Sony DVMC-DA2 Capture Card

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Capture Card

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Compatibility*

Cnx

Price

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Sony DVMC-DA2

DV/Firewire
DV Converter
Analog VideoIn

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

FireWire

$400

8.3/10
13 votes

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Description (from the manufacturer site)

Convert Analog Video to Digital Video, or Digital Video to Analog. Sony brings a new media converter that allows to convert analog signal, such as 8mm or VHS to a digital video signal that is output to i.LINK/FireWire interface.

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Comments

13 comments, Showing 1 to 13 comments

I have the DA-1 (and have had for years). Love it! It will pass Macrovision only thing you have to do is scrub the video in Premiere Pro (takes hours).

Comments posted by fbmclaughlin from United States, March 28, 2004:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K? WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

This is a great product. It hooks up to my firewire card, looking like a DV camera. It accepts digital or analog inputs and outputs.

It is basically an external D-A converter. The major benefit is the DV camera "simulation", which works very well with video editing software. I have usued ULead's Media Studio Pro 6.5, Premiere 6.0, and Vegas Video 3.0 without a problem.

You can pick up a used one on eBay for around $250-300. Most buyers keep them as this box is very flexible.

Comments posted by Gringo_123 from Other, December 22, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Beware. Looks like some bad information here. I had a DVMC-DA2 and returned it for credit.

Sony discontinued the DVMC-DA2 a long time ago. It's been dead at least 6 months.

Throughout its entire service life as the model DVMC-DA2, the unit would not pass MacroVision streams under any circumstances.

The DVMC-DA2 certainly does have MacroVision issues.

I also found that the DVMC-DA2 was very sensitive to bad analog video streams. It often introduced visual artifact--mostly blocky patterns.

--vj2k

Comments posted by VideoJockey2002 from Other, December 20, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K? WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10.

Great kit! This is comparable to the Canopus 100 but with no macrovision issues.

Comments posted by Z-Ines from Other, December 20, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

Great find! AV to DV... and back again. Nice little box that works with VCR, camcorder, etc., Ulead, Adobe and Vegas.

Buy it if you can find it.

Comments posted by N_G from Other, December 19, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

This is an external gizmo that plugs into a firewire port or card. Does AV/DV in or out. Great to VHS, TV, Camcorder capture or transfer. All captures look terrific because they are high guality .avi files that can be converted to mpeg 1/2, DVD, SVCD, VCD, etc. Very felxible and real time!

Comments posted by T Spuds from Other, December 16, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

This is an updated post. The DVMC-DA2 had a problem inside the box that Sony repaired. I am now a very satisfied customer and would retact my last poor rating and replave it with a 10 of 10.

This gizmo is hard to find but if you can find one you will be very satisfied with its capture and export capability.

Comments posted by T Bear from Other, November 13, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

DVMC-DA2 is finicky about IEEE card in use. Did not like Dazzle 1394 PCI card with TI chipset. Kept getting static/pixelation and dropped frames with Premiere 6.5 and MSN. Will not capture with Virtual Dub! Problem was inside the small box. Bought is on eBay and suspect original owner had a problem with it and off loaded it. Anyone know where I can get this thing repaired?

Documentation is poor.

Would not buy this product again.

Comments posted by T Bear from Other, October 21, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 1 of 10.

Excellent conversion including very stable output even with old home videos with poor signals. Has bidirectional analog to and from DV, making it an excellent way to bring video out of the commputer for editing, recording on tape, etc.

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

I actually have the DVMC-DA1 (not the DA2), but the two boxes are identical except for LANC control on the DA2.

The box is the size of a Sony cassette walkman. There are three buttons on it: Power, Analog In, and DV In. That's it! You plug in your analog composite or SVideo cables to it and also connect your Firewire cable to the DV item of your choice, such as a MiniDV camcorder or Firewire card in your PC.

I converted a 1 hour video from VHS to DV format with this box + DVIO and never lost a frame. The whole capture process was as painless as it gets. One hour of video is about 12.6 Gigs of HD space, so you need either WinNT/2K/XP + NTFS or a capture program such as ScenalyzerLive to segment your capture.

The unit has worked flawlessly for me. It gets my highest recommendation!

Comments posted by TheInformer from Other, January 17, 2002:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC Linux? - Rated: 10 of 10.

This is a great product. It hooks up to my firewire card, looking like a DV camera. It accepts digital or analog inputs and outputs. Thus, my Sony Hi8 camera can be captured and controlled like a Digital8 camera by using the LANC hookup. The only caveat is it that you can't get scene detection like true Digital8.

It is basically an external D-A converter. The major benefit is the DV camera "simulation", which works very well with video editing software. I'm using ULead's Media Studio Pro 6.5. Very nice!

The only major downside to this product is the price - hence the 8 rating. Otherwise, I would give it a 10.

Comments posted by Ted Grzesik from Other, October 12, 2001:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98? Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4? MAC? Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

It works a treat with a Macintosh G4 and also a PC with DV Raptor grabby.
Converts Analogue <=> Digital on the fly. I use it to grab Playstation games scenes straight to digital. Works fine with a VHS and DVD as well.
BTW this is an NTSC only device. I tried it with PAL VHS that plays NTSC (using an NTSC tape)and it still came out B/W.

Comments posted by theslydog from Other, May 30, 2001:
Compatibility: Win95? Win98 Win2K WinXP? Vista? NT4 MAC Linux? - Rated: 8 of 10.

This is Sony's latest Analog <=> Digital media converter (Original DVMC-DA1 didn't have LANC control). Can be used to 'capture' DV with any firewire card directly from analog to DV, ir can also be used for direct output of a DV stream to a TV/VCR, without having to use a camcorder. Tested with ADS Pyro 1394 and Pinnacle DV300. DVCM will be detected in camcorder mode if LANC control isn't used (basically means you can control a LANC control VCR enabled with your DV software's device control.

An great product for anyone who is already equiped with a firewire card but who does want to do analog capture. Awesome alternative to Pinnacle's DV500 which got both DV and analog inputs/outputs.

Comments posted by Simon from Other, March 26, 2001:
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
User comments, click on view to view them or add to post a own comment.

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