DataVideo DAC-100 - Capture cards

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DataVideo DAC-100

DV/Firewire
DV Converter
Analog VideoIn

Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP
Vista? NT4? MAC Linux?
*based on user reports.

FireWire

$200

8.5 (8.9)
19 votes

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Description (from the manufacturer site)

The Bridge Between Digital and Analog Video

PC, PowerMac and iMac platform video editors now have a simple, competent solution for transferring video and audio back and forth between analog tape and DV.

Key Features

Selectable video standard: NTSC (525 lines /60Hz), PAL (625 lines /50Hz).
Inputs: DV, Y/C, Composite
Outputs: DV, Y/C, Composite
Two 6-pin FireWire (iLink) I/O ports, Available in
NTSC 4:1:1 or PAL 4:2:0 DV25 format
(25Mbps data transfer rate)
Selectable Video level, at 0 IRE or 7.5 IRE
Video Comb Filter for High Quality Video
Video input source auto-detection
Audio Sampling Rate:Selectable 32KHz (12-bit) or 48 KHz (16-bit) for unbalanced audio.
Audio Decoding Rate:Selectable 32KHz, 44.1KHz or 48KHz DV audio decoding
Formats:DV (iLink), Digital 8, Video 8, Hi8, VHS, S-VHS, VHS-C and S-VHS-C, U-Matic, etc.
Computers:PowerMac, iMac, Windows 98/ME/2000 and XP

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Comments

22 comments, Showing 1 to 22 comments

Bought this 6 months ago and am pretty happy with it. Started capping right out of the box...it's that easy. Only trubble I've had is some sort of minor incompatibility with WinDV capture software that screwed up my audio. Used DVIO & Ulead MSP7 capture and now no audio problems.

Colors seem true and not oversaturated which is why I went with this unit over the Canopus. I didn't want to have to go in there and correct the color endlessly. Quality seems high although I really don't have anything to compare it with. It also defeats macrovision by nature...a big plus over Canopus 110.

I'd like to mention here that dropped frames seems to be relevant to the source. From my hi8 camera, it drops some but that's mostly because I left blank spaces on my tape. Any noise or blip on my tape will also stop it capping but it quicky recovers. A TBC would help here. On the other hand, capping from (s)vhs gives me no dropped frames whatsoever.

I've also noticed that long capping as DV type 2, the sound seems to go out of sync within mere minutes. I switched to capping in DV type 1 and it stays in sync regardless of blank spaces I've left on my tapes.

In case you need to convert from DV type 1 to type 2, there's some free converters out there such as the one by Ulead.

The beauty of this box is that after I'm finished digitizing (s)vhs and hi8 tapes, I can resell it for almost the same amount I paid for it ($150 ebay) because of the ease of use and the fact that the macrovision defeating feature is highly sought after.

You could actually start a converting biz with this box.

I gave it a 9 because of the slight incompatibility problem I had with it and WinDV capturing software. I couldn't find my audio and just thought my camera had a loose connection. If this hadn't of happened, of course I would have given it a 10.

Comments posted by zoobie from United States, February 06, 2006:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

I bought it over a year ago and have yet to see a dropped frame or other issue. Works flawlessly from day one. I've had a chance to test it vs. ADVC-100 from Canopus and can't see any difference (with regard to flaws). I still prefer it over Canopus for closer to the original picture rendition (less saturated and contrasty picture then Canopus). Can't believe in dropped frames or some other issues indicated (faulty unit or setup?). Great quality for a competitive price. Look no further.

Comments posted by Paul from Other, March 19, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

I would just like to say that people bashing this device for bad quality when using analog or VHS or other questionable sources should rethink there rating!
ITS NOT A MIRACLE its only going to capture as good as the source.... now the other with problems with SAT source... are you using HQ cables? interference sucks and can contribute to problems

Comments posted by SS from United States, January 22, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

I think I was a bit too hard on my scoring of the dac100. It does capture with great color and the sound is always in sync.but I cannot get rid of these wild pixel spots which can even appear on newer vhs videos.For the price it is a good buy and I would give it a seven score.

Comments posted by ALLAN J FARR from Other, January 04, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 7 of 10.

Got the DAC=100 after reading a lot of comments on this site, and I am pretty happy with it for the money, although I haven't had it very long. My only previous experience has been with the Dazzle products, which don't compare. I am using TIVO on one TV and DISH PVR on the other, and capturing from both, and my DVD's look pretty good, made with TMPGEnc's DVD Builder.

Comments posted by Janet Smith from Other, January 04, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

I'm the guy who may have convinced some of you to at least look into the DAC-100. While I do consider it to be a good capturing device for the money, it's not perfect. After viewing a couple of my DVDs on large screen TVs, I'm convinced that there is some digital artifacting around the edges of quite a few objects in the screen. Especially around bright objects or lettering. I did not notice this on my 27" TV but I did notice it on a 60" TV screen. Now if all you're going to make is VCDs or SVCDs this is fine. It is also fine if all you want to do is transfer your old VHS tapes to digital. But I've tried taking digital signals out of my Satellite PVR through the S-video output and running it through the DAC-100 to the computer and I am noticing some quality loss that is starting to annoy me. I also forsee the day when a 27" TV screen will be too small to use as a computer monitor let alone as a regular TV screen. So I am trying to let you know that if you want absolutely lossless quality from even your old VHS tapes, this will not quite do the job. I still think it's a great unit for the price. In reality though, I don't want any digital artifacts added at all. If my 'Dish' satellite can get a digital signal to me via an actual satellite and the picture looks great, why can't I find that for the common consumer without paying an arm and a leg and then having to test it out for a few months to be sure. (what I mean by that is, I'm recording in an AVI format and the 'Dish' is sending MPG2 compressed digital video and it looks better than my AVIs.) This is not right and I'm surprised that there isn't much more discussion, comparisons and actual testing done by some of the members of this site.

Comments posted by Steve Webb from Other, January 01, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

the support is ok but the device sucks. it has serious pixel blocks when encoding to dvd or dv from anolog source

Comments posted by ALLAN J FARR from Other, December 25, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

Hi,

A very good piece of equipment!!! I am using it from analog tape to VCD/DVD with limited export to VHS tape.

Pros: Good quality for both analog and digital capturing. Can export to tape afetr editing.
NO frame drops, No quality drops, Good support from both local agent and DATA_IO web page (updated web page). Reasonable price compared to cards.

Cons: Since its not a PC_CARD, the rendering is run on the PC which is SW based. Card rendering is faster (written on the internet).

eMail for questions if needed.

yehuda

Comments posted by Yehuda D. Yizraeli from Other, December 20, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Great video, I also have a wintv-pvr-250 and there is no comparison as to video quality. The only problem that I have experianced is that copying VCR tapes I find that the video is out of sync with the audio, but when I record TV using the same VCR tuner everything is in sync even 2 Hr. long shows. I've tried 3 different VCR's with the same results.

Comments posted by Bohunk from Other, November 09, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

Use it on Macintosh PowerPC G4 with OS-X (10.2.6)
with FinalCut Express. Works very well!
At the beginning of a video-cassette it needs 1-2 sec to synchronize image, therefore images can be delayed versus tone which easily can be rectified with FC express. Once converter is synchronized, the very stable!
Image quality is very good - I am very satisfied!

Comments posted by Iwan from Other, July 31, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

This was a snap to install, but I had one problem. My firewire input on my motherboard was disabled. Once I got it working everything worked great. I made several test captures and then did a scheduled one with Scenalyzer last night and it worked great also. I would highly recommend this product. Looked at it real hard to see if there was any audio problems. None was there. Buy this and save some money. I am using it to record from my Directv system and will also use it to transfer my VHS tapes to DVD.

Comments posted by Raymond from Other, June 29, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

I've been using the DAC 100 for about a 6 weeks and it has worked flawlessly using various programs for the capture including Roxio's Easy CD DVD Creator 6, Intervideo that came with my burner, and Ulead's VideoStudeo 7, although I'm having a problem playing the VideoStudeo captures files, which I think is a software issue. No audio sync problems or dropped frames. I'd certainly recomend this for any Windows user. I was told by two dealers that it does not work well with a MAC.

Comments posted by Mike from Other, June 17, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

This device performs perfectly when capturing audio and video from a VCR. I have done two captures so far with it and both about two hours long with 0 dropped frames. I then proceded to burn them to DVD and they looked awesome on my TV. My sytem configurations aren't the best in the world. I have a Amd Athlon 1800+ running on a ECS motherboard with 512MB PC 133 and a 80GB Drive. I run Windows 2000 and use Adobe Premeire 6.5 to capture. I have used many other products like the Adpatec Videoh! DVD which was great when capturing for VCD quality. This device will help you great looking Dvds. Definitely Recommend this product.

Comments posted by H.P. from Other, June 14, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

the problem with this device is there is a dropped frame every couple of seconds with XL1 camcorder, recorded directly from analog to XL1 with DAC-100 as interface without PC/MAC. I have 6 XL1 (PAL) camcorder but all is the same (droppped frame).

Comments posted by harie from Other, June 11, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: No rating.

Using iMovie 3 on OSX 10.2.6, I am trying to encode video from a VCR. I am able to record it to my DV camera (Canon ZR10) and import from the camera into iMovie with no problem.

Recording through the DataVideo DAC-100 drops out every couple of seconds. While the source is not pristine, obviously this device should be able to encode as well as a 2-year-old DV camera. I'm sending mine back and I'm going to continue to use the camera (going to/from DV tape. :^( )

DataVideo does have a "configuration guide" for iMovie 3 but it did not fix/improve the problem. The DAC-100 has the latest firmware as well.

Comments posted by Knight from Other, May 23, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? ~~MAC~~ Linux? - Rated: 2 of 10.

I bought this card after having sold a Canopus ADVC 100, so this is primarily a comparison between the two cards. I had sold the Canopus, thinking that I was through with my video transfers, but then had a need for such a device and decided to try out the Datavideo because it was $100 cheaper.

Both cards do an excellent job converting analog video to digital, but there are some differences. The Datavideo seems to have more realistic colors compared to the Canopus. The Canopus colors were vivid, but in some cases overly saturated IMHO.

The Datavideo does have some "wigglies" on the first scan line, but although visible on the PC, not visible on a monitor or TV because of overscan settings.

Both cards captured for hours without a single dropped frame.

I found that the Canopus worked fine with Studio 8 and AVI_IO. The Datavideo works fine with Studio 8 and MyDVD, but not with AVI_IO. Don't know why, but that's the story.

Overall, I think I prefer the Datavideo because of the more natural colors, but both are fine and do an excellent job.

Comments posted by Bob Yoda from Other, May 03, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

Had a problem setting up video capture with Windows ME. I called Datavideo and was able to get a hold of a person and was transfered to a Tech who helped me solve my problem without having to wait on hold. It was a DIP switch setting. After that I have not had any problems capturing video. I have the Datavido DAC-100 connected to a cheap 1394 card and am using Ulead Video Studio 7 to do my video capture. I have not had any problems with audio sync. Purchased this card after viewing the comments about different video capture cards here and noticed this card was getting very good reviews and was nearly $100 cheaper than the top rated Canopus ADVC-100.

Comments posted by Tom from Other, March 24, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Summary: Capable device worth the money.

I have moved up from the lowly days of the Videum (an ISA card) to the Buz, DC30+ (which is still a "10", but lacks modern driver support except for crippled 640x480 non-audio enabled DC10+ drivers), and finally to the DAC-100. In fact, driver support is my main reason for purchasing the unit, since it only "talks" firewire and does not need to interface to any particular bus architecture.

The DAC-100 takes analog video and audio and converts it to DV25 at 740x480 (or even the PAL equivalent, I think). It can also take the same format, transmitted back over firewire, and convert it back to analog. So far, it hasn't dropped a frame, and even a couple of long captures (2hrs +) did not introduce any kind of audio sync in Premiere or MediaStudio 6. I prefer Premiere because I can get it to scrub to an external monitor. However, a minor annoyance is that you must set the video source to DV in order to output back to analog. It does not detract from the overall score, it's just a feature that I miss from the DV decks that I sometimes get to play with at work.

The picture quality is good, and my particular unit tends to add a little more saturation than the source content. Pretty nice since a lot of my content comes from "muddy" satellite TV. It helps on my old VCR tape collection, too. It doesn't have a problem with flipped fields, and I never see any field related garbage when playing to the TV.

It has switches that let you switch between NTSC-PAL, Manual-Auto source select, 7.5 or 0 IRE (?), and some other stuff. The Datavision web site has sample switch configurations for XP, 2000, and the use of generic or name branded firewire interfaces. I'm using the default settings with XP SP1 and a TI based Adaptec 4300 firewire card. XP recognized everything, and I was able to capture right away. If your capture software has the option, just be sure to turn off DV device control. Now, if I could just make my 1GHz CPU act like a 2.4GHz CPU, THEN I could do some serious DVD backups of old content!

I intended to test Macrovision on my first test, but forgot to take my DC30+ out of the analog video path. I used to use the DC30 to filter Macrovision content when copying to tape. Oh well, I own the DAC-100, so there will be plenty of time to test...

Final recommendations: If you have a camcorder with AV-DV passthrough capability, you can skip this device and invest in a bigger hard drive. If you have problems with audio sync, small capture resolution, or a desire to scrub your project while working with it, this is the way to go. Plus, you can let your VERY loyal friends borrow it without tearing the computer apart. I'll take that back -- you won't want to part with it for minute :)

(begin rant)
I think the hardware manufacturers burn us a little too often with no driver support for new operating systems. 5-7 years of support would make me a little more willing to invest in top of the line products. Even open sourcing old drivers could help. However, now that I have the DAC-100, that won't be a problem for some time, unless firewire decides to go away.
(end rant)

Have fun!

Comments posted by Bill from Other, February 28, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Price includes postage and import tax from the US to the UK. Bought via ebay. £166.00 GBP.

This bit of kit is excellent. I captures without a single dropped frame. Audio and Video are always perfectly in sync. Supports PAL and NTSC, in full DV quality 720*576 (for PAL), Composite or SVHS inputs and outputs. Stereo audio sample rates 48Khz/16bit or 32Khz/12bit on the inputs and on the outputs. Notice I can find no mention of the 44.1Khz sample rate as suggested by an above comment.

But most importantly this unit completely ignores MacroMedia protection. No hack is needed, unlike the Canopus ADVC-100. With this unit you just switch it on and right from the word go it will be unaffected by MacroMedia copy potection.

Have used it so far with Pinnacle Studio 8 and Premier 6.5 without any problems.

On the down side if capturing from a DVD (via Composite) I do get a couple of extra lines at the top of the picture that contain stationary vertical bars. And if capturing from VCD I get around 6 lines at the bottom of the picture that contain a couple of moving bars horizontal bars. They are barely a concern, and hardly noticable. I certianly woundn't put you off this device for that reason.

Comments posted by Diaz from Other, February 23, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

I have used the ATI Radeon 7500 and was not satisfied with it (picture quality wasn't the best and the sound was very poor). This unit is alot better. Picture and sound quality are great and it is very easy to use. The only drawback is that it doesn't come with any software and you will need a firewire port. However, I still highly recommend this unit.

Comments posted by Mike Riley from Other, February 20, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Up till now, i've converted several VHS-pal tapes to disk, great quality.
At tape drops it loses sometimes sync (older tapes), the image freezes and audio stops, after a second or so, it relocks and video are still in sync with audio.
Supports PAL/NTSC video, in full DV quality, Composite or Y/C inputs and outputs.
Stereo audio sample rates 48Khz/16b or 32Khz/12b on the inputs and 48Khz/44.1Khz/32Khz on the outputs.
It has a pass through at the front (Camera ?)
For me it's a great box for firewire........

Comments posted by firebird from Other, February 10, 2003:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 9 of 10.

This thing is great! Stable. No artifact in or out. Even poor quality analog tape sources with horizontal synch instabilities are captured well with this DAC-100.

A hard edit on the tape source is no problem. The DAC-100 locks down on the signal as soon as it becomes available. When capture resumes, there is no artifact introduced into the sound track.

Only problem so far is when I fast-reverse or fast-forward the source tape during a capture. Sometimes the DAC-100 will freeze and I have to press some buttons on the unit to re-start it. However, this is an extreme situation which I can't truly consider to be a flaw. Any prudent individual would halt the capture process before scanning backward or forward.

Image detail, clarity, and sharpness seem to me to be truly exceptional. The only other A-D converter I've used is the Hollywood Bridge.

In the past, I used the Hollywood Bridge to capture from a factory VHS tape. I then converted that DV capture to XSVCD. I used the DataVideo to capture from the same factory VHS tape. I also converted this DataVideo DV capture to XSVCD.

On that factory VHS tape, some of the scenes contain posters on a wall in the background of the action. There is some text on those posters. Amazing to me is that the DataVideo DAC-100 created DV files that transcoded to MPEG 2 with perfectly readable text on those posters. The Hollywood Bridge had only rendered blurred and unreadable text.

There will always be some degradation when capturing from an analog tape using video equipment designed for the consumer market. The tape signal must first be processed in the VCR or analog camcorder which is then fed to the analog-digital converter--like the DAC-100.

So, I like to test using the S-VHS output of my DVD player. It's the best signal I can generate with my home equipment.

Using the DAC-100, a capture from DVD through S-VHS analog transcoded to MPEG 2 looks almost as good as a pure digital rip to my eyes.

The unit comes with a one year warranty. At least one online vendor gives 30 days to return it if you don't like it.

I think you would have to work really hard to find something wrong with this thing. If you are a Hollywood Bridge owner, you'll see what you've been missing if you get a DAC-100.

Comments posted by Rusty from Other, September 09, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

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Feature
What kind of main capture features it supports
Analog VideoIn = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input
Video Card = If it is a Video Card/Graphic Card
Tv Tuner = Built-In TV-Tuner
Digital TV = Built-In Digital TV-Tuner
DV/Firewire = DV/Firewire/i.Link input
DV Converter = Analog composite or/and SVHS video input and converts to DV video
MPEG1 hardware = Capture directly MPEG1(VCD) video using hardware*
MPEG2 hardware = Capture directly MPEG2(SVCD and DVD) video using hardware*
MJPEG hardware = Capture directly to MJPEG using hardware*
MPEG4 hardware = Capture directly to MPEG4(DivX,Xvid) video using hardware*
* = Most capture cards can capture to this format using software but it usually requires a very fast computer, if it supports realtime capturing it uses the capture cards hardware and it doesn't require a very fast computer and you may get better quality but less options/settings than software capturing.

Compatibility
What Operating System our users have reported that it works on, Win95=Works ~~Win95~~=Does not work Win95?=Not tested This is user based.

Cnx = Connection
What type of connection the capture device has to the computer, PCI, AGP, USB1/1.1/2, DV or PCMCIA.

Price
The price in US dollar.

Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.

Comment
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