Whats better - DV Camcorder passthrough or ADVC-50/100?

[Safrogon]

Hi folks,

I am heading for capturing my VHS tapes through Firewire in DV format.

I managed to pick up a DV camcorder Canon M500i for 499,00 EUR which has analogue and digital-in's, as well as a passthrough feature, so it allows me to put in my SVHS signal into the camcorder and at the same time put out a DV signal via Firewire to my PC.

Now I read a lot about the Canopus ADVCs, and I wonder whether I could expect a different (better) quality from them as compared to what I get when I use my Canon 500i ?

Is that possible at all? Isn't the DV format a defined standard, so no matter what device you use, if you get DV you always get the same quality?

I am unsure about that and any input would be highly appreciated.

Kind regards
Saf

[FOO]

It depends on the Analog to Digital conversion
hardware in the two devices.
Either get specs or try both.



God is neither real nor integer, it's imaginary

[samcut]

I am also looking for the same answer-

Samcut

[Paul D]

I can't give you a full answer, but my Canon XL1 only does analog out and that is at least as good as the analog out from my ADVC 100.

My XL1 doesn't have analog in, so I can't really comment directly, but I would say that if you are looking critically the analog to digital conversion of the ADVC 100 shows distinct loss of quality (that's probably inevitable and it would pass unnoticed by someone who isn't looking critically).

My preference would be for going the camera route - that way you get a spare camera/playback deck as well!