ADS Instant DVD for Mac Questions

[Clement]

Hi, all. I'm a huge fan of the forum. I've learned much from all of you guys. I try never to post unless I really, *really* can't figure something out....and this is one of those times.

I've got an ADS Instant DVD for Mac box, and I use it for recording old VHS tapes to DVD. I like the box itself (seems to give a pretty good output), but I'm having some problems with the software:

1) It comes with something called PixeDV to capture the output of the box. I hate this program since 1) It takes over my whole screen 2) It's clunky and crashes sometimes, and 3) There's no way to schedule it to record at certain times, which would be great to use the box as a PVR. Is there any other/better software that I could use to capture the output of the box?

2) The mpeg file that the box produces looks great until I try to author it as a DVD using anything other than the included CaptyDV DVD authoring program. If I don't use Capty, I wind up with sound sync issues. This is annoying because a) Capty takes a long time processing the mpeg--which I thought was already DVD standard--and b) will not accept files over a certain size. It's very annoying to capture a tape at 5000mbs and then have to go back and recapture it AGAIN at 4000 because Capty won't accept a file that's a little too large.

I guess my questions here are:

1) What's weird about the original mpeg that the ADS box outputs? Why can't that be authored directly to DVD?

2) What is Capty doing to the file as it chews on it for hours?

3) Is there something quicker I could do to the original mpeg file to make it possible to author in Sizzle?

I know this is a lot of ground to cover in a post, but if any of you out there could help me understand what's going on with some or any of this, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you,
Clement

[mhar4]

For some reason, CaptyDV reprocesses the audio, taking it from mp1 to aiff, which is what it's doing grinding away. It might be because strictly speaking the NTSC DVD players spec does not have to support mpeg audio, so Capty converts it.

But, if you have the Quicktime MPEG2 component, you can use MPEG Streamclip to edit and then demux the PixeDV captures much more easily. You end up with an m2v and an m1a and Sizzle will handle those without any trouble. Works a treat.

Yeah, it's no good as a PVR, really, but check out http://www.defyne.org/dvb/ for that.

[MerlinMacuser]

no, no, no....just get iLife and use iMovieHD. Then you can insert chapters (very easy), titles and graphics (also very, very easy) and burn a dvd using iDVD.

The shareware and freeware out there are seriously underfeatured. don't even waste time downloading it.

[mhar4]

no, no, no....just get iLife and use iMovieHD

The shareware and freeware out there are seriously underfeatured. don't even waste time downloading it.

Huh? iLife is all based around DV, so you're going to have to convert the PixeDV MPEG2 data to DV then back again with iDVD. That defeats the whole point of a hardware MPEG encoder.

[Frobozz]

Try pressing Command+Tab while PixeDV is capturing. I believe this will hide it so you can use your Mac.

The sound sync problem seems to be worse if capturing at a high bit rate. I use VBR and no more than 5.0 mbps.

CaptyDVD won't re-encode the audio if, when you first start your project, you select MPEG audio as the format. That means you can have up to a 4 GB capture with PixeDV that fits your disc.

Make sure there is cooling around your ADS box. There needs to be ventilation below the box or you'll eventually get dropouts.

What CaptyDVD does when it is compiling is demux and remux the audio and place chapter marks while writing a new MPEG file. It then authors the VIDEO_TS folder which requires writing the files again. Be sure to click "Prioritize Speed" in the DVD-Video Setup window (where you also choose MPEG Audio), and mark "Give Priority to CPU Processing" in the CaptyDVD preferences. These speed up the compiling quite a bit.

PixeDV is the only application that commands the ADS box.

If you want to use a PixeDV capture with Toast, you need to use the MPEG Cutter to trim off at least the last second of the captured video, and then use that trimmed MPEG with Toast.

[AntnyMD]

Another thing I'd recommend is capturing to a drive with a minimum speed of 5400 rpm.

[Clement]

Thanks for your help, all.

The trick of using Streamclip to edit off the last few secs so I can burn using Toast will help greatly, as will the tips on how to speed up Capty.

Just two more questions:

1) What exactly is the problem with the ADS box output that causes the audio sync problems when used with anything but Capty? Is there any other program that could fix the mpeg so it will work exactly with everything?

2) Is there a way to fool/trick Capty into accepting files larger than 4gb? The way I see it, I could use the save to VIDEO_TS option and then run the result through DVD2ONEX if it's too big to fit onto a DVD. Either way, I'd like to have the option to build images larger than 4gb.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

-Clement

[AntnyMD]

Just about the only things I remember causing me this kind of difficulty was using too high a bitrate, and editing the captured stream with MPEG Streamclip BEFORE slicing off a half-second or so inside PixeDV FIRST before taking it into MPEG Streamclip to edit out commercials and stuff. If I recall correctly, I was forced to wipe my drive and reinstall everything, and suddenly there were no more problems.

I've since dropped using the ADS box because I grew to hate converting the MPEG audio to AC-3 (even though it was compatible with my settops, I have been in a "standards only" mode for awhile now).

[Frobozz]

1) I don't recall having audio sync problems except if I used some application such as bbDemux to convert to separate streams. In that case I'd get a video stream of a different length than the audio stream. Even so, I could use QuickTime Pro to put the streams together with the same length. The problem with the video/audio streams being different length worsened with higher bit rate encodings. So my guess is it has something to do with the converter or USB port keeping up with the data.

2) As for tricking CaptyDVD you can purchase CaptyDVD 2 which support DL media and DL-sized VIDEO_TS folders. The lite version sells for $75 if you call LaCie. It also is bundled with one of LaCie's DVD drives (that's how I got mine). The only other real difference is that it has motion menus.

[stanislawski]

I too have an ADS box and dislike Pixedv. Are there any alternate software programs that will work?

[Frobozz]

I too have an ADS box and dislike Pixedv. Are there any alternate software programs that will work?

No. PixeDV is the only application that communicates with the box. You do have two versions that are included on the software disc. Hidden in a folder called Version 1, is Version 2. Go figure. The difference I've found in version 2 is that it is NTSC only and it can capture Macrovision-encoded video.

[stanislawski]

I can't get version 2 to work. I have done a find for names related to pixedv, deleted them and reinstalled, and it still doesn't work. Please help.

[Frobozz]

I don't know why it doesn't work for you. It is on the hard drive and not on the disc, right? I'm using 10.4.2 and have not used the ADS box since updating. But PixeDV launches fine. I'll try to find some time to connect the box and see what happens.

[stanislawski]

It is on the hard drive (10.3.9).
I can get one version working. I just can't get the version which will ignore macrovision to work without crashing.

[Frobozz]

It'll be a couple days before I can test this on my system. I'll get back with the results.

[broaddd]

I read that the ADS software only works on OS 10.2 or lower? Is that still the case?

[mhar4]

Nope. It's good all the way to Tiger.

[dks90]

In the past I've had problems getting the toast DVD authoring application to consistently accept mpeg files captured via PixeDV/Instant DVD for mac.

Trimming the files will sometimes help (thanks for the tip).

However, I think I might have discovered the best "process" to get toast to accept PixeDV/Instant DVD files almost 100% of the time!!!

The motor for the capture box will "start up" at various points--the real secret is to make sure the capture box motor is NOT RUNNING when you begin your capture (just switching back to album page and back to the capture screen will usually turn it off). Thus the motor "starts up" when you actually begin your capture. The resulting files have much better compatibility w/toast.

I've also discovered that time sync issues are also solved by this approach.

Give this a shot! --It might help!


David S.

[babgolis]

I've had good results using MPEG2 Works' special demux ads captured mpeg command.