AIW 8500DV VS ADVC 100

[MJC]

To capture my analog video I am using a ATI AIW 8500DV. I use Uleads MSP 6.5 and Uleads Video Studio 6. I have read a lot of good things on the Canopus ADVC 100 would there be any difference in capture quality between the AIW and the ADVC? I have no problems with my AIW, just wondering if it would be worth the money? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

[crahak]

Either ways, it depends a lot on what you're capturing, and encoding to. 99% of the time, the capture card itself it not the big limitation, it ends up being the source, or the format (bitrate...) you're encoding to. Lots of the time an el-cheapo bt8x8 does just as good...

[pb]

If you are using the Canopus ADVC 100 then you are capturing analogue using the boxes DV encoder chip/algorithim. The output to your PC is via the firewire 1394 connection, which is only a data transfer AFTER the encoding on board.

You cannot compare the analogue capture from the AIW 8500DV unless it does the same conversion. My understanding is the 8500 captures DV and analogue, but analogue is captured in whatever avi/mpeg type you specify?? So I would think the analogue capture from the 8500 are to Huffy, mpeg, mjpeg, DiVx etc. It captures (transfers) DV using what ever DV codec is installed on the PC. I'm only guessing on the 8500 part, someone else may know more.

I use the ADVC 100 and have no problems, as I capture and edit home movies from a DV cam, and capture analogue stuff aswell, using the DV files from the box. I edit etc in Vegas Video 3 and use its Main Concept encoder or TMPG for mpeg encoding.

Using the ADVC 100 I have no dropped frames, no audio synch issues and low CPU usage and graet quality from the Canopus encoding.