Canopus ADVC-100 - VHS capturing? (3 questions)

[megaman]

How well does the Canopus ADVC-100 work in VHS capturing to the HD? Would the VHS be "converted" to DV? Also, does capturing VHS to this card work the same way as capturing VHS to a DV camcorder? Thanks in advance, for your time.

[Tony08]

Hi.
I'm using Canopus ADVC 50 only, but the DV file that I've captured from VHS is good. And than, I converted to SVCD. The quality of Canopus is so good, I like it much more than Pinnacle Studio Deluxe card.
Canopus series ADVC is Converters, it will convert analogue signal to digital signal. All data will be converted to DV AVI, and transfered through firewire card. I think ADVC 100 is good.

[TheInformer]

Using a hardware analog <--> DV device like the Canopus will make your capturing a LOT easier than most any other method.

You will not be disappointed.

[yg1968]

I don't own the Canopus ADVC-100 but from what I have read it plugs into your firewire port and your computer treats it like a DV camcorder. It is essentially equivalent to having a passthrough feature in a miniDV camcorder.

[Cole]

I too have the Canopus ADVC-50 and the results I get from capturing off air VHS tapes are very very good. I would advise a hard drive bigger than 50Gb. My hard drive partition that I use is 44GB and I just can not fit four hours of DV there (two for original programme and two for the output file with the adverts edited out).

I would also advise an older VCR as the current crop tend to (a) put images on the screen when play starts (arrow) or stops (box) and (b) the image of more up to date VCRs are a bit too clear which shows up more picture artifacts. I have a dedicated Panasonic NV-HD90 (aprox 1994) and the picture playback is always superb.

[Tony08]

Yes, you're right, ADVC 50 is good, the quality of it is very good. Cole, you have the same kind of hard disk like me. But remember that, 1h DV file = 13GB, and you don't need much place for output file if you encode to Mpeg or DivX. I allways capture 2h DV and edit without problem. I use Premiere and Vegas 4 to capture, very very goog result of picture, but Premiere loves RAM, I think I need to buy more RAM (I have now 512MB of RAM).
I read in Canopus forum, many people say that they have capture problem with ADVC 50, 1394, 100 and WIN XP SP1. After intall SP1, they cannot capture from VHS. I don't have SP1 installed, but please take a care.[/quote]

[TheInformer]

Cole:
I would advise a hard drive bigger than 50Gb. My hard drive partition that I use is 44GB and I just can not fit four hours of DV there (two for original programme and two for the output file with the adverts edited out).

Cole, you save the DV file with the edits back to your hard drive? Noooooooooo

I use VirtualDub to edit out commercials, filter, etc, and when everything's ready I frameserve the result to TMPGEnc. This way I don't have to save any intermediate files which take up space and potentially can have a loss of quality. Frameserving's a great thing

[Tony08]

Hi.
I'm using Premiere 6.5 to capture 45min video (= 9GB) from VHS, and convert to VCD standard with CCE 2.66 standalone version without editing. CCE convert so quickly, only 20min, it's so fast. I tryed to convert using TMPGEnc or Premiere, they took about 1h. The quality is good, in SVCD is better quality. I think, for film, we can do that.

[GenePool_]

I own the ADVC-100. It's a great setup. As someone already mentioned, It's the same as using a miniDV camcorder w/ analog path-through. The DV quality is great. No complaints.

[Cole]

Cole, you save the DV file with the edits back to your hard drive? Noooooooooo

I use VirtualDub to edit out commercials, filter, etc, and when everything's ready I frameserve the result to TMPGEnc. This way I don't have to save any intermediate files which take up space and potentially can have a loss of quality. Frameserving's a great thing

WHAT WHAT!....
I have never used VirtualDub, but can it deal with transistions? Many of the advert breaks when omitted, leave a jarring point which I tend to have merged into the next scene.

Seems I have got to do some investigating into this, as at the moment (if the programme is two hours long) I have to sit and watch what I am recording, stop it at the adverts and start recording again at the next part, so I can save disc space

Any clues as to where I can get some info on what you do, Informer?


<Added comment>
I did a bit of investigating and downloaded VirtualDub, but I fell at the first hurdle. VirtualDub does not recognise the compressor from my AVI file captured using the Canopus Codec.

If anyone has got any ideas about how to resolve this I would really appreciate this as with what I have described above, it would greatly enhance my editing abilities (or save the purchase of a larger hard drive!).

[yg1968]

If you haven't done so already, you must install a DV codec (for example, you can install the Panasonic DV codec and the Canopus DV codec). Capture in type 2 DV avi with DVIO or DVapp.

[dilligaf]

@yg1968 I just use the native MS dv codec that comes with XP, though Ive heard the Canopus codec is superior.
Ive been capturing vhs stuff with the advc 100 up until now & it really did demonstrate to me how bad vhs looks. Id finish a capture & be disappointed with the result until I play the original tape back on the same 68cm TV, the advc 100 really does do a great job even though with my tapes at least, I'm not seeing the best output.
Today I did a capture backup of a DVD (Mulan) not just for an exercise but due to (visable) layer rot the disc would not rip to hdd at all, it would play but would stall momentarily at 7:20. Capturing this dvd also gave me the chance to use the macrovision over-ride (it works!!). The result was brilliant, almost dvd-like picture quality (a few blocks in dark areas) looking more like a bitrate modified video stream than a captured one. The sound of course was mpeg, but I would not have known save for the absence of the 'ac3' indicator on the dvd player.

[yg1968]

The DV codec is only necessary for programs that use only use video for windows (vfw) and type 2 avi DV files such as Vdub. If your program uses directshow (included in Direct X), it will automatically use the built-in MS DV codec. Vdub is a vfw only program. For vdub, a DV codec is necessary and you must use type 2 DV avi files. More and more programs are using directshow. So installing a DV codec is becoming less and less necessary (although it doesn't hurt to install one in case that you need it).

The Canopus DV codec only gets used for Canopus software (or if you convert the DV avi file to a Canopus DV file). For this reason, I have never actually used it. In order for vdub to accept type 2 DV avi files, I have installed the Panasonic DV codec.

[dilligaf]

The DV codec is only necessary for programs that use only use video for windows (vfw) and type 2 avi DV files such as Vdub. If your program uses directshow (included in Direct X), it will automatically use the built-in MS DV codec. Vdub is a vfw only program. For vdub, a DV codec is necessary and you must also capture in type 2 DV avi. More and more programs are using directshow. So installing a DV codec is becoming less and less necessary (although it doesn't hurt to install one in case that you need it).

The Canopus DV codec only gets used for Canopus software (or if you convert the DV avi file to a Canopus DV file). For this reason, I have never actually used it. In order for vdub to accept type 2 DV avi files, I have installed the Panasonic DV codec.

Now I see, Im using Ulead Video Studio to capture & tmpgenc to encode hence loading a DV codec was not an issue. I remember having issues (lots of) trying to get vdub running with my Winfast 2000xp card, in the end I just got the advc & mainly use the Winfast connected to the analog output of the advc to monitor the macro-fix test pattern.

[BowlPacker]

Not to get sidetracked too much, but I am really intrigued with the ADVC 50 or 100, but the XP SP1 issues scare me. I am on Win XP SP1 and don't intend to go back, so does that mean I can't use any of the ADVC units? Of the people on this thread that posted postive comments, are any of you on XP SP1?

[dilligaf]

Not to get sidetracked too much, but I am really intrigued with the ADVC 50 or 100, but the XP SP1 issues scare me. I am on Win XP SP1 and don't intend to go back, so does that mean I can't use any of the ADVC units? Of the people on this thread that posted postive comments, are any of you on XP SP1?

Im not using SP1 as I have'nt seen the need (yet), however the SP1 issue seems to be with detection of the Canopus advc 1394 card as reported at the Canopus ADVC Forum.
http://forum.canopus.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=GenADVC

[Cole]

Not to get sidetracked too much, but I am really intrigued with the ADVC 50 or 100, but the XP SP1 issues scare me. I am on Win XP SP1 and don't intend to go back, so does that mean I can't use any of the ADVC units? Of the people on this thread that posted postive comments, are any of you on XP SP1?

I have the ADVC-50 and also have upgraded XP with the SP1 and it made no difference to my capture and playback.

[jimbola]

I also have the ADVC-50 and did have a problem with XP SP1. Canopus emailed me a "fix" that seems to work most of the time. Sometimes I still have to reboot to capture though . Even with the SP1 issue, I think it's a great card.

[jinu]

Hey folks,
Has anybody used the ADV-100 to bypass the Macrovision Problem (PAL signal). I know for sure that it bypasses Macrovision with NTSC signals, but I am not sure about PAL.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Jinu

[Cole]

I also have the ADVC-50 and did have a problem with XP SP1. Canopus emailed me a "fix" that seems to work most of the time. Sometimes I still have to reboot to capture though . Even with the SP1 issue, I think it's a great card.

I had a problem similar to this before I installed SP1. I think that the problem is something to do with the Firewire card not being able to switch back on from standby under XP <www.microsoft/download Keywords q311542>, but more likely which capture software is being used. Originally I was using Windows Movie Maker Capture, but six times out of ten I would get a corrupt and unplayable AVI.

I changed my capture program to Edit Studio 2's bundled Pure Motion Capture program (got the whole package free with a pc magazine in the UK) and the problem averages about one in fifty now (and that is after installing SP1). I can live with that!

[dilligaf]

Hey folks,
Has anybody used the ADV-100 to bypass the Macrovision Problem (PAL signal). I know for sure that it bypasses Macrovision with NTSC signals, but I am not sure about PAL.
Thanks in advance
Regards
Jinu

I had to use this feature the other day, the dvd I was capturing (its a long story ) had the familar brightness variation even on the menu. As I still had my old capture card installed, I connected the composite output from the advc to the input of the capture card. This allowed me to see the advc colour test bars appear then disappear (whilst holding down the input select button) which signals that the macro bypass is 'on'. No more macro

[fossilfuse]

I recently purchased the ADVC 1394 from Canopus and the install was very easy, and it has been working really well. I am getting a humming sound in the background of the newly captured files. Being a Newbie to DV capturing, my setup may need a little help. I am using a monster cable from my VCR to the ADVC supplied cable for audio, and just standard video right and left cables for the picture. Once I capture, there is a hum that I can hear playing the MPEG-1 file. Then once I burn the video to a DVD, the humming or feedback is pretty bad, or at least bad enough that it can't be ignored. Can anyone help me out with the elimination of the humming?
Thanks in advance.

[RWANDREWS]

My OS in WIN XP w/ SP1 since install. I plugged in my ADVC 100 & it worked perfectly. I use the 1394 port in my SB AUDIGY card.

I think the problem may be with the other Canopus capture cards or various combiinations of hardware.

As far as I am concerned, Canopus is the easiest & most satisfactory method of capturing analog video out there.