

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!

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Premiere will only capture over firewire.

Barlo WinnisAuthor

Participating Frequently

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

Community Expert

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

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