- ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC MAC OS X
- ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC PROFESSIONAL
- ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC TV
It also has a quarter-inch headphone jack with a level knob.
ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC PROFESSIONAL
S-Video and AV jacks are standard on all the converters, but the Director’s Cut carries an extra S-Videoout port for monitoring the signal being sent to the VCR–a handy feature you’d normally find only in professional studio equipment. The compact DVMC-DA2 has the simple elegance typical of Sony gear, while the lithe form and vertical orientation of the Hollywood DV-Bridge make the device so structurally unstable that even the strain from the connecting cables can pull it over. At the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum is the Formac Studio, a curved silver box that would look more at home in an ad agency (Formac also sells a clear model).
ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC TV
In the industrial-design department, the Director’s Cut looks as though it belongs in a TV studio: it’s housed in a sturdy, utilitarian black metal box that only an engineer could love. With the DVMC-DA2 and the Director’s Cut, you must switch sources manually. Both also have buttons for switching sources, in case automatic switching doesn’t kick in. The Formac Studio and the Hollywood DV-Bridge detect whether you’re capturing or outputting a signal, and they have LED indicators that show the direction of transfer. For Premiere, we had to select each device specifically from a control menu before the program could communicate with the converter. In our tests, iMovie immediately recognized all the converters with no problem. We didn’t notice any differences in image quality among the four.
ADAPTER FOR DV VIDEO CAMERA TO MAC MAC OS X
In tests with a 500MHz G4 Power Mac and an iMac DV, we were able to capture and play back video using each of these converters from within Apple iMovie 2.0.3 (including the Mac OS X version), Adobe Premiere 6, and Apple Final Cut Pro 2. Once the converter is connected to the computer and the camcorder, you can begin capturing or exporting video. And only the DVMC-DA2 includes an S-Video cable and an A/V cable for connecting the audio.
However, the Sony unit includes a FireWire cable with a four-pin connector–ideal for hooking the converter up to a Sony Vaio but not, unfortunately, to your Mac. The Hollywood DV-Bridge and Formac Studio converters come with the necessary FireWire cables. Hooking up a DV converter is simple: just plug it into a six-pin FireWire port on your computer and connect it to your video source, and it’s ready to go. When you play analog audio and video, a converter box digitizes the media and converts it into the same DV format used by digital camcorders that data is sent to your Mac via FireWire.
All the products performed as advertised, but the Formac Studio stood out as the most Mac-compatible and innovative of the bunch. We looked at four analog-to-DV converters that offered similar features: the Dazzle Multimedia Hollywood DV-Bridge, the Formac Studio, the Power R Director’s Cut, and the Sony DVMC-DA2 Media Converter.
And if you already own a DV camcorder with analog inputs, a converter can handle the link to your computer so you won’t have to frantically unplug your camcorder each time you rush out to capture breaking events on videotape. The best way to do that is with a FireWire analog-to-DV converter, which can send the audio and video from your Mac right back out to your TV screen. In either case, you’ll need some way to get that analog video into your Mac digitally.
Perhaps you’re intrigued by Apple’s new focus on digital video, but own an analog camcorder or have a pile of home movies on VHS tape.
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