Best capture application Mac

[wahsac]

Hi

Just got involved ion this capturing old tapes to computer.

I have been using the latest version of the Roxio Sofware 1.03 but I am getting frame skip.

Is the Elgato version better ?

Or can anybody recommend anything else to do this on a Mac ?

[Baldrick]

Moving you to our mac section.

[terryj]

iMovie, FCE, and FCP all work like gangbusters.
You just need a Canopus ADVC-100 or -110 box
to do the hardware input of your vhs tapes.

STF for "canopus advc". We've covered this a million times.

[wahsac]

[quote="terryj"]iMovie, FCE, and FCP all work like gangbusters.
You just need a Canopus ADVC-100 or -110 box
to do the hardware input of your vhs tapes.

Thank you, think I will go for it

[lordsmurf]

El Gato is better. 8)

[wahsac]

El Gato is better. 8)

Thanks, going for the Canopus ADVC-100

[terryj]

Your Welcome!

[gomako]

Hi
I am new to this forum, and fairly new to the topic in general. A while ago I dabbled in VHS transfer to my wife's Mac G4 and would like to get back into it since she just got a new 8 core MacPro with lots of drive space. Does anybody have any insight on the canopus 100 or 110 vs the Dazzle HW bridge. Is the canopus a better option? I have a Dazzle that I purchased around 2001, but I would like to invest in a newer AD converter if they are really any better. I have about 100 old vhs recordings (family videos) from back to 1989 that I want to transfer to the Mac, edit on iMovie, then burn via iDVD.

Any insight or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[pixel zombie]

not to change the subject, but i just use a dvd recorder hooked up to my vhs player..if i need to do any editing i use mpegstreamclip to edit the VOB files and i use Toast to make simple menus

[lordsmurf]

DV conversion is really not very good for VHS tapes. A truly better A/D converter would be one that either does an uncompressed or lesser-compressed AVI (or QT) file, or goes direct to MPEG. Going to DV is somewhat lossy, and it cooks the colors of VHS tapes.

[terryj]

Hi
I am new to this forum, and fairly new to the topic in general. A while ago I dabbled in VHS transfer to my wife's Mac G4 and would like to get back into it since she just got a new 8 core MacPro with lots of drive space. Does anybody have any insight on the canopus 100 or 110 vs the Dazzle HW bridge. Is the canopus a better option? I have a Dazzle that I purchased around 2001, but I would like to invest in a newer AD converter if they are really any better. I have about 100 old vhs recordings (family videos) from back to 1989 that I want to transfer to the Mac, edit on iMovie, then burn via iDVD.

Any insight or advise would be greatly appreciated.

see above answers. The Canopus ADVC -100 or -110 is top dog around
these parts, ( sorry Smurfy )STF and you'll find many posts on
the subject.

[Frobozz]

DV conversion is really not very good for VHS tapes. A truly better A/D converter would be one that either does an uncompressed or lesser-compressed AVI (or QT) file, or goes direct to MPEG. Going to DV is somewhat lossy, and it cooks the colors of VHS tapes.

You surprised me this time. DV is one of the least compressed formats (I believe it is about 4 to 1). It also is easy to adjust color after capture if needed even in QuickTime Pro. But it shouldn't be needed with a top-quality capture device such as those sold by Canopus. Avoid the Dazzle unit because you'll likely end up with dropped frames.

[gomako]

Thanks terryj, lordsmurph, and Zombie for your comments - the links were very helpful, along with the the info I found on past posts.

I am going to pick up a canopus and see how it goes.

Lordsmurph - as another option I am also interested in your comment, can you suggest some A/D converters that can go directly to AVI or MPEG? I would like to look into this a little more.

Thanks again.

[lordsmurf]

DV25 consumer for NTSC is 5:1 compression, but the colorspace compression is 4:1:1, which is a bit harsh as compared to 4:2:2 or even 4:2:0.

PAL is 4:2:0, and therefore a bit better.

DVCPRO50 is 4:2:2, much better on the compression.

DV was made for shooting -- it's pretty much crap for a conversion format, but it's out there being sold. Of course, so are "DVD safe" markers, DVD rewinders and DVD labels. As far as I'm concerned, all of these things are sold simply because people are stupid enough to buy them.