Canopus ADVC-100 and PCI Firewire card

[spiderbaby]

Hi,

I'm considering getting a Canopus ADVC-100 so I can capture VHS tapes using an S-VHS video recorder and an S-Video connector and I've a few questions that I'd be grateful if anyone could answer.

• I don't have any Firewire ports on my PC. Would this capture card work well with a Firewire PCI card?
• A couple of years ago, I tried capturing using a PCTV Rave card and Huffyuv lossless compression and then compressed post-capture. How does the Canopus DV codec compare for capturing VHS input?
• Is the Canopus DV codec lossy?
• Is the output from the ADVC-100 suitable for post-capture filtering or will this introduce artifacts? Will I need much filtering or is the output very good? Would converting the output to DVD introduce artifacts?
• Does it capture audio well?

Any other information would be welcome. My current capture card is a PCTV Rave card which is great for watching analogue TV and captures in pretty good quality (using 3rd party drivers) but relies a lot on my processor/RAM/hard drive speed.

Thanks,

Spiderbaby

[jagabo]

Hi,

I'm considering getting a Canopus ADVC-100 so I can capture VHS tapes using an S-VHS video recorder and an S-Video connector and I've a few questions that I'd be grateful if anyone could answer.[list][*] I don't have any Firewire ports on my PC. Would this capture card work well with a Firewire PCI card?

Yes.

[*] A couple of years ago, I tried capturing using a PCTV Rave card and Huffyuv lossless compression and then compressed post-capture. How does the Canopus DV codec compare for capturing VHS input?

Not much difference with a VHS source.

[*] Is the Canopus DV codec lossy?

Yes.

[*] Is the output from the ADVC-100 suitable for post-capture filtering or will this introduce artifacts?

You shouldn't have much trouble with artifacts.

Will I need much filtering or is the output very good?

That depends more on your source rather than what you capture it with.

Would converting the output to DVD introduce artifacts?

Yes. If you use high enough a bitrate you won't notice them at normal playback speeds.

[*] Does it capture audio well?

Yes.

[DB83]

Why do people insist on calling ADVC's 'capture' units.

All they do is CONVERT an analogue signal into a digital one. You will still need capturing software to use them

[spiderbaby]

Thanks for the quick (and positive ) reply, Jagabo.

Will I need much filtering or is the output very good?

That depends more on your source rather than what you capture it with.

Ask a silly question...

My source is pretty good so I hope to get by with some limited knowledge. This thread you posted in seems to answer all my filtering questions.

Do you know whether a Firewire PCI card would be able to supply enough power or whether I'd need a ADVC-PSU5V adapter? I'm based in Ireland with a 220V/50Hz electricity supply.

[spiderbaby]

Why do people insist on calling ADVC's 'capture' units.

All they do is CONVERT an analogue signal into a digital one. You will still need capturing software to use them

Ignorance?

Yep, I figured I'd have to use VirtualDub or some other piece of software but I'm still pretty new at this (or rather, I've had the equipment for a while but am only getting around to using it now).

[spiderbaby]

Do you know whether a Firewire PCI card would be able to supply enough power or whether I'd need a ADVC-PSU5V adapter? I'm based in Ireland with a 220V/50Hz electricity supply.

Sorry, ignore that question. If I use a 6-pin Firewire cable, I should be okay for power (see here.)

Any of my other questions were answered in this thread.

P.S. This is a great forum!

[rcubed]

Do you know whether a Firewire PCI card would be able to supply enough power or whether I'd need a ADVC-PSU5V adapter? I'm based in Ireland with a 220V/50Hz electricity supply.

Sorry, ignore that question. If I use a 6-pin Firewire cable, I should be okay for power (see here.)

Any of my other questions were answered in this thread.

P.S. This is a great forum!

Spiderbaby,
If you are really talking about the ADVC-100 and not the ADVC-110. AFAIK the ADVC-100 requires an external power supply - should have come with the unit. The supplied PSU is rated for 110-240V 50/60 Hz. I have an AVDC-100 and have been very pleased with it. I use a program called AVI_IO to capture, and HCEnc022 to covert. AVI-IO breaks the caputure into segments (size of which you can control). VirtualDub will read in all the segments if the 1st is opened. I have never had dropped frames with AVI_IO.

Enjoy

rcubed

[spiderbaby]

If you are really talking about the ADVC-100 and not the ADVC-110. AFAIK the ADVC-100 requires an external power supply - should have come with the unit. The supplied PSU is rated for 110-240V 50/60 Hz. I have an AVDC-100 and have been very pleased with it. I use a program called AVI_IO to capture, and HCEnc022 to covert. AVI-IO breaks the caputure into segments (size of which you can control). VirtualDub will read in all the segments if the 1st is opened. I have never had dropped frames with AVI_IO.

Agh, sorry! Yep, I've decided to go for a ADVC-110 as you've noticed. I can't buy an ADVC-100 locally and I've decided against a cheaper eBay ADVC-100 purchase for warranty reasons.

Thanks for the capturing tips - I've got a couple more threads bookmarked to get me going at last!

[edDV]

Why do people insist on calling ADVC's 'capture' units.

All they do is CONVERT an analogue signal into a digital one. You will still need capturing software to use them

I don't get the nuance. The ADVC is technically a hardware transcoder but all software describes a DV stream import as a capture and the ADVC is listed as a capture device. Why not call it a capture device? What is your point?

[DB83]

Why do people insist on calling ADVC's 'capture' units.

All they do is CONVERT an analogue signal into a digital one. You will still need capturing software to use them

I don't get the nuance. The ADVC is technically a hardware transcoder but all software describes a DV stream import as a capture and the ADVC is listed as a capture device. Why not call it a capture device? What is your point?

From the front page of the ADVC 300 (I assume the 100 is the same) "Advanced Digital Video Converter"

The important word here is "Converter". It will transcode as well with the right 'capture' software. But I do recall an email I received from Canopus (I wish I still had it) "The ADVC is not a capture device" Says it all really.

My point is simple. People could buy these units thinking that they do the capturing. It should be clear that you need software to do that - None is supplied. The spec usually goes ferther. "System Requirements: A Capture Card or a Firewire connection". If this is a Capture device then why do Canopus suggest that you can plug it into a Capture Card.

It's a pedantic point but they should NOT be listed as capture devices.

I'll take it one stage ferther. My set up is not typical. My ADVC has a direct firewire connection. But I also have a second analogue source and I use the back connectors -audio and video - directly into a capture card which handles PAL60 something that the ADVC300 cannot do.

[edDV]

Why do people insist on calling ADVC's 'capture' units.

All they do is CONVERT an analogue signal into a digital one. You will still need capturing software to use them

I don't get the nuance. The ADVC is technically a hardware transcoder but all software describes a DV stream import as a capture and the ADVC is listed as a capture device. Why not call it a capture device? What is your point?

From the front page of the ADVC 300 (I assume the 100 is the same) "Advanced Digital Video Converter"

The important word here is "Converter". It will transcode as well with the right 'capture' software. But I do recall an email I received from Canopus (I wish I still had it) "The ADVC is not a capture device" Says it all really.

My point is simple. People could buy these units thinking that they do the capturing. It should be clear that you need software to do that - None is supplied. The spec usually goes ferther. "System Requirements: A Capture Card or a Firewire connection". If this is a Capture device then why do Canopus suggest that you can plug it into a Capture Card.

It's a pedantic point but they should NOT be listed as capture devices.

I'll take it one stage ferther. My set up is not typical. My ADVC has a direct firewire connection. But I also have a second analogue source and I use the back connectors -audio and video - directly into a capture card which handles PAL60 something that the ADVC300 cannot do.

While it does normally require an IEEE-1394 port on the computer, "capture" software is part of the OS for XP, Mac OSX up although Windows Movie Maker calls it an "import" and export is called "publish" in MS speak. Apple iMovie also says "import" but "shares" the "export". Most everything else calls any DV stream import a "capture" whether the source is analog or digital.

The ADVC-100-300 are flexible with both analog and digital inputs and outputs but the main use is A/D or D/A. What is the value add for PAL60 to analog?

[jagabo]

And a IEEE 1394 is a bus just like PCI and USB are busses. All graphics cards convert analog video to digital data and then send the digital data over a bus to the computer where it is captured by some softare.

[DB83]

There's no added value with PAL60 as it's analogue.

But the Canopus only supports pure PAL or pure NTSC. To be honest, I have not tested this pass-through into the PAL60 capture card yet. Chances are that it will not work for this very reason.

Update:

After writing this, I just had to test this PAL60 pass-through and, amazingly, it worked as if I just connected the RCA jacks direct into the capture card (hauppauge) . Of course the picture is much enhanced due to the ADVC hardware features.