vcr's with firewire

[Bendog]

are there any cheap vcrs preferably vhs with firewire output to pc cause my hauppauge pci card really sucks when capturing. i really want to get vhs quality video instead of under it.

[D_Knife]

Cheap VCR and firewire don't really go together unfortunately.
But you could use either the Dazzle DV Bridge or Canopus ADVC-1000
Both of these are analog to DV firewire converters
www.dazzle.com
www.canopuscorp.com

[Bendog]

thanx for the help is there one you can prefer between each one so i dont choose i bad one, and this will not loose any vhs quality in any video right?

[D_Knife]

Ahh -well unfortunatley I can't afford either at this stage so I can only offer what I have read in reviews
From these reviews I would go for the Canopus as it sounds a better constructed unit and it has an off switch - the dazzle apparently doesn't. Also the Canopus was rated better for picture conversion in low light / condition footage

Also in Australia here the Canopus is approx AU$100 cheaper than the Dazzle

One thing all the reviews I read was that both units benifited from a Time Base Corrector placed in the video stream in front of them as they suffered audio shift under poor quality tape playback.

I hope this helps a little
I don't know about the Dazzle but if you search the forum there are a number of posts concerning the Canopus and it gets decent reviews here as well.

[JackoFluent]

I have the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge. Just bought it a week ago in fact and love it.

I'm a newbie to capture and editing, and although I intend to go for a new DV camcorder soon, I have a lot of Hi8 stuff shot on an 'old' Sony. Lots of SCUBA sceens that need editing.

I'm convertng the analog to AVI through the bridge. Tried MPEG earlier but I got Purging Buffer Transcode delays after every 10 mins of capture. Last night I captured an hour of AVI with no probs. The resolution and quality seem pretty good, and I'm burning to SVCDs.

Starting out and having fun. The Dazzle Bridge has it's little quirks (eg 'auto' detection of DV-> Analog; Analog-> DV needs a little prompting sometimes with the micro switch on the side). But I'm delighed overall. (tried out a cheaper device - USB Dazzle DV-80 - earlier; and the results were horrible)

BTW using ULead Video Studio 6 and Nero comination, seems great. But I'm thinking of buying another HDD today as the i hour capture was nearly 12Gig!!. Single file - only possible with NTFS (NT File System) I'm using on Win 2000. With Win98 etc you are limited to 4 Gig I think.

[D_Knife]

JackoFluent,
Does the Dazzle DV Bridge copy/ transfer Macrovision protected video?

[JackoFluent]

Ah - now there's a question! I believe all the Dazzle bridge does is take the analog signal and convert it into a digital data stream. Logic says that any inherent copy protection signal embedded in the analog signal will be faithfully converted to a digital stream. But the truth is I'm not using the bridge to copy from a VCR and I've not copy protected my home videos on Hi8 :wink: !

I understand there are standalone DVD and VCR players that strip out the Macrovision signal, and maybe that would be e batter way to go

My six penneth ....

[holistic]

JackoFluent,
Does the Dazzle DV Bridge copy/ transfer Macrovision protected video?

NO i will not

The Canpous AVDC-100 will and it is a better product. The dazzle has audio sync issues

[Bendog]

is it possible to get some good quality by recording from the vcr to a dv camcord and from there export it to a computer through firewire. cause that would be my only choice till i gather more money.

[holistic]

is it possible to get some good quality by recording from the vcr to a dv camcord and from there export it to a computer through firewire. cause that would be my only choice till i gather more money.

YUP .. very much so . Define 'good' though
You will not improve the original signal but it will indeed be easier to 'export' the DV signal to your computer .


Requires MiniDv (or Digital8 - your choice) with analog inputs.

Most Sony Digital 8 pruducts have analog IN
Others i have seen .. Canon ZR series