Newbie searches good Capturing Device

[Dirk2003]

Thank god there is this "Capture Card"-Hitlist here on www.dvdrhelp.com !

Without reading it today
I would have bought the "Pinnacle Studio MovieBox DV"

Now I know better I will probably buy the "Canopus ADVC-100"
What do you experienced guys think about that ?

My application:
- converting old VHS and S-VHS Tapes to DV (finally to DVD [mpeg2])
The tapes are sometimes old and noisy with glitches and so on...
on the other hand I've got very Hi-Grade S-VHS recordings looking like DVD-Quality.

Is the "Canopus ADVC-100" good for both:
from poor to very good quality source material ?

Some Questions to the experts:
1.)
Is it enough that I've got just my onboard IEEE 1394a Connector (on the Motherboard) or do I need an additional PCI-Firewire-Card to run the "Canopus ADVC-100" ??
2.)
Do I need any additional Software to do the job ? ... and wich ?
On the Canopus webside it looks like there is no Software Package delivered with the "Canopus ADVC-100" ??
3.)
Do I need an additional transcoder Software
to transform the DV-Format to MPEG2-Format for DVD ?
(wich one ?)
4.)
Is it useful to capture in DV-Format
just knowing that the final format will be MPEG2 on DVD ?

Thank you for your patience 8)

[rcb]

I burn my vhs tapes to DVD using an advc-100.

hookup - composite leads from vhs recorder to advc100. Firewire cable that came with advc100 to existing 1394 port on my computer.

capture s/w - ScenalyzerLive, capture setting to type 2 dv. Hard drive usage runs around 13 gigs/capture hour.

avi fle to mpg file - TMPGenc Plus, using NTSC 720 x 480 VBR 2 pass. I also do my editing there and vary my bitrate to get best video quality within DVD capacity (4.3 gig). If bitrate is forced too low (<4500) because of clip length, I will split and put on two DVD's

DVD author/burn - TMPGenc DVD Author

My s/w recipe happens to be all payware. Ther are other similar freeware apps that might suit you, Total processing time runs about 7-8 hrs per vhs tape hour.

To try to answer your questions:
1) what you have should do.
2)capture, edit, trnscode. author, burn. No S/W comes with the advc-100.
3) yes. TMPGenc or CCE are good candidates
4) Depends. If you need to do editing/paatching/etc., yes. Once converted, mpg is relativley difficult to touchup.

[Dirk2003]

Hi rcb,

thank you for this good answer !

I ordered the advc100 today ...

One last question:
What happens with my Tapes with macrovision (I got some of them),
Will the conversion process with the advc100
be disturbed by this macrovision-signals ?

Do I need an additional device to filter the macrovision out ?

[redwudz]

The ADVC-100 has a Macrovision filter. Hold down the imput switch for about 15-20 seconds when you have a Macrovision source fo activate the filter. For freeware transfer software, you can use DVIO or WinDV. I like WinDV because it has a preview window. Then I use TMPGEnc and TMPGEnc Author.