ADVC-100 S-VHS adapter question

[robrosen]

The day I first tested my ADVC i was very disappointed. I was using a straight RCA (L R audio and VIdeo ) plugs and experienced the same color bleed you mentioned. I said "This is crap". So then I noticed the small supplied adapter plug and said "Okay, i'll try it" well, I hooked it to the RCA Video lead then went to plug it in to the ADVC.

Now you know, the AUDIO plugs are in the front for INPUT. SO seeing the S-VIDEO connection in the front I tried to connect. It would not plug in. I looked at the pins, looked at the plug and said "This can't be" I said "Dang, they sent the wrong plug"

Took me a half hour of stumbling before I finally caught on (In the manul ) that the S-VIDEO IN is in the back (poor design.....)

Is this a PAL-only feature? I tried doing this last night (i.e. hooking up my RCA composite video plug to the Canopus supplied adapter, and connecting the S-VHS-like plug on the adapter into the back of the ADVC-100), but no video registered on my capture program (Ulead Movie Factory 2). When I reverted to my old configuration - RCA composite to ADVC-100 - my capture program registered incoming video again.

It would be nice to see if there's any improvement in the capture if I can get this adapter to work properly.

[lordsmurf]

S-VHS is a tape and a video format
s-video is a wire that separates luma from chroma

[redwudz]

I plugged in the adapter to the S-Video port and my composite cable into that and it works fine. I didn't really see much difference in the video, but I will check again tonght when I have some time. According to the manual, you should use the S-video adapter for best results, but it doesn't say why. I'm using NTSC video. If you are not getting video through the adapter, try using the input switch. I had no problem plugging the cable into and out of both jacks while the WinDV was running.

[trevlac]

you should use the S-video adapter for best results

I'd be surprized if it improved results. Radio-Shack sells these for $30 and Monster has one for $130. The monster one looks to have a bit more to it. Don't know if they squeeze a tiny 3D adaptive comb filter into the wire or what. It's also interesting that the Canopus plug is a 7 pin connector vs 4 pins.

Here is a link if you want to guess at what the wire does....

http://www.cybertheater.com/Tech_Reports/Comb_Filter_Tut/guide_comb_filters.html


@LordS

Your tough. Gotta get the words right.

[redwudz]

As far as I can tell the 'adapter' just wires the Y and C together with a capacitor. I still wonder why they say use the adapter for best results. I made a similar adapter a few years ago with an Amiga monitor that had s-video inputs. Worked OK with a composite source.

[DaveS]

also, if you're using the s-video input on the advc100, make sure you don't also have a yellow composite cable hooked up to it, as even if it contains no signal, it will throw the device off (it will detect that you have a cable on there)...

[hiptune]

The s-video input is NOT on the back on my ADVC 100, it is most certainly on the front on unit.

Works great!

Jeff

[thing914]

From reading these I get the impression there may be some confusion on the ADVC connectors. For anyone not clear, or just interested, you have two sets of analog inputs and one analog output, you also have two bidirectional firewire ports.

On the back is the output with L/R audio RCA jacks, a composite video jack and an s-video jack. A 6pin firewire port. One of the sets of inputs. Since the back is so crowded the audio input is a stereo mini jack so you need a stereo minijack to L/R RCA jack adapter for that (not supplied). The composite and s-video input are combined into that one jack. If you use s-video just plug it in. That included adapter is to use a composite video cable in that jack. When they say in the manual about using the s-video adapter I think that is just a badly worded way of saying it when they mean you will get better results using s-video rather than composite.

On the front is the other input: a set of L/R audio RCA jacks, a composite video jack and an s-video jack. Also a 4pin bidirectional firewire port.

The front input jacks will override the rear input jacks if used, even if a cable with no signal is plugged in as mentioned earlier. I have an s-video output from my DishPVR plugged into the rear and use the fronts if I want my vcr for a tape conversion.

Works great. Just need to understand how it all works and the manual is pretty skimpy.

[trevlac]

@thing914


You should offer to write the manual for them. I don't even have one of these devices and I now understand. The 7 pin miniDin allows a normal 4 pin s-video cable to plug into the back, AND an RCA cable to plug into the back using the adaptor. All the adaptor does is run the RCA signal along 2 of the 3 'unused' pins.

Thanks

[Will Hay]

Yep, the manual is pretty shite and you've cleared a coupleof things up for me, an amateur, eh trevlac?
Will

[redwudz]

thing914: Thanks, your post helps a lot. I wll get a RCA>stereo miniplug converter and get rid of those RCA cables that I have hanging out of the front of the unit. I guess they used a 7 pin jack on the back so that they could use the input for two different signal options. I do like the unit a lot, works great to transfer old VHS tapes to DVD.

[trevlac]

Yep, the manual is pretty shite and you've cleared a coupleof things up for me, an amateur, eh trevlac?

I'm definately the amateur around here. I think you were just goofing with us in the other thread. I stopped even trying to keep track of all of the connection options. You should have feed us a few more 'nice' pics from TV just to really keep us going.




Edit: Maybe one like this...

[Will Hay]

Man, that is gooooooooooooood, coming from someone who would not only be unable to watch the show but is also 3000 miles away anyway!
Will

[Will Hay]

I stopped even trying to keep track of all of the connection options. You should have feed us a few more 'nice' pics from TV just to really keep us going.

You're joking right?
I definately wasn't my friend!
My home really is that badly wired for AV
Will

[trevlac]

You're joking right?
I definately wasn't my friend!
My home really is that badly wired for AV
Will

Yeah, I was joking. But I could hardly keep track of the options and the advice. Hope you could keep track. It would have been funny if you feed us some 'placebo' pics. It'd be interesting to see what all of the "take charge here's what you do" people had to say.

Here's another link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

Believe it or not, I recognize tweenies, brum, clifford, and spot. Not to mention tubbies and BobTheB. I'm surprized paz the peguin was not in the picture. We watch alot of that around my place.

[Will Hay]

Believe it or not, I recognize tweenies, brum, clifford, and spot. Not to mention tubbies and BobTheB. I'm surprized paz the peguin was not in the picture. We watch alot of that around my place.

I am suprised, but having a 21 month old son I watch them regulaly.

Yeah, I was joking. But I could hardly keep track of the options and the advice. Hope you could keep track. It would have been funny if you feed us some 'placebo' pics. It'd be interesting to see what all of the "take charge here's what you do" people had to say.

Hell, shit, that's a good idea...
...stand by
Will

[thing914]

Glad that description helped out. I have an electronic from background way back, plus I looked around on various sites when I was looking into the ADVC. Helped to figure it out. As Will said the manual in some spots is shite. One sentance about the color bars feature. I worked phone tech support at one point till burned out. You haven't lived until you try to explain moving around a graphical interface, over the phone, to a grandmother with first computer who has no clue what any of the tech jargon means.

You guys helped me out a lot. I'm just starting to feel like I know some of this stuff, been reading on this site for a couple of months and learned a lot. That last thread Will started was great and interesting. I learned my ADVC isn't perfect

Motivated me to play around with it more, I've just learned enough AVISynth to be dangerous and also read about colorspace (makes my head explode) so I've been making multiple tests with the first 5 minute episode of CloneWars (using TMPGEnc Plus and LordSmurf's suggested setting). Tried all the variations of FixBrokenChroma, ReInterpret411, PC-TV. and the mystery checkbox in TMPGEnc. Nothing really made a difference. After Will's thread I just tried Tweak and the saturation. Looks like I just need the tiniest tweak to saturation but have to boost brightness for my DishPVR through ADVC captures (I'm using s-video cable all through the path).

Jeff