ADS Instant DVD review

[Anonymous65]

Here is a short review of the ADS Instant DVD USB capture device.
http://steve.kittelsen.com/ads/

[aubrey_q]

Thanks for the review, Steve. I am seriously considering an MPEG-2 hardware capture device, as my computer is a little behind the curve (PIII 933MHz) to capture with MPEG-2 with software.

Do you have any other recommendations for MPEG-2 hardware capture devices?

Aubrey

[Anonymous65]

If you can use a PCI card and do not need to have a USB device, I would go for the Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 (or 350 if you need video out). The WinTV model has very good video, comes with a simple and effective video cutter and joiner, and you have full control over your capture settings. The card can be hard to install, but when it is set, it works very nicely. Also, the card does the audio capture, so there is no problems with audio sync.

[aubrey_q]

Thanks again, Steve. I wish I had read more before buying the AverMedia TV Stereo. It was cheap ($49.99) and is great for watching TV, but I believe it uses software encoding to capture MPEG-2. Also, the MPEG-2 files that I've captured apparently don't meet the standard, as TMPGEnc rejects them.

The PVR-250 seems to do it all.

[Jester700]

I agree with the assessment of the ADS. Still, if you HAVE to have DVD compliant MPEG2 files, and you HAVE to use hardware compression, and you HAVE to use USB 1.1... it's still the best answer. That's a lot of "IF"s, but happened to be my situation, so I have one.

That PAR Editor is very cool, BTW.

[donpedro]

I have all your IF too, but I bought Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe. Hardware is very good, but main sofware that is used to handle this device is ver, very bad now. Hoping for new version soon. And no additional sofware is included. Only trial version of Pinnacle Studio 8.

EDIT:

After reading your review... PCTV Deluxe captures sound too and it has TV NTSC tuner. By using another sofware I was able to get DVD 6.5 VBR 720x480 NTSC capture through USB 1.1 port. Only problem is that my cable company doesn't give me clean signal. I will play with VHS capture later.

[Jester700]

I didn't try the Pinnacle. I did try the Hauppauge, which had better video for VCD/SVCD. But it capped audio at 44.1, so I had to change the sample rate to 48k to make a DVD compliant file. No good for me, since DVD was my primary concern. If they had 48k audio capture, it would be the best choice, IMO (it had a tuner as well).

Glad you like your Pinnacle. Does it also capture audio at 48k?

[Barnabas]

Steve failed to mention 2 other problems with the ADS Instant DVD.

1: Cutting the MPEG-2 files produced by the IDVD with out losing sync is virtually impossible.

2: Audio is filtered and certain frequencies are cut off by the Stream Machine software. This will cause what sounds like audio distortion at certain frequencies.

As someone who owned an ADS Instant DVD and now owns the Hauppauge PVR 250, STAY AWAY FROM THE ADS INSTANT DVD unless you don't need to edit your captures and don't intend to capture to VCD or SVCD ever. If good sounding audio is a concern, you don't want to use the ADS IDVD.

There are MUCH better choices available for less money now than the ADS IDVD.

To Jester700,

The Hauppauge PVR-250 DOES capture audio at 44.1 , 48 and even 32 kHz.

[aubrey_q]

Barnabas, thanks for your opinion. It looks like I'm going with the PVR-250.

BTW, does the PVR-250 have software that trims MPEG-2 files, or do you use TMPGEnc? Just curious.

[Barnabas]

Yes,

The Hauppauge PVR-250 also comes with Nanopeg editor, but TMPGenc also cuts the files well, and many users use Mpeg-VCR with good results.

One note, if capturing for DVD, it works better to choose Program output stream, rather then DVD output stream if you want to edit, as sync can get messed up unless Program is used. That seems to be the case more for 352x480 caps rather than 720x480 caps for some odd reason.

Of all of the REAL-TIME capture cards I have tried, the Hauppauge works the best. You do need to tweak a few things for the best quality, but for $100. after rebate, it's the card to beat right now.

[Jester700]

The Hauppauge I had was the PVR USB; it has more limitations than the 250. Again, if you don't absolutely NEED USB, get a PCI device.

I have edited MPEG2 with M2 Edit without problems. I didn't notice audio issues, but this was from camcorder mics so the sound was pretty bad to begin with.

[aubrey_q]

Thanks, B. I'll get it tomorrow and sell my Avermedia TV Stereo to a friend of mine who has a more powerful machine and can get better use out of it.

[donpedro]

Jester700,

When I look up properties of mpeg2 file captured by PCTV Deluxe in VideoStudio6, I see this:

File format: MPEG-2, Field B
720x480 fps 29.970
Audio: 48000 Hz, 16 Bit, stereo, Layer 2, 224 kbps

That is how it is capture by Pinnacles sofware Vision. I don't see any options for audio there.

In "other" software I can choose:

Resolution, VBR or CBR, Bit Rate, Peak Bit Rate, Freames/GOP, I/P distance, Enable 3/2 pulldown, Sampling rate 32-44.1-48 for audio, bitrate from 64 to 384 for audio, Horiz/Vert. Luma filter, Horiz. Chroma filter and some special "Input is VCR" option. It can also capture audio as a separate strem (WAW or MPEG)

[donpedro]

Barnabas,

Isn't cutting MPEG-2 files and not getting "out-of-sync" problem almost any capture card ? All depends how many frames do you loose during capture and if capture card process audio stream too or if it is using your audio card. Am I right ? PCTV Deluxe cost me $129 after "kind-of-rebate" (not too much more that your) and it is mobile (but buggy Pin.soft. )

aubrey_q,

Let us know how it goes. PVR-250 was one of my "in list", but at the time when I was looking for solution I coudn't fint it for less then $149.

Good luck.

[Barnabas]

donpedro,

Editing most any VBR mpeg-2 file can sometimes cause audio sync problems. A major problem with the ADS IDVD is that your sound card is used to capture audio, not the device itself. Note that Virtual dub has a switch to drop frames to keep sync so you can tell just what's happening.

You are correct that it's mostly a matter of Video frames being dropped while audio frames are not, so gradually, the video gets before the audio. After about 30 minutes, it's quite noticeable.

The source however has MUCH to do with sync problems, and even cards like the PVR-250 that encode both audio and video in hardware can suffer this problem. As a rule, video tape as a source has the biggest problems with dropping frames and audio/video sync. The hardest thing I have had to capture from with out sync problems is a colorized movie from video tape to a hardware encoding card. For those, I use a plain AVI capture card, as that's a much cheaper solution than buying a Time Base Corrector.

While I do have a background in commercial video, I am by no means an expert on all this stuff.

[Jester700]

Donpedro,
Sounds like that'll make DVD compliant files just fine.

My Hauppauge had a chip (iTVc12) that is supposed to do 48k, and the software allowed it, but it would stutter and be out of pitch when played back (like a 44.1k file played back at 48k!) It seemed like a software issue, but the tech at Hauppauge said it was hardware. So I returned it.

I wonder why I didn't look at the Pinnacle unit... The IDVD is OK, but I do wish it encoded sound and made 720x480 files vs. 704x480.