DVCAM-L Import into MacPro

[Michael Kammes]

You need an I/O device that handles component. Is there a reason you don’t want to use firewire on the DVCAM deck?

For component, Blackmagic and AJA are probably the most popular devices. I strongly believe that AJA has a vastly superior product and support over the I/O Blackmagic offers, however, traditionally Blackmagic has the lower price.

Both companies offer Internal (PCIe cards) and External devices (USB / Firewire).

I recommend checking out https://aja.com and https://blackmagic-design.com and choosing one that can handle component video in at your price point. Expect to spend a few hundred to maybe $1200 depending on horsepower and functionality.

~Michael

.: michael kammes mpse
.: senior technology & workflow consultant
.: audio specialist . act fcp . acsr
.: michaelkammes.com
.: twitter: @michaelkammes
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[Ryan Jennings]

Thanks, I would prefer to use Firewire, but I am not sure what our DVCAM tapedeck looks like (its on loan to someone), but I was sure it must have component out. Here hoping for a firewire port when it comes back into the office.

[Bill Davis]

DVCAM at it’s heart is simply a more robust physical medium for capturing a standard 25Mbps DV signal to tape. Minor issues like “locked audio” aside, the picture component is EXACTLY the same stream as you’d get from any other DV signal. It’s a digital signal – all ones and zeros – so when you’re doing a file transfer, there’s simply no benefit to using anything other than simple Firewire to ingest it into an editing system.

The ONLY reason you’d ever want to transcode it to component – or composite – or anything else – would be to accommodate a downstream workflow that requires that. But even if you take the DV signal and transcode it into an uncompressed HD workflow, the original signal will always be limited to the source recording resolution and accuracy.

Just do a simple firewire transfer from one of the many decks that output DV over firewire.

Bingo. You’re done. And it’s the same quality as doing it any other way. Searching out a “component” deck in any situation where the hardware REQUIRES component in order to operate is a bit like taking a fabulous still camera with a fabulous lens to shoot a photo on the front page of a 1980s newspaper. The photo starts with poorly screened resolution, so there’s nothing you can do to make it sharper, no matter how you struggle to make the modern picture of it as lovely as possible.

FWIW.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Chris Tompkins]

ALL DVCAM Decks have a FW Port.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Ryan Jennings]

Glad to hear that!