Canopus ADVC-100 vs Canopus ADVC-110

[tarrickb]

Any MAJOR differences or improvments on the ADVC-110.
I know it has audio capture only and that it has a lower transfer rate already but am wondering if it offers better quality.
I'm in a position to buy a -100 to replace my PX-402U but am hesitating becasue the ADVC-100 has been out for about 3 years and I guess I'm assuming that it may be a bit outdated.

[xxiangg]

100 has an undocumented "bug" to allow you to disable macrovision
signal, so that you can use it for protected video signals. 110 has
this "bug" fixed.

[budz]

not all advc-100's can disable macrovision. the one i have doesn't work by holding down the sliver square button. if macrovision is what you want disabled get another device. i can't remember the name of the device. do a search in here.

[tarrickb]

can anyone else confirm tthat not ALL 100's can bypass Macrovision..?

So was i wrong in assuming that the ADVC-100's are at a disadvantage because they are at least 3 years old???

THanks for the responses.

[jimmalenko]

can anyone else confirm tthat not ALL 100's can bypass Macrovision..?

That seems to be the rumour. I believe that older 100's could, but the bug got fixed for newer releases of the 100 ... and it's definitely not possible with the 110 AFAIK.

So was i wrong in assuming that the ADVC-100's are at a disadvantage because they are at least 3 years old???

I believe so. There's a product comparison page at the canopus website which I think may include both the 100 and 110. I seem to recall that the only difference bar this macrovision thing is possibly the ability for the 110 to be bus-powered, whereas the 100 required an external power supply. Apart from that I'm fairly sure there's no differences.

[tarrickb]

Great...THANK YOU ALL

[redwudz]

My ADVC-100 doesn't bypass Macrovision. Ser# 764975. But I have one of those cheapie Macrovision removers ($20US ten years ago) that worked fine for that problem. I don't have any VHS Macrovision tapes any more, so not a problem now.

[tarrickb]

Are macrovision tapes ONLY from commercial VHS or has someone seen it in other instances as well?

[redwudz]

AFAIK, it's just used in VHS tapes. This site has more info:

http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/F_MacroVision.html

It may be used with other formats, but it's an old encryption format. DVDs have newer methods, CSS is one. Newer is ArCoSS. And there are other newer encryption methods.

[bendixG15]

My ADVC 100 #781407 does the "silver button"
trick very well with VHS tapes. Have bypassed everything so far.

[compuser]

My ADVC 100 #781407 does the "silver button"
trick very well with VHS tapes. Have bypassed everything so far.

The "silver button" trick works for my ADVC 110.

[Wile_E]

My ADVC-300 does disable Macrovision too. Hold down the top black buttons on top for 10 seconds. If I remember correctly, it didn't at first, but Canopus released a firmware update in 2004 to add this "feature". This is just opposite of what you guys are saying with the ADVC-100/110. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

[Gabe462]

I'm comparing the 100 and 110.

The only difference that I don't understand is the differing data transfer rate. What does that mean in this case? The DV video streams will be exactly the same, right? Or is there some level of compression used by the 110 that would result in it outputting lower-bandwidth data stream?

Other than that, it just comes down to whether I want to pay $60 more for the bus-powered 110.

Can anyone offer any experiences to aid my decision?

[edDV]

I'm comparing the 100 and 110.

The only difference that I don't understand is the differing data transfer rate. What does that mean in this case? The DV video streams will be exactly the same, right? Or is there some level of compression used by the 110 that would result in it outputting lower-bandwidth data stream?

Other than that, it just comes down to whether I want to pay $60 more for the bus-powered 110.

Can anyone offer any experiences to aid my decision?

I don't know about any difference in transfer rate. I have a 100 and have used the 110. They are very similar except power supply issue and audio only recording on the 110. I'd still use a power supply with the 110. These things run warm.

Other than the Macrovision issue, the other advantage to the 100 is a second set of inputs from the rear (S-Video+minijack audio). I keep the cable box plugged in there as default. When you plug in from the front, the 100 auto switches to the front inputs.

[edDV]

I'm comparing the 100 and 110.

The only difference that I don't understand is the differing data transfer rate. What does that mean in this case? The DV video streams will be exactly the same, right? Or is there some level of compression used by the 110 that would result in it outputting lower-bandwidth data stream?

There is no compression going on, only an analog to DV stream conversion. Both should be the same.

[Vidd]

The only difference that I don't understand is the differing data transfer rate. What does that mean in this case? The DV video streams will be exactly the same, right? Or is there some level of compression used by the 110 that would result in it outputting lower-bandwidth data stream?

Standard DV has only one level of compression. The bitrate will be exactly the same.

The quality should be the same unless Canopus changed the DV encoder hardware or modified the firmware between 100 and 110.

[ARCHIVALMAN92]

I have the Older Canopus ADVC 100 and can use the silver button transferring VHS, but can it work transferring from a DVD? I want to transfer special features from a movie, and I can't turn the Macrovision off.

[edDV]

I have the Older Canopus ADVC 100 and can use the silver button transferring VHS, but can it work transferring from a DVD? I want to transfer special features from a movie, and I can't turn the Macrovision off.

Macrovision can only be turned off with the early ADVC-100 models (2004-2005). I have one and can capture any DVD off a player's S-Video port (4:3 or wide 16:9).

[16mmJunkie]

My 100 serial # 731275 does the trick very well. I hold it down for about 15 sec.





If the Light ain't Bright, It ain't Right!

[vhelp]

I think the problem with most people claiming their's didn't turn off MV has to do with the length of time they pressed and held down the gray button. It should be 15 seconds (or more) I always gave it an extra few seconds to be safe. It would be tricky sometimes because depending on how (and when) you pressed the gray button, it could kick over to the digital side (the blue light would shine on the left) and I had trouble at times, to the point I had to shut the unit off and on again. Maybe my button was too sensitive, I don't know. But I think if everyone who claimed they couldn't disable MV, they should give it another go, but this time wait the full 15 sec or more.

I don't think they made certain models, with/without this feature. It was either one way or the other, because it makes no sense that some 100 do and some don't, and then later, they create a new version, the 110 and some work and some don't, just don't make any sense

-vhelp 5422

[vhelp]

This pertains to the ADVC-100 only.

I just wanted to give a special update on the de-macrovision (MV) feature of the advc-100 model.

(Although I had faint notions of this behavior/clue over the years, it was't until this week when I was working non-stop on several capture projects of commercial tapes and couldn't figure out why the MV disabling feature was not working. And after various test scenarios, I finally concluded the -below- findings)

1. On the model 100, there are three lights: two blue and one red.
2. Whenever you turn on the unit, it goes through an initialization cycle.
3. during this cycle, both the blue and the red light, light up, before finally settling on default blue light, either digital or analog dep on dip switch setting.
4. To properly disable MV on the advc-100 (read notes below) your dip switch should be in the Analog position not the digital. And, in addition, you have to be in Analog (blue light) mode to do this, always.
5. This not tested thoroughly, but if you stop the tape and take it out, this refreshes the advc. It happed to me several times but I did not specifically test this, i only just remembered it happend on those occasions.

As some of you may know, there are several types of MV, but i'm not sure which one is more responsive to the advc-100 when it determins it has sensed MV (only during tape play) the red light will come on. But when a tape is not sensed as MV (during play) the red light will not come on. Therefore, pressing and holding down the silver button for the full 10 to 15 seconds will do nothing in terms of disabling MV--if it doesn't sense it by evidense of the illuminating red light--you're waisting your time pressing that darn silver button and waring it out.

The only time you will be using and taking advantage of the advc-100 MV disabling feature is when the right MV type is sensed and the unit actaully tells you via the red illuminating light.

So, as it turns out, the advc-100 may be limited to maybe one type of MV, and explains why many users claim it doesn't work when infact their tapes most likely did not have the MV type that the advc responds to and couple that further with those users who did not press and hold the button correctly or long enough.

That means, other capture problems in different equip scenarios: ADVC vs TBC vs VCR vs VCR_w/TBC and so on and so forth, explains some of the odd behavior inside the capture window when it shows some of the common things like, curling and color fade and color burnout--to name a few, for instance.

To disable MV on the ADVC-100, you do the following:

1. while the tape is in the vcr and playing
2. be sure the advc dip switch is set to Analog -- the Rt blue light will come on
3. turn on the advc, and let it initialize completely
4. make sure tape is playing and observe the advc's red light
4a. if not on, disabling step feature does nothing, so don't waist your time pressing it
4b. if on, then proceed to disable like this:
4c. when RT blue and red light are on, press and hold down silver button for aprox 15 seconds or until the red light stop illuminating. At this point, the MV is disabled -- finished

(One thing I want to point out, and that is, that the advc may respond to different types of MV but depending on how the source vcr outputs the signal. So while the advc responds to one type of MV on your vcr it may not respond to another users' if using a different vcr. This also helps to explain why some users meet with success while others, not)

When I work with vhs transfers and conversions, I may use one of the following scenarios:

ADVC->DVCAM->CapCard
or
DVCAM->DVCAM->CapCard.

I hope this clears up any confusion regarding the advc-100 and macrovision handling.

-vhelp 5425