Analog to digital conversion not working

G

Garret

Member
I'm trying to use the DVX as an analog to digital conversion box. Inputting a VHS signal, hoping to get a firewire to FCP digital signal.

Should be easy, right? Lots of people do it everyday.

But for some reason, I can't get it to work. On not one, but two DVX's. Hopefully someone can help me figure out which menu setting I have wrong, or which switch needs to be flipped.

Process: Camera's off. I hook up an S-Video cable (or RCAs--neither works) to the DVX. And plug in a firewire that's connected to my Mac. I turn the DVX on. I put it into VHS mode. I go into the AV In/Out Settings. Put DV OUT to ON. The screen is blue.

Push play on the VHS. Still blue.:crybaby:

Repeat. Same result. Please tell me there's one little thing that I forgot to try?

I've tried different S-Video cables and RCA cables. I've tried hooking everything up in a different order. I tried capturing from a miniDV tape, just in case, but that worked fine.

Thanks in advance,
Garret
 
yep there's something

open the lcd and you'll see 2 butons labeled VCR REC , one's grey other's red

press both at the same time to start recording
 
Indy, thanks for your advice. Sorry if my post made it sound like I'm brand new to the DVX, but I've shot at least 300 hours with it. So I'm familiar with the VCR REC buttons.

My intention is to just use the camera as a pass through device. There's no tape in the DVX. Do you think that even in that scenario I need to push the VCR REC buttons? I tried that just now and it doesn't seem to help. The pushing of the buttons doesn't 'take'.

So then I tried putting a blank tape in, playing the VHS, then pressing record. Nada.

Shouldn't I be able to see the VHS image in the LCD before I even push the VCR REC buttons?

And from my experience with VHS decks, they don't have an RCA 'output' on/off toggle. But maybe I'm wrong.
 
You should be able to see the VHS image on your LCD regardless of anything else. Go into VCR mode on the DVX, you'll have a blue screen. Plug the VHS deck in through composite or s-video, and you should see the VCR's output on your screen.
 
Barry, it's the strangest thing. The VHS is plugged in via RCA and the screen is still blue. The DV OUT is set to ON.

I tried a 2nd VHS just now and it's the same result.
 
Garret said:
And from my experience with VHS decks, they don't have an RCA 'output' on/off toggle. But maybe I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

well i'm actually going to get a vcr with video out because my tv/vcr combo only has video in audio in

so I'm going to make sure to get a vcr with video out/s-video out

this will go out from the vcr

in the camera (camera has video in)

this is what I was meaning
 
I just did this about a week ago. I don't remember having to do anything else... don't plug the DV cable in yet, it may be looking for dv input maybe?
 
Thanks Indy and Barry.

Hm. Now I've tried turning the camera on with the Firewire cable in, and turning it on with it out. Same result. Blue screen.

Swearing a lot doesn't seem to change things. I wonder if slamming the camera against the wall a few times might help? It's about the only thing I haven't tried.

It's going to be annoying if I have to take this in to the shop and have them look at it. Might just buy a Canopus box instead!

Any more ideas are appreciated. Or commiserations.
 
i just bought a vcr with
"video out" and connected it to my tv/vcr combo and now it's working!

I press play on the vcr and in vcr mode on the camera shows a play triangle and I see the vhs tape plaing on the lcd

sure you got your cables hooked up right?
 
That's great!

But yeah, I tried going straight from the VCR into my monitor and saw picture and heard sound. But I unplug those RCA cables from the monitor and put them into the DVX, and it's a no go.

Did the same with an audio cassette deck and had the same result.

Will try more experiments tonight. Thanks for your continued efforts to help.
 
ok..

so from what I understand then you just need to connect your vcr to your tv
like with the tv out (this is different than an rca cable)

then connect the rca from video/audio out on the vcr to the dvx rca in
if the vcr has s-video that would be higher quality (in that case it would be
s-video out on the back of the vcr to s-video in on the dvx)

the firewire doesn't even need to be plugged into the pc you should be able to see it on the monitor with just the camera and vcr and tv on
 
I'm really happy right now. It's working.

I've had success in the past in recording from my DVR box to my DVX, so I tried that and was successful.

So I went back to my VHS to see if it would work. With the camera off, I hooked up the RCAs, pressed play on the VHS, turned the DVX on, switched into VHS mode, waited a second and the VHS image appeared in the LCD. Joy. I have no idea why this wasn't working before. I checked the cables, the DV OUT setting, etc.

I'm trying to replicate the 'failure' that I was having before, but I haven't been able to. I'd like to figure out why it wasn't working before. If I do, I'll report back.

One thing I just learned: I have a bunch of audio tapes that I want to digitize. So I patched audio RCA cables from a cassette deck into the camera just now. It didn't work. Then I patched the video RCA from the VHS into the camera as well, and it worked. I guess the DVX needs to be getting a video signal for it to accept audio? In the Log and Capture>Clip Settings I'll just turn off the Video and leave the Audio on. Interesting.

Much thanks to Barry and Indy!
 
Did you have S-video and RCA plugged in at the same time?

This will confuse the DVX and it doesn't know what input to use.

Yes the passthrough will work emoo. I do it all the time for a quick capture of DVD's or old VHS tapes.
 
Back from the dead...

I'm having the same problem Garret had. Except...Sony DSR 300 S-Video out to DVX100. Nothing at LCD but standard blue screen, tried various power cycles, reconnecting, etc. I just can't seem to get this to work. I know the S-Video on the DVX isn't fried, I just used it to pass OUT a live signal to monitor last week. Can't figure out what the problem is and I realize there's only so many (1??) menu options to check.

Any help is appreciated. As is the nature of these things, I need to figure this out ASAP...
 
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