Do all Sony DV cameras now provide the real-time pass-through of analog video?

i.e. if I bought a Sony DV camera, would I be able to connect it to my iMac, then connect an analog camera to the DV camera, allowing the analog video to stream through to the iMac?

Thanks

That would sure be neat. I hope my Sony does that...lots of footage on an old analog camera that I'd love to get into iMovie.

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Why 1984, won't be
like "1984"

I know that some do, but not sure which. Try going to www.sony.com and checking the specs. I believe they have an extensive digital video area.

Yep, done that but I'm overseas so models tend to vary.

I also noticed the specs are a little vague on Sony's page. Most of the entry level Sony DV cameras have the iLink logo affixed to their specs page but don't actually say 'iLink (IEE 1394 standard)', whereas some of the more pricey ones have the logo, as well as stating the 'IEE 1394' standard. Is there more than one type of iLink or is this just misleading information?

Haven't looked into it for a while but I know that not all of them have this functionality. I guess that answers part of your question.

catman

[This message has been edited by mycatsnameis (edited 05-15-2001).]

In Europe most digital cameras are dv-in blocked due to customs.

A vendor offering to unblock these cameras states, that Sony digital8 cameras feature this function if unblocked. He was not so specific about dv-cameras.
www.dv-in.com

Maybe the DCR PC-110 can do this. It seems to be able to do anything, anyways. So, does anyone have a manual for this camera ready or available? Unfortunately Sony does not offer downloadable manuals like Nikon f.e. does.

Well, I finally had enough and whipped round to the nearest Sony Pro Shop after work.

I picked up the DCR-TRV6E (without 'E' is NTSC, with 'E' is PAL).
It was the last one in the shop and was acting as the display model (no wear & tear whatsoever), as it has now been superceded and they were clearing old stock out.
Because of this I got a 15% discount. I then picked up 2x 3 pack of Sony miniDV 60 minute tapes, 1 x Sony wide angle lens, and an extra battery (5.5 hrs)

A couple of free gifts later, plus the accompanying gear (remote, battery, strap, charger etc), the total came to a equivalent of US$1.042.

I have to wait until tomorrow evening before I can check it out with my Pismo 500 as I have to borrow the FireWire cable from work.

And to answer my original question, all miniDV Sony cameras support the analog pass-through. (Here in HK they refer to it in the brochures as 'Signal convert function')
I didn't enquire after the ones that used the Digital 8 format.

OK, I tried it with my PC110 and IMovie.
My experience is that you first have to tape it to DV tape, and then transfer it to imovie. Trying to import it to iMovie directly only creates the first frame, followed by an error message. My guess it is because time code is missing. Other solutions that should work directly (according to magazines) is the analog converters, like Formac Studio and Dazzle Hollywood. Thats where I will go anyway.
Good Luck!

Our experence here with all of our sonys shows that all you do is hook the RCA cables to the camera the in on your VCR and you export to a Tape INside the camera and it is mirrored to the VCR.

It works for us...

-Owl

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OwlBoy@mac.com www.owlboy.com

My impression was that the pass through function worked like the Sony Media Converter box in that you could hook up an analog input and get a digital output via firewire to whatever source you wished.

Is this incorrect?

catman

Hi again,
it seems that we have to different topics:
1. exporting from imovie to VHS through the camera. No problem what I found.
2. importing from VHS to imovie through the camera (SONY PC110). Which I had problem to do, as I wrote. Testing some more it worked fine when I did it without tape (DV) in the camera! (with tape in the camera imovie starts to play the tape when you press "capture").
Hopefully this works for everybody!
Peter

So am I losing quality by recording back to Digital8 tape directly from imovie and then dubbing from the Dig8 tape to VHS? Or should I move my equipment in order to hook up a VHS vcr to my TRV730 and record directly from imovie?

Some of the Sony cameras have a real-time analogue to digital conversion.

The TRV11 did and I think the PC110 does too.

This means you can feed an analogue signal into the camera and get DV-out at the same time - no tape required.

Cool that's exactly what I'm looking for for. Unfortunately I'm also looking for the money to buy one of these suckers too .

catman

Originally posted by athun:
So am I losing quality by recording back to Digital8 tape directly from imovie and then dubbing from the Dig8 tape to VHS? Or should I move my equipment in order to hook up a VHS vcr to my TRV730 and record directly from imovie?

There will be generation loss on any parts of the clip that get rendered in iMovie (dissolves, wipes, etc.), but when you print to video from iMovie to Digital8 tape it is like copying the file from hard drive to tape (no loss). However, there will be another generation loss (as well as resolution) when dubbing Digital8 to VHS.

Essentially, you will lose a generation anytime you go from analog to digital, digital to analog or analog to analog. But there will be no loss going from digital to digital.

It doesn’t work with my Sony DCR-PC100E.
As soon as I plug in the firewire cable the camera display goes blue and displays DV IN and the analogue in signal is gone. I have tried it without a cassette and iMovie displays No Cassette in Camera.

Yet another reason for me to be annoyed about not having the latest sony camera, ah well, it does work if I got to tape first.