How to do it!

Do it yourself!

Learn how to change all kinds of equipment. The fact I had only experience with SONY doesn't mean its not possible on other manufacturers equipment!

That's it! that's the all story!

Examples: Click your camcorder model to see a list of procedures to enable certain functions.

SONY:

For SONY camcorders, buy the modified RM95 (special kind of SONY RM95 lanc remote) part number: j-6082-053-B.

Pictures provided by DV-Central

Instructions for using the modified RM95:

To enable changes to page D: Change page 01 address 00 from 00 to 01 and press PAUSE

To enable changes on page F: Change page 06 address 00 from 00 to 01 and press PAUSE

The change enabeling procedures appear with the whole prodedure, I stated them here also so you would know how to reverse the procedures: these lines stay the same for the reverse procedure!

Make sure you right down all numbers prior to changing them! We don't want to loose a VERY expansive camcorder, right?

Model-specific procedures (see notice at the buttom of page!!!)

A note about ANALOG inputs:

Many ask in their E-mail about ANALOG inputs. Lets face it, analog input is even more important to most users than DV input. Because of the high prices we are asked to pay for DV equipment, only few can afford to buy another DV unit, so the DV input, at this point in time, is being used by consumers just for camcorder to computer connection.

What we all have in mind for the future, however, is a PURE digital studio, that means we would like to get rid of our old analog equipment (preferably now when it still worth something...) and transfer all our old analog to the new digital. The digital format, being superior to all analog consumer, and most prosumer formats, means such a transfer will not degrade the quality of our analog material.

So far so good, but now comes the real problem. If you where thinking: "Well, I'm going to buy me this new digital camcorder, transfer all my analog to it and than sell my old camcorder" you are heading for a real surprise! There is no analog input on DV camcorders!!! Why? That's a good question, a one you all should ask SONY. I guess Sony likes you to spend some more money and buy their deck recorders, or they want to sell more analog equipment, and don't want you to swamp the market with cheep second hand analog models.

It does not matter what the reason is. I think you will all agree that this is a grave mistake made by Sony. They could have sold much more DV camcorders by now if this analog input was available. If you agree with me let Sony know about it. Maybe their next model will be affected by your wishes.

To help you do that, I would like you to send me E-mail, stating that you are another Sony customer that would like to see analog inputs on their new DV models. I have a special folder for these requests. The names of the emailing people will be right here in a special table on this page, for Sony and the whole world to see. (if you know someone High ranking in Sony, please send me his email address so I can forward your requests or the list of all your names.)

Is it possible to enable ANALOG inputs on current models?

I have studied this matter, though not as deeply as I wanted to, and got to the conclusion that as far as it looks, analog inputs ate NOT possible. the reason for that is that a key ingredient is physically missing from all the models I have examined, i.e. PC7, VX700 and VX1000. this key ingredient is an ADC - Analog to digital converter.

There is one such converter, in the camera circuitry, converting analog signals from the CCD unit to digital signals used by all the rest of the camera circuitry. However, it is not the same as the one needed, and cannot be rerouted to be used for video input, because CCD signals are different from regular video signals. (The CCD is the device used to convert the image captured by the camera lens to electric currents, a kind of "electronic film"). Actually, from this point on, there is no analog video signal anywhere to be found in the camcorder. All is done digitally. The only place you get an analog signal is at the output of the camera, with a DAC - a Digital to analog converter.

For that reason, no "remote witchcraft" could help to enable this function.

And once again, for those of you who say "There is a VIDEO camera inside, there must be a video signal coming from it, one that could be replaced by an external source!" You are wrong! old ANALOG cameras used the same CCD, same ADC and same digital processing, but had a DAC at their output, and from there an analog signal was recorded. In the new DV format, the recording itself is digital, so there is no reason to convert to analog and than back to digital. The digital data from the camera passes right through to the recorder, with no conversions, and no place to tap into.

HOWEVER my experience with Sony, and other manufacturers, suggests that sometimes "non relevant" items are not shown in the schematics, but are actually found inside the camera. Some deeper digging should be done on this subject, so you will have to be patient. any word on that will be printed in VERY BIG LETTERS on the VIDEO domain's front page. There are a few models out there that where not yet tested, so you can never know...

Important notice!!!!

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