Canopus "consumer-products" 100, 50,1394 what R th

[akrasna]

Hi,
(Like many I started on the AIW/ABS/AVER ... route .. and think I want to go the next step up. - audio sync is killing me and qulaity does not impress)

From this site it seems the Canopus line is the way to go.
Now of course at this level I am already paying more .. but I see that as a given now ...

What I want to do now though is figure out the least expensive Canopus route the will serve my needs.

I Mainly want to convert Home VHS to DVD (and also mpegs and AVI)

I don't expect to be going "back" to analog when done, or at least now to copy what is done to a DV device (although will that be standard in a few years and pay for me to do now)

Below are assumptions not facts .. I would like to have someone confirm or deny this

Now it seems to me the "Flagship" (of these lower tier products) is

Canopus ADVC-100.
This takes my VHS/8mm and converts it to DV
I then need to buy a FW card to get the DV into my machine (yada yada bios issue).
Most SW will be able to get that into a DVD for me ...
It also enables me to take my final version and send it out from the computer again to another source (digital? analog?)
This is an external box
(how is this powered - I am overseas and want to know about 110/220 issuse here?)

Canopus ADVC-50
Does as above but does NOT allow me to send back out from the computer.
Also seems to have a cute way to be either a bay device or a pci device.
Still needs FW ...
Am I missing anything .. for the vhs->box -> -> firewire -> digital file is it diff than the 100?
(i read something about this NOT have macrovision disable while the 100 does)

Canopus ADVC-1394
Is like the 50 uni-directional but has the FW built in and some (lame?) software included.

1. Is this a reasonable summary?
2. For my needs am I better with the 100 or the "50/1394"'
3. What is the price delta (this site has a best price of $200 for the 100 but it seems to be incorrect)
4. What is diff between 50 and my own FW and buying 1394 (besides the SW) should this be a financial decision only?
5. Can anyone confirm that any - "auto from tape to DVD" burn SW works direct, not save then burn but I click and ocme back and its done? Which one? am I able to have chapters at evry X mins?
6. Reccomendation for best quality seller /and price too.

Thanks
Allen

[txpharoah]

ABOUT THE CANOPUS ITEMS YOU ASKED ON
Those Canopus products you listed (ADVC 50/100/IEEE1394) are less quality than the ATI AIW cards in terms of which is higher on the food chain. Those Canopus items have less hardware than the ATI capture cards, and are external devices (except the PCI one), all of which are lesser than the internal AGP ATI cards. In terms of speed, quality, and options, these Canopus products cannot outperform an ATI.

REAL PRO CARDS
If you REALLY want to move up, get an original (not SE or 2) Canopus DVstorm card WITH the MPEG1/2 encoder board and breakout box from Canopus. It'll run you about $1.3K total (on sale) from bhphotovideo.com.
Also look into getting a MATROX card. They all pretty much start at $900 or so. Also bhphotovideo.com for good prices on them. The Matrox RT-series performs very well.

ATI CARD MAY NOT HAVE ISSUES
Audio sync issues are normally your system, not the card. Use the ATI MMC software to capture. The most stable one is ATI MMC 7.7. Use the April 2003 Catalyst drivers and WDM/ControlPanels (basically everything for April 2003).

MY PROFESSIONAL SUGGESTION
A new card may not be the answer. I've seen Canopus cards, Matrox cards, and even AVID systems badly set up. It's not the hardware. It's usually either the software not cooperating (do to bad install) or user error. Sorry to be blunt, but I'd hate for you to spend more money when the card is mostly likely not bad (and I mean 99.9% odds that the card is fine, not just 50-50 or something). I suggest trying to solve the problem rather than just throwing more money at it, as I doubt the issue will go away, no matter what card you stick into the system. Also remember that this is a computer, so the issues may lie with motherboards, hard drivers, RAM, etc and have nothing at all to do with the video card. I don't see an issue with the card, that's a common issue for any card when the software is not setup or the user isn't using the software properly. ONLY get a better card if you are serious and have the money for it. I have $50K+ video systems at work, but at home, the ATI gives me excellent results that I need for personal projects.

HELP FOR USING ATI
The VHS->DVD guide below (in my sig) has some information on making perfect quality DVDs from tv/tape/video sources, and both I and the author of it make excellent discs. And each of us has been thanked by more people than we can count, him for writing it and me for publicizing it on these forums. Try to see what it can do for you.

MORE QUESTIONS FOR YOU
The next issues is this: what do you do with the ATI card now? Settings? AVI or MPEG or WMV? Etc. That's the first issue at ID'ing the problem. We don't know what you have done. For what you describe in WANTING to do was explained, and I think the guide below may help.

[rhegedus]

ABOUT THE CANOPUS ITEMS YOU ASKED ON
Those Canopus products you listed (ADVC 50/100/IEEE1394) are less quality than the ATI AIW cards in terms of which is higher on the food chain. Those Canopus items have less hardware than the ATI capture cards, and are external devices (except the PCI one), all of which are lesser than the internal AGP ATI cards. In terms of speed, quality, and options, these Canopus products cannot outperform an ATI.

I beg to differ. The position of each of the products on the 'food chain' is relative to each persons experience with each of these products. Have you used all of the mentioned Canopus products?

I can't say that I have either, but I've used my ADVC-100 for hundreds of hours of VHS capture and there have been no dropped frames, no synch issues and capture quality that is difficult to distinguish from the original source. But this is just my opinion and is no more valid than anyone elses. However, if one check the capture card ratings to the left, you'll see that the ADVC has had 95 users give it an average rating of 9.3/10 - the neares AIW has had 34 votes of an average of 7.5/10. The maths speak for themselves.

The Canopus products probably have less hardware on them than the AIW, but then that's not surprising considering that they are capture cards only and don't have to provide graphical output to a monitor.

I believe the ADVC-50 has the same hardware as the ADVC-100, so if it's just a 'one way' product you want I'd go with the ADVC-50.

[txpharoah]

I beg to differ. The position of each of the products on the 'food chain' is relative to each persons experience with each of these products.

Not really. My opinion is there too, yes. I think Canopus has cards that can blow ATI away, but not these -- on the high-end consumer cards ATI is king. But the facts go along with my opinion. The ATI cards are made to do more than those Canopus cards. So in any case, they are lower down the food chain.

Have you used all of the mentioned Canopus products?

Several of them yes. Remember, I professionally work with video. I play with these toys all the time, and I do experiment with new items, mostly because friends want to get into the video too, and ask about cards. No way I can suggest yes or no without giving them a try.

but I've used my ADVC-100 for hundreds of hours of VHS capture and there have been no dropped frames, no synch issues and capture quality that is difficult to distinguish from the original source.

This is because the system is set up fine. I can make an AVID make video/audio out of sync just by having it setup badly or use it wrong.

My whole point was that the Canopus cards were NOT an improvement over ATI, at best they'd be the same, and his issues (the original poster) are not with the card, but with his system and himself.

We can agree/disagree over Canopus vs ATI, but no real reason. His question was about Canopus being better. I'd have to say no. The cards are in the same overall category of good cards, with ATI maybe even edging over the Canopus because of what it can do. He'd need a low-end pro Matrox or Canopus to TRULY get a better card.

However, if one check the capture card ratings to the left, you'll see that the ADVC has had 95 users give it an average rating of 9.3/10 - the neares AIW has had 34 votes of an average of 7.5/10. The maths speak for themselves.

I'd check out industry reviews WAY BEFORE I'd check out the reviews on a consumer site. Go pick up any magazine or read up at any pro review site that provides reports on video cards. Consumer sites get bad review sometimes just because people don't know how to use the product. I'm amazed at how many people don't read the book then get mad.

The Canopus products probably have less hardware on them than the AIW, but then that's not surprising considering that they are capture cards only and don't have to provide graphical output to a monitor.

Only partially true. The Canopus products are missing a lot of the hardware encoding chips for capturing compared to ATI. The ATI can capture MPEG and more. That Canopus card is just DV AVI.

[akrasna]

Sorry did not mean to start who is better Canopus or ATI ...

I was just asking if someone can tell me the diffs between the various Canopus(s)

Although I will play around with the AIW in parallel with some of the input I got

thanks

[rhegedus]

Sorry did not mean to start who is better Canopus or ATI ...

I was just asking if someone can tell me the diffs between the various Canopus(s)

Yeah, I know - don't worry. This ain't going to be a flame war.

Not really. My opinion is there too, yes. I think Canopus has cards that can blow ATI away, but not these -- on the high-end consumer cards ATI is king. But the facts go along with my opinion. The ATI cards are made to do more than those Canopus cards. So in any case, they are lower down the food chain.

This was about getting a capture card to convert home VHS to DVD. I've no doubt that ATI make wonderful cards that can do everything (I've got a Hercules that's powered by ATI), but the initial paragraph stated the posters problems with the AIW/ABS/AVER route. Saying that ATI is king doesn't help someone who's decided not to use it any more. You've helpfully pointed out what the potential problems and fixes are, but these are in the public domain and have not helped the AIW products get better scores in the capture card reviews.

Several of them yes. Remember, I professionally work with video. I play with these toys all the time, and I do experiment with new items, mostly because friends want to get into the video too, and ask about cards. No way I can suggest yes or no without giving them a try.

Sorry - from your previous posts, I thought you were a lawyer. Doesn't really matter anyway as you've used them all.

This is because the system is set up fine. I can make an AVID make video/audio out of sync just by having it setup badly or use it wrong.

Synch is can be locked with the Canopus cards. Can you say you've never had dropped frames with your ATI?

My whole point was that the Canopus cards were NOT an improvement over ATI, at best they'd be the same, and his issues (the original poster) are not with the card, but with his system and himself.

You've yet to say why the ATI is better at capturing than the Canopus - is it in context of capture quality or capture format? As for akrasna's issues with the card, how do you know it is with the set-up?

We can agree/disagree over Canopus vs ATI, but no real reason. His question was about Canopus being better. I'd have to say no. The cards are in the same overall category of good cards, with ATI maybe even edging over the Canopus because of what it can do. He'd need a low-end pro Matrox or Canopus to TRULY get a better card.

I agree that the ATI card can do more than capture but in terms of capture quality, simplicity of use and system conflicts the Canopus does seem (IMHO) to be a better choice.

I'd check out industry reviews WAY BEFORE I'd check out the reviews on a consumer site. Go pick up any magazine or read up at any pro review site that provides reports on video cards. Consumer sites get bad review sometimes just because people don't know how to use the product. I'm amazed at how many people don't read the book then get mad.

Well, that's a hundred or so opinions you've just discounted from this site - the opinions of the same sort of user as yourself, akrasna or I. I have an intrinsic suspicion of magazine or commercial reviews of products since they can never be completely without bias - in either direction. Nor have I seen a review of graphics cards that was based on their capture capability alone. As for the consumer sites giving bad reviews, the same thing should apply to reviews of Canopus products as well as ATI, should it not?

Only partially true. The Canopus products are missing a lot of the hardware encoding chips for capturing compared to ATI. The ATI can capture MPEG and more. That Canopus card is just DV AVI.

Only partly true, yes. The Canopus is just a DV AVI capture and the large capture files are a bit intrusive, but I wasn't aware that the ATI cards are capable of MPEG capture in the same way that dedicated MPEG capture cards are (and don't appear to be listed as such) - but I'm happy to accept I maybe wrong since I've not used one.

txpharoah, you appear to have much more experience in the filed of video capture than I, and I'm willing to accept that the ATI products are more complete solutions, but I'm doubtful that the capture quality is good as that of the Canopus products (and that's what the poster was relating to originally).

I am however, willing to be swayed since it will give me the opportunity to justify getting a new graphics card.

[txpharoah]

ABOUT ME: I work in corporate media relations and have several degrees, one of which is communication theory. I know quite a bit about media law, video production (and the computers), editorial writing, news writing, news photography, broadcasting, etc. I do it all (though not all of it I enjoy). It's the nature of this field. So I can hash it out in law talk just as easily as what kind of encode looks best on a consumer tv, or even examine news photos and analyze the effectiveness of the mass media in Iraq. It's the old deal of this: I've worked in the field for a while, and picked up a LOT of information. Lots of people consider me the answer-man, and I've been online a lot recently, this forum provides breaks from the monotany. Outside of those kinds of topics, I generally keep my mouth shut, pass over forums that I cannot help on.

FLAME: Yes, no flame war. I consider rhegedus and myself more mature members of this forum. (Though I can let my scathing editorial writing style lash out at times. Sorry about that.)

CANOPUS: Trust me, I'm a BIG BIG suported of Canopus and Matrox, but I think Canopus dropped an egg with their last few cards. They should have torn ATI in half, but didn't. I'd half been one of the first people here probably to use my old ATI as a paperweight in trade for a good Canopus card. But I was sorely disappointed by the cards. Reviews I read on them were not forgiving either. (I would suggest that MOST pro magazine review writers are not too baised, at least as UNbiased as a human can get.)

MY ATI EXPERIENCE: I have NEVER NEVER NEVER gotten dropped frames from my ATI card on AVI or MPEG1 or MPEG2. Maybe when I capture WMV, but that's not a real capture codec anyway, and the software cannot keep up is all. The card was sold to me as a hardware MPEG encoder card. It seems to act as one, as it can capture direct to MPEG2 at 10MB/S and not lose a single frame, and go on for 8 hours (max I ever went). I've honestly never examined the chips one by one to be sure, but software MPEG encoding would have crashed, and the chips inside are supposed to be like the ones used at DirecTV (or was it Dish?) for on-the-fly encoding (though much lower quality and cost). Sorry to be a bit fuzzy there, but I'm only human too, cannot remember all the details, just the important parts: hardware MPEG captures.

ATI VS CANOPUS: My comparison of ATI vs Canopus (new low end stuff) is based from personal use, use by friends, and reviews. Canopus just really didn't live up to its name with those products. If you added the Canopus MPEG encoder board (~$500), I'd surely shut up. I still wouldn't like the Canopus ADVC50/100/IEEE1394, but it would survive I guess (although not sure how it would interact with those cards, if it could).

[rhegedus]

Points taken, txpharoah, but what's the capture quality of the ATI cards like? Some reviewers (on this site) weren't too impressed with it, but then it may be down to system setup. I suppose I'll have to dig out a few screenshots later on.

akrasna, what capture card do you have at present and do you want to try and fix it or do you want to go down the Canopus route?

Everyone else want to 'chip in' with an opinion?

[pb]

In my opinion the Canopus ADVC100 is the way to go. I started with my DV camera so DV is what I use for all my captures. I had two previous capture cards, Asus 7700 and an ATI 128 AIW. Under XP I could not get the Asus to work and the ATI was poor quality and limited resolutions etc, buggy software and audio sync.

I have no problems with the ADVC100, as its firewire and I already had a card for my camera. The transfer is perfect, no audio sync problems at all. As the box does the hardware conversion and the firewire connection is just transfer (no codec etc) then CPU use is minimal, even though I have a couple of fast PC's. DV-analogue, analogue-DV works fine, and as the box is firewire there are no driver issues, its seen as another DV/VCR device, no reliance on vendors software or fixes etc. Using various software I can even capture direct to mpeg 2 through the ADVC100. I find the quality to be a little less, but the file size is greater than if I capture to DV and convert to mpeg 2, as the off-line encoders do a better job, resulting in smaller file sizes for the equivalent quality. I have used many NLE apps, but use Vegas 4 now, never a problem. Also, capturing as DV means that editing is simple or as complex as you like, no limitations as with mpeg editing.

I can use the ADVC100 on both my PC's, all I need is two firewire cables, and plug in which ever I want to capture on. Using Vegas Video I can preview from within the program on to a TV through the ADVC100, so I don't have to use the small preview window in Vegas. i can also see transitions etc in realtime as they would appear on TV, great for interlaced files. File size is not a problem I have large hard drives, they are cheap enough now.

[hakuba]

Hi,

From this site it seems the Canopus line is the way to go.
Now of course at this level I am already paying more .. but I see that as a given now ...

What I want to do now though is figure out the least expensive Canopus route the will serve my needs.

I Mainly want to convert Home VHS to DVD (and also mpegs and AVI)

Thanks
Allen

Allen, Go with the ADVC100 or Data video DAC100, both will most likely be plug and play and will yeild great results. In most cases the AGP/PCI capture card are sometimes hard to setup and can conflict with multiple video cards.

The reviews here on both products tell a story, These things WORK!
I just wish I had taken the advice SOONER from the members here and went with the ADVC or DataVideo products sooner.

[Fomalhaut]

I have AIW 7500 and Canopus ADVC 100. My experience is that Canopus's quality is slightly better than AIW if the source is good. Canopus's quality is noticeably better if the source is not so good (e.g., old VHS tapes). Besides, with AIW, the captured videos flicker for certain VHS tapes. This has nothing to do with macrovision as some of the problem tapes are homemade, and I don't get the same problem when captured with Canopus. Apparently, I am not the only one who has this problem. There were discussions a while ago about this and possible solutions, but those solutions don't seem to work for everyone:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104843
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=109335

[txpharoah]

Needed to point out a few things...

Be sure to use an ATI AIW Radeon 7200 (aka DDR32, DDR64), 7500, 8500, or 9700 card. The other ATI AIW (especially the non-Radeon ones do have numerous problems (128 Pro, VE, etc), and in those cases I can see a person preferring an ADVC card. And Windows XP is NOT an optimum OS for working with video (I'm not aware of any company that uses anything other than Windows 2000 for video work, as it is not video-friendly - we've "downgraded" new systems at work and put them back on 2K). Software MPEG encoding will 99% drop some frames. Saying FireWire will not conflict while PCI/AGP will conflict is hogwash... anything can conflict if you do it wrong. Datavideo makes excellent TBC's, I'd be interested to check out their capture cards (although the rumor is that it is just a repackaged Canopus ADVC-100).

If you only want to work with DV, then go ahead and work with the Canopus products (they were meant for it, and I support Canopus). Just remember that the original poster wanted to transfer VHS to DVD. I personally think people should get to the final product as quick as possible. Rather than waste time in AVI when non-edit converting is desired, dump it straight to MPEG2 (via hardware encoding like the ATI has) and save yourself the time of having to convert AVI to MPEG later on. If you need to edit the snot out of it, then AVI, sure. But I'm not seeing high-end editing as the goal of the original poster, just conversion.

It's a real shame I'm even having this conversation. Canopus should have created a card to rival the capture quality and functions of the ATI. They apparently chose not to. They have the capability to squash ATI if they wanted to.

I also checked out the ATI reviews on this site (did it for you rhegedus). This is a bit of a rant, so prepare yourself... It's mainly complaints about dropped frames when using UNsupported software, users not knowing how to install it or using outdated software (read the book or visit ATI.com), complaints about customer support (which is mainly just impatience), complaining about the TV Guide software, complaining about the remote (who honestly uses this thing?), people buying them when their computers do not support the card (not ATI's fault user cannot read), Macrovision protection (which can be removed but they didn't know it)..... AND YOU KNOW WHAT?.... NONE of those things concern the capture ability of the card...... If you toss out all the 1's and 3's from the retarded reasons, youll get somewhere between a 8.5 and 9.5 overall rating for the cards. Again, I wanted to state the reviews on this site were pretty pointless when trying to find a good card. It makes little mention of picture clarity, pixels clarity, color saturation, ability to control the color/brightness/etc (that ATI has), ability to capture various formats, etc. You know, the IMPORTANT parts of the capturing process. Rant over. Thanks for reading.

FYI: I don't care what the original poster buys, I just want him to be well-informed. I've given the facts and I've given my opinion, and there's little more I can do at this point. Whatever you get: BE SURE to test it good within the first few days. Heck, buy them both and take the loser back to get a refund! All that is important is what you feel good with using and like the outcome.

If you're curious about high-end Canopus products, read this: http://www.videosystems.com/ar/video_canopus_dvstorm
It's still a DV AVI capture with MPEG output (in base form), but the speed and quality makes their ADVC-100 look like a kid's toy (on par with Lego and Lincoln Logs). You can add the MPEG-1/MPEG-2 PCI Encoder card for a few hundred extra.

And also check out this Matrox item:
http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx100xtreme/acquisition_delivery.cfm#mpeg2
http://shopmatrox.com/usa/products/datasheets/pro_dvd_bundle.asp
If you're serious, this is one of the ultimate hobbiest toys. It's a professional card. The ATI card is a very stripped-down version of this, also believed to carry some of the Ligos GoMotion MPEG technology, so I can stick to my ATI card for now.

[txpharoah]

I have AIW 7500 and Canopus ADVC 100. My experience is that Canopus's quality is slightly better than AIW if the source is good. Canopus's quality is noticeably better if the source is not so good (e.g., old VHS tapes). Besides, with AIW, the captured videos flicker for certain VHS tapes. This has nothing to do with macrovision as some of the problem tapes are homemade, and I don't get the same problem when captured with Canopus. Apparently, I am not the only one who has this problem. There were discussions a while ago about this and possible solutions, but those solutions don't seem to work for everyone:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=104843
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=109335

Agreed. Bad VCRs can put out bad signals that capture cards don't like. The ATI does tend to see more of the signal from my reseach (and hence looks "worse" because it sees more). Anybody capturing VHS should consider investing in a timebase corrector (TBC) to clarify the signal. You are, afterall, I hope, trying to make perfect DVDs, not just so-so DVDs.

The Datavideo TBC-1000 unit is about $200 and an excellent addition to any video hobbiest's toy collection. Also consider a JVC HRS9800U SVHS VCR (about $450) for its vairous digital audio and video filters to even further correct output before it even leaves the VCR. Money yes, but wasn't your computer also expensive? I didn't just say "dollars make the difference" because it sounded cool.

[Varmit]

I've got the Canopus ADVC100 that I use to capture VHS Analog home movies as well as lots of Television Caps from old movies. I've been really impressed with it and the quality of capture I get. Yes, the 12Gig per hour AVI files are huge...but as someone else stated...the more you start with the better the end quality. I've tried all kinds of mpeg on the fly and have never been impressed. I have no audiosync problems like I had occasionaly with other products. I also use tmpgenc for my mpeg encoding and do 2 pass variable bitrate processing while I sleep at night and off PC time. (Encoding Cool Hand Luke I captured off AMC yesterday afternoon as I write this) I do a lot of SVCDs and the end product is really great! The Canopus also requires no drivers, no valuable expansion slot and is natively recognized in WinXP.

If you want simplicity and very high quality..buy a Canopus 100.

Whatever you do......never ever ever ever buy a dazzle product. I've had several friends buy them after seeing my Canopus setup and they all own their own Canopus 100s now. (They end up borrowing mine after failed results with dazzles and others then buy their own)

Just my humble opinion.

[rhegedus]

I also checked out the ATI reviews on this site (did it for you rhegedus).

Gotcha!

[vhelp]

.
.
..always gotta get in a good discusion here, sooner or later, hehe.. anyways..

It's true, there are soo many cards out there analog vs. dv etc. But in the end,
only YOU as a user can make the final judgement on quality.

But, the user also has to realize that there are many factors in judging quality
and performance and the works (a list that goes on and on and on.. .. ..)

I have many cards. And, I probably shouldn't have gotten them all, but then,
as this started out as an endeavor to transfer my VHS to VCD way back when,
3/2001, I have grown to other heights. Now, today, I have abdobted this arena of
video jorgon as a hobby. So, weather I should've or shouldn't have gotten all
these cards/devices is pretty much MUTE on my end. Now, I basically test whatever
card comes my way, or I feel to research in my quest to answer MY questions or
issues - whatever they may be. Anyways..

I feel that both ATI and Canopus are BOTH GREAT cards. They are. Even my ATI-TV
Wonder card puts out great quality. The catch (as in my situation) is the actualy
MotherBoard/CPU/Chipsets that will reflect a given analog cards abilities. In
my setup, I am more and more beleiving that my Motherboard is to blame for all
my capture quality resutls - Line Noise

Here is a brief list of Some of the issues that may play a part in your cards poor
performance from one level or another:

* dropped frames
* audio drift (sync or de-sync'ing)
* audio noise (hum, his, static and pops, ta name a few)
* output quality (Line Noise, distortion, wiggly video etc)
* resolution etc.

But, you also have to factor in the USER's skill level.
* How much does he/she know about their own system (motherboard/cpu/chipset)
* tune their system to their cards etc.
* work out the bugs and kinks
* software issues
* driver issues
* OS issues
* The list just keeps going down to no end..

These ares some of the things a newbie cannot understand and factor in to their
issues that they may encounter during an capture card setup and useage experience.

Not to forget the source materials that these USER's tested their given card
out with. Another good factor to consider.

Also, reviews are always good, whereever they come from, but even then, you have
to take w/ some level of grain, because some of those USER's were newbie's
and didn't know what they were doing or didn't take it to a higher level (speaking
of debuggin and the likes) but just posted their experiences (though short)
That is why you almost always see, where one person gave poor ratings due to their
issues/experience another gave good review/ratings for. That's because the
other USER was more skillfull (be it in their system prepings, OS, driver, MB etc,
etc) But, you can't discount the majority of those that post higher ratings, such
as the ADVC-100. You can't discount that high (and many) ratings of this card.
And, what about the age of some of these cards. Some were tested a while back,
when many newbies (and some minor experienced users) were testing these cards out,
and they probably got a bumm rap. Take the DC10+ as this card had its up and
downs. I can say w/out a doubt (though I didn't post a review) that I had plenty
bad expeirence with this card. I even gave it up. But, would you beleive, that
some time later (about a year) I gained more knowledge and, at a whim, I decided
to just try out this card again ? Only this time, I had obtain more knowledge
about my system setup and OS and drivers and hardare etc etc. Well, I'm more
than happy to say, I've ben able to obtain great results (w/out issues) using
this card. I'm only sad that I didn't give this card a review those years ago..
only so that I can give it a follow-up w/ position success stories - - would have
ben worthy of such. Of course, the card has it's own built-in issues that I've
encountered, but nothing to be serious about in a review thus far.

I own the ADVC-100. And, love it ta death. But, for those peoples that have
and use the DV cam route via pass-through.. well, in my experience w/ a few
(sony from friend next door) I can say that there deffinately IS color washout
in them, but not as bad as my expeirence w/ my Canon ZR-10. This toy has serious
color washout. The other models/brands I was fortunate enough to test these
past 3 months were eye openers, I mean, boarderline in comparison to the ADVC-100.
But, that review is based on my eye and skill level. Your mileage may vary.

So many other factors to list here, but I just wanted to speak my mind w/ my
experinces thus far, but w/out argument, but the above I laid out is important
to understand when researching a new capture card out.

I think that the best way to find out if a card is best or adequate, is to just
TRY the it out. But, hopefully, behind an experience/skillful user, so that it
gets a fair shake.


Well, that enough from me.. voicing my 2 cents worth
-vhelp

[TBoneit]

My two cents:

The AIW Radeon 7500 itself is fine, however, you knew there was a however didn't you?

The cabling is a rats nest where they connect to the computer.
Many of our customers trash their cables the first time they have to disconnect them, sometimes when hooking them up toi the card.
Heck they even bend up the pins on the PS2 mouse & Keyboard despite warnings. One big plus for usb KB & mouse.

The audio capture is very dependent on the MB & sound card.

I tried over the years various AIW Rage, Rage128, Radeon 7500 with many sound cards and never managed to get great sound captures. Always noise in the capture or sync issues, etc. For me Intel Chipset MBs & Soundblaster audio worked best but still was only ok.

With the ADVC-100 simple hookup and ease of use. Quality captures.

These are my experiences. We all use and love what works best for us,

Cheers