USB Instant DVD For Mac

[TheConfuzed1]

Has anyone tried this yet? Does anyone even know anything about it? I am thinking about getting it, but I would like some input from others first. My initial thought was that USB video transfer couldn't be very good, but then I read this:

How can you get good video quality through USB?.I thought you needed FireWire for that? All the video compression takes place in the Instant DVD device so when the video comes through the USB port it is already compressed in the format you desire such as MPEG-1 for VCD (Video on CD) or MPEG-2 for DVD (Digital Versatile Disc). The Instant DVD includes a hardware codec (encoder/decoder) so the video is compressed in real time as DVD quality or VCD quality video (depending upon your selection) and sent down the USB cable to your Mac.

The DVD videos you rent or buy are usually recorded at between 4 and 6 Mb/sec. (Megabits) and Instant DVD for Mac can capture audio and video at up to 6 Mb/sec. This means that we can capture video via a regular USB port in true broadcast resolution (720 x 480 NTSC/ 720 x 576 (PAL) in DVD quality. You?ll be amazed when you see the video quality of the DVD disks you?ll be producing!

[Thargok]

Because it is streaming the video and using hardware to compress it it is possible. However "at up to" 6 Mbps but it will probably be closer to 2-4 most of the times. Firewire has a higher sustained rate, which is why it is usually preferred for such inputs over USB (be it 1.1 or 2). Firewire 800 is even better...[/list]

[TheConfuzed1]

Do you know of a firewire device that has all of the same capability?

[jazzman]

This thing is not too far away in price from soon-to-be-released budget consumer DVD recorders. I think both Pan and Philips will have them for 5 bills in a few weeks if not already. If this device you mention saves a/v analog capture direct to VOB type files I don't know of any firewire device yet that does that (Dvideon?). I think the coolest device for archiving analog to dvd is the Panasonic DVD recorder that has the 40gb hard drive as it lets you compose and edit the captured material with your remote before you burn it. I think I will go the DVD recorder route as I am really wasting a lot of time archiving some of my vhs collection to dvd.

[bilestyle]

a quick search of the forums (which it seems no one ever uses ) will show that i've already done a relatively extensive review of this product

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=132310&highlight=usb+instant

[phillip9]

I bought this package at the MacWorl Expo in January and have been very happy with it. The softwarethat comes with it is also very good. The quality of the DVDs that I have made is certainly the equal to what can be done with iDVD and with Formac Devideon. USB is no problem since the ADS box itself converts the incoming DV stream to mpeg2 on the fly and outputs it to the CaptyDV software that also is included in the package. The price is between $300-$400.

[dm2243]

Do you know of a firewire device that has all of the same capability?

There isn't a FW device that does MPEG encoding. There are, of course, several FW boxes that do DV encoding (which you can convert to MPEG w/software), such as the Formac DV/TV, Canopus ADVC100, and the Dazzle DV bridge. I bought the Formac device but I was very disappointed with it, so I returned it. Dazzle is consistently panned in reviews. The ADVC100 seems to get good reviews, but it doesn't come with software.

Hopefully a FW device that does MPEG encoding, includes software, and has a TV tuner will come to market soon.

[TheConfuzed1]

a quick search of the forums (which it seems no one ever uses ) will show that i've already done a relatively extensive review of this product

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=132310&highlight=usb+instant

Thanks. Sorry I missed your post. I am curious to know however, will the software edit MPEG2 files that come from other sources? I was also thinking about another possibility... If I have a video file/VIDEO_TS folder on my hard drive, can the unit convert this? And one last final thought... Would it be possible to add a A/V out PCI card from my G4 that could be used as the video source? Does such a PCI card exist? I'm sorry if these are trivial questions, but I am new to the scene. Thanks for all of the response so far.

[MichaelLAX]

a quick search of the forums (which it seems no one ever uses ) will show that i've already done a relatively extensive review of this product

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=132310&highlight=usb+instant

I am curious to know however, will the software edit MPEG2 files that come from other sources?

See my reply posted tonight to the original ADS USB Instant DVD thread.

[TheConfuzed1]

MichaelLAX--

Thank you for your input. In your review you mentioned that you were possibly returning the unit for a refund. Is that because of lack of conciseness in the manual, or are you unhappy with the ressults and/or feature set?

[AntnyMD]

I bought the Formac device but I was very disappointed with it, so I returned it.

What were you particularly disappointed about? I ask because I'm am mere days/weeks away from making a purchase of this product. I can't find much online material about practical experiences with this product, aside from what the Formac web site says you ought to be able to do with the product. And it sure is pretty.

[MichaelLAX]

MichaelLAX--

Thank you for your input. In your review you mentioned that you were possibly returning the unit for a refund. Is that because of lack of conciseness in the manual, or are you unhappy with the ressults and/or feature set?

I am particularly upset at the fact that having spent top dollar ($400 + tax and shipping) for this product that I am getting the cold shoulder from their Tech Support department. I will send one more email to the President of the Company and give them one more chance.

I like the product for what it does: "real-time" digitizing of MPEG-1/2 files in a package that is somewhat portable, so that I can move it to my different computers depending upon the use (digitizing DirecTiVo in the Den or VHS up in the home office, where the 17" iMac resides). The software also seems to be the best Mac offering for what it does (DVD/VCD authoring; check out http://www.pixela.co.jp/en/news/index.html for a description of their "Japan only" products; apparently La Cie also bundles their software with their burner). It is my hope that an upgrade (promised to me in my telephone call to ADS Tech Support, but it never arrived) would solve some if not most of my problems.

Since I note other positive comments on this board about the product, there is obviously a difference of opinion. However it is not clear to me in their posts if they are using the VCD aspects of the product, but only the DVD aspects. I like VCD for TV shows (with the commercials trimmed out) where quality is not the first priority. The fact that their MPEG-1 trimmed output will not create a VCD without further processing (as noted in my comments to Tech Support reprinted above) cause the process to take much more than "real time."

The DVD aspects of the product appears to be its strongest point. I have been mostly digitizing MPEG-2 at a 2 bit rate allows me to put movies and long form television on one DVD with an acceptable level of quality. For TV on DVD, I generally do not trim out the commercials; I just use the Chapter feature to set points where the commercials end, so that on playback, I can just jump past the commericals.

My problem is the our G4 iMac is in a different room than my DirecTiVo, so I generally use my Powerbook G3 (Firewire) to digitize. I get acceptable digiting MPEG-2 at a 2 bit rate, but stutters at a 6 bit rate. I have to experiment in rates in between to see how high I can go with the G3. I also will move the G4 into the Den this week so that I can digitize some "quality" programming at a higher rate. For example, the Rolling Stones HBO concert: I want to digitize at a higher rate for archival quality purposes. This concert will probably then split over two DVDs.

The other strength seems to be the DVD Authoring software that comes with this package. It allows you to set markers (for the end of commericials, for example; or just chaptering movies), and then you can create a menu system with Chapter selections for incremental viewing. It comes with canned graphics and a "buttonmaker" which I have not experimented with yet. You can then burn directly from their software, create Video_TS folders (for viewing with the Mac DVD Player), image files for use with Toast or Disk Copy, or a combination of all three.

I am new to DVD Authoring but one interesting feature seems to be the ability to chose between PCM or MPEG Layer II audio. The difference, as I understand it, is that PCM audio is uncompressed and takes up much room on the DVD, whereas MPEG Layer II audio is much smaller. They warn that using MPEG audio may cause the DVD to have compatibility problems with some DVD Players. I just burned my first DVD with MPEG audio and it plays on my Mac, and on my Sony 315 (which even identifies it as "MPEG 2" audio instead of my other disks which are indentified as "PCM" by the Sony). I will have to try it on some other machines to check compatibility. Using a bit rate of 2 and MPEG audio, I fit a digitized 2-1/2 hour documentary of "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" from the Trio channel on one DVD (including commercials, which are chaptered for skipping), with much room still remaining on the DVD.

It is this flexibility of the software that is this package's strong point. Another example is the ability to chose VBR (variable bit rate) instead of CBR (constant bit rate) for MPEG-2 digitizing, which as I note in my criticism to Tech Support is not covered in detail in the manual; altho I have been learning about it from this forum.

I have to note in one of the other posts the interesting question of DVD recorders vs. this product, esp, if as noted, the price is coming down to $500-600. The process of digitization is still time consuming: of course either way requires a real-time playback of the original programming. However with a DVD Recording, I assume then you are done; the DVD is then burned. Trimming and authoring both add substantial amounts of time to the process.

That being said, I assume that a DVD recorded disk then has no chapters or other features other than being a DVD copy of the original analog programming, and misses the features of being on a DVD. I know the high end DVD Recorders, such as the Panasonic, have a Hard Disk that allows for adding these features to the programming before burning it to DVD-Video, but these machine are at the $1,000 range.

I guess a choice will have to be made at this point. If they get the bugs out (and become a bit more forthcoming with their Tech Support), ADS probably has the best product out for what it does. But if they lose momentum, they may miss the boat as other products hit the Mac market in competition with it on both features and price.

[TheConfuzed1]

MichaelLAX--

Thank you for that extensive explanation.

[MichaelLAX]

ADS Tech Support finally came in out of the cold yesterday and responded to my emails. They are sending me an updated CD.

[phillip9]

When you get the ADS disc, would you describe its contents and how they might differ from what came with the original package? Thanks.

[MichaelLAX]

It just came in today's mail. It is labeled version 1.2 on the CD (as opposed to version 1.1 on the original CD). The contents are similar to those on the original disk (as far as files/programs are concerned) except it seems to be missing the PDF version of the manual that came with it originally, and the new CD has a new MenuResources folder with contents that appear to be applicable to the ButtonBuilder application. Also, there does not appear to be any document contained on the disk listing the changes from this version from the previous version.

I will probably get a chance to play with it over the weekend and report back my results.

BTW: I heard that there is an updated version of Capty on Pixela's website available for download.

http://www.pixela.co.jp/products/application/capty_dvd_vcd/download.html

Apparently the instructions to download are in Japanese, but the program is in English. I didn't attempt to download it as I knew I would receive the updated CD shortly. I do not know how the update deals with the issues of serial numbers, etc.

Remember, tho, my updated CD includes v1.2 of the Pixe DV program, which is what controls the digitilization through the ADS Instant DVD hardware box. That is where I had most of my problems. The Capty DVD/VCD authoring program originally worked well for me, although I have yet to test all of its features.