mpeg2 by Instant DVD not compatible?

[cristolin]

i just got usb instant dvd, capped mpeg2 work fine with bundled softwares like mydvd and ulead videostudio, but NOT supported in videopack5, anyone got ideas?

[Barnabas]

If you just bought the unit new and can return it, DO SO NOW! You will have nothing but trouble with that unit. The SVCD's it makes have vertical lines in all the captures, the recorded sound is bad, and cutting the mpeg2 files made with the unit without losing sync is nearly impossible! Return it now while if you still can!

[cristolin]

oh man, that really scares me. u know what, i spent hours in this board then decided to buy instant dvd, 'cause seems people are talking besides the sync problem, this thing seems to work fine...
anyone give me 2 cents, return it or not? or recommend something else.

[Barnabas]

cristolin,

Can you still return the unit? I had an ADS Instant DVD for about 5 months. During that time I had nothing but trouble! I was told by ADS to do all of the following which I did:

Format HD and reinstall everything new.
Replace my Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.
Fine tune my computer for Video Capture.
Turn my sound card's volume SO low, you could not even hear it.
Upgrade to XP.

After the XP upgrade failed to solve most problems, I finally gave up and got rid of the unit and went back to capturing to AVI and then re-encoding.

IMHO, the biggest problems with the unit are:

1: Can't cut the MPEG2 files and maintain sync
2: Poor SVCD captures, (to be fair the DVD caps look fine)
3: Audio sibilence

If you only want to record some stuff to DVD and not to SVCD without doing any editing at all, the ADS Instant DVD will probably do ok for you, but if you intend to edit the files at all, you will not like the results.

For about the same cost (or less) you can buy a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 250 pci card, or if you want USB the WinTV PVR USB. The Hauppauge uses the IVAC chip, where the ADS uses the Stream Machine chip. IMHO, the IVAC chip beats the socks off of the Stream Machine chip.

Read about the Hauppauge here:

http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=101050&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Check the forum below for some of the MANY problems users are having with the ADS Instant DVD.

http://www.wwug.com/forums/ads-tech/index.htm