Considering a Canopus ADVC300 - further questions

[Pixelrage]

For starters, I'm a true novice at all of this and don't know any of the tech terms here. I searched the forum on this topic and got some good ideas.

I'm considering the ADVC300 - I have been using Dazzle stuff for at least 10 years and am still using a 7-8 year old "Blue Box" unit which just doesn't cut it anymore. VHS conversion is a huge interest of mine and I have around 300 tapes (no exaggeration), all of which need to be transferred. Many are of things taped off of TV in the 80s, many are home movies - even ones from the 1960s.

Some of these tapes are in shoddy condition and I do not expect the world from video conversion out of them. Others have flickering issues and the Dazzle was obviously showing them just as bad (or worse) as the VHS was showing, other times it simply refused to convert. I also have a few tapes where the audio has a 5 second delay and I have to spend an obscene amount of time in Virtualdub - sometimes there's just no fixing it and I'm really upset that I can't save it (which is what I'm hoping the ADVC300 will resolve)

Anyway, I was reading up the description of the ADVC300 on the official site and saw this fine print:
"A video-capture card or OHCI FireWire (IEEE 1394) connection is required to capture DV." - do they mean a graphics card (I'm using an XFX nvidia 9800 GTX Black Edition), or will I have to buy yet another card just to use this thing?? I'm hoping that isn't the case as this is a really expensive item.

Can someone let me know if I'm going down the right path here in December 2010 by buying this unit? Also, is there anything else I should consider? Thanks

[davexnet]

In MPC-HC, you can play the video and hit the + and - keys to offset the sound. When you get it in sync, you can use the
amount reported to offset the audio in Virtualdub.
Most analog captures that have sync problems I've seen, go so far out, it can't be fixed this way. I've a PCI-e card that captures
video and audio together, and in general, sync problems do not occur.
Firewire is really the only way to capture from this device - but once you get working, it's pretty much foolproof.

[DB83]

A 'plain' graphics card is not a Capture Card. As far as I can tell, your card has no video inputs so it can not be used with an ADVC 300.

Your only option is to connect this device to a IEE 1394 port on your PC (you can get an card if your PC does not have such a port)

You will read conflicting opinions about this unit within this forum. I, myself, have used one for several years and am more than happy with it.

But you would not use Vdub to capture with this unit. Just use WinDv. And, in my experience, you do not have to worry about sync issues. The unit takes good care of it.

[Pixelrage]

Thanks for all of this info - it's a great help.

Do you think one of those TBC's will be needed in my case? It sounds like I can make due with simply the ADVC300. Keep in mind, I'm perfectly ok with manually correcting sync issues rather than spending an additional $300.

[jagabo]

You need a firewire (IEEE-1394) port. Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-3-Port-FireWire-Adapter-TFW-H3PI/dp/B0006PRMJG/

Note that's for a PCI slot.

[Pixelrage]

You need a firewire (IEEE-1394) port. Something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-3-Port-FireWire-Adapter-TFW-H3PI/dp/B0006PRMJG/

Note that's for a PCI slot.

That's not too painful at all - thanks! I'll double check to see if my PC has one already...probably not, though.

[jagabo]

Make sure you have a free PCI slot. You can also get adapters for PCIe slots,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124092

and ExpressCard slots for laptops.

[Pixelrage]

I might have to look into that - the Black Edition card I'm using takes up two PCI slots (uses 1 and covers up the one under it) because of its thickness.

[DB83]

You have confused PCI-E - the mainboard connector for your card - and simple PCI.

Unless you already have other add-in cards, most mainboards have atleast one PCI socket.

A TBC does nothing for audio-video sync.

[Pixelrage]

I went home on my break and checked - the good news is that turns out that the only available slot in my machine is a PCI express one.

[nharikrishna]

Your choice of ADVC 300 is pretty good one. I would also look at ADVC 110 (which is cheaper, and also has the same audio locking functionality). The only difference between 300 and 110 is that the 300 has some color corrections that can be applied 'as you capture'. This is done in while the video is still in analog domain. The 300 also has what they call as a Line TBC which may or may not be effective. Remember, the LTBC of 300 cannot be turned off. Moreover, the LTBC feature can never replace the functionality of a fullframe TBC.

The 110 & 300 capture video from VHS as Consumer DV format over the IEEE port. So you will have a editable DV file off your VHS.

What 300 tries to do (the colour corrections) in analog domain, you cannot do the same thing with 110. You have to do the corrections once the video is 'captured' as DV file.

To use 300 or 110, you do not need any additional video cards (except the IEEE port) on your machine.

I use 110 myself and am very much satisfied with the results.

A good VCR (preferably S-VHS) using S-Video connection is required to get decent captures. You may choose the one with in-built TBC/Noise Reduction capabilities, or a separate standalone TBC.

Considering the number of tapes that you have, it is better to invest in good quality hardware (ADVC 110 or 300, S-VHS VCR, TBC, and ofcourse good cables).

[Pixelrage]

Thanks for this great info! The ADVC300 is on its way.

Where are you guys buying VCRs? I'm having a very hard time finding them for sale anywhere. Seems like they almost don't exist, beyond eBay and a few second rate ones on Amazon. I have a couple VCRs at home, but I'm not so sure if they're S-VHS.

I have one more big question that I hadn't asked before - how on earth are you saving these files? I used to copy just 30 seconds-1 minute worth of VHS footage, and the AVI file would be tremendous. There was only so much that I could fit on a DVD. I'd prefer to save the AVI file (since I can go back and simply edit those) rather than authoring directly to DVD. As of now, my PC has two HDD's totaling 1 TB, and I also have a 1 TB external drive.

[davexnet]

Unfortunately, if you're looking for a quality VCR, the second hand market is all that's left.
Some good buys can be found.
Regarding the file size, the DV files created by the ADVCxxx boxes have fixed size of 13GB per hour. You're going to need
a lot of space. You can generally fit 2 - 3 hours of material on a standard mpeg-2 DVD. The source file is re-encoded to
mpeg-2, at a lower bitrate (compared to the DV source).

[lordsmurf]

Canopus ADVC300 is just another dumb DV box -- nothing special.
As far as VCRs, read this: VCR Buying Guide (S-VHS, D-VHS, Professional)

Good luck on the conversions.