Canopus ADVC-100 for Capturing Live TV

[Kahless]

Hey, I've been reading about the ADVC-100, from both Canopus' site and reviews and post here and like what I see.

My question is can the ADVC-100 be used to capture live TV? And would it be a good purchase to use it as such? All I ever see people talk about it using it to convert VHS tapes to DV.

I assumed it could, based on this diagram on their site showing a TV/monitor http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-100/pt_advc-100.asp#key%20benefits
Any what about using the ADVC-50 instead? The diagram for the ADVC-50 does'nt have a TV/Monitor, so I guess it is not an option then?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[budz]

My question is can the ADVC-100 be used to capture live TV? And would it be a good purchase to use it as such? All I ever see people talk about it using it to convert VHS tapes to DV.

yes you can use it to capture LIVE TV. I have mine connected to directly to my digital cable box via audio/video jacks. you're going to need a firewire card for your computer. firewire from pc goes to canopus advc-100, a/v jacks inputs from advc-100 goes to a/v jacks output of digital cable box.

[EwanG]

My question is can the ADVC-100 be used to capture live TV? And would it be a good purchase to use it as such? All I ever see people talk about it using it to convert VHS tapes to DV.

It works fine, assuming you have a TV tuner to connect it to. The ADVC-100 will not "change channels" for you or start and stop at a specified time. For that you would need something more like the ATi All-In-Wonder series or the Hauppauge series of devices.

FWIW,
Ewan

[DaveS]

Kahless - I use the tuner from my dvd recorder w/ the advc100 to capture live tv, but only on occiasion....fwiw, I use iuVCR software for this although there are others as well (I think scenalyzer may have a schedule function)..biggest thing to note is as above - you need to have a tuner set to the right channel and leave it and the advc100 on, then your software will kick in at the schedule time and record..works great for infrequent use..if you're trying to implement a DVR on your PC for a lot of recording, something that can change channels for you would be easier to operate, or use tivo and record to disc off of that when you want..there is an existing tivo & dvd recorder but it's really expensive..or if you are just fishing around, I think this fall in the US there will be more settop/desktop products coming out and you could see if one of those is what you're looking for..if you already have a pc and just want to upgrade it to DVR, the ATI, hauppauge or pinnacle cards should work...

[Kahless]

Just to clarify I don't really care about using the ADVC-100 to set up a DVR system, I primarily just want to get some good documentaries and science shows captured, being able to change channels or schedule recording times is not needed.
I plan on editing out the commercials and then converting to MPEG 2 primarily, but in some cases I'll be encoding to Divx, Xvid or maybe a few others.
Seeing that I don't need scheduling or the ability to change channels, do I still need a TV Tuner Card? Or can I just find the program I want on TV then start the capture process?

[nelson133]

I use the Canopus box hoked to the digital cable box to record from the tv all the time. For what you want to do, all you need is a firewire port (built in or card) to hook the output to. It gets dumped onto the hard drive as avi files using various software, some of which are freeware. just remember that your avi files will be about 13 gig per hour and allocate HD space accordingly. Nyah Levi

[DaveS]

Kahless - you don't need a tuner card if that's what you want to do, but when you say 'find the program you want on tv and start the process', you will need some type of tuner to feed a (non RF modulated) analog signal to the advc100, which has a composite and s-video input (similar to what a VCR has)..you can't just plug the cable tv cable into it..if you have a cable box, you could feed the output to the advc100...if you don't go w/ a tuner card, have you figure out what tuner you would use and how you would hook it up?

nelson133 (& Kahless) - you can also use the picvideo mjpeg codec http://www.pegasusimaging.com/picvideomjpeg.htm to record to smaller file sizes assuming your software supports it (it should) and your PC CPU can keep up w/ the encoding....one reason I like the iuVCR is it shows CPU load and filesize as it is recording so that you can play with the quality setting and see the tradeoffs on file size to help determine what you want to do

hope this helps..!

[Kahless]

Looks like I need a TV Tuner card then, I did'nt think the process through on how I was going to get the signal from the TV (don't have a cable box)
Would any TV Tuner serve my needs here? I'm wondering because I'm just going to be using it to select the channel from the video feed, not using it to capture. I'll check out the reviews here for some, but recomendations are appreciated.

[lordsmurf]

ATI All In Wonder cards

[cooel]

If you have a VCR you can use the video and audio ouput from it to feed the Canopus device, then select the TV channel you wish on the VCR.

[deccra]

There is any kind of software to see in full screen mode without rec?
Like a tv....
Can i see analog tv signal who begin in a videorecorder...go to canopus...then fireware...and then in my crt...but in full screen?
Any software?