So was the Canopus ADVC300 worth the 500 bucks?

[awhitney]

Before I start, heres what I have now:

JVC SVHS 7600U
Canopus ADVC300

2.3GHZ amd Athlon (Barton)
1GB of PC3500 ram
450GB of hard drive space
windows xp professional

Ok, I have spend an entire 2 days of capturing old vhs tapes with using the ADVC300. Talking about vhs tapes from the mid 80s.

Before I got the advc300, I used the passthrough feature from my camcorder to capture to DV and the results were pretty darn good. I also had the TBC feature on the vcr.

So I thouht about getting the advc300 because it has all of these noise reduction features, and picture stabilizing features and so on. For $500 I would think this thing would be better at capturing than using the vcr itself.

WRONG!

So after I did buy the thing, I spent 2 full days just messing around with the settings on the advc300 to get at least some sort of a better capture than using my camcorder's dv passthrough feature.

I had to turn of the TBC feature on the vcr as it was interfering with the Canopus advc300.

And for some reason, the video actually looked WORSE by using the advc300. I tried for the life of me adjusting all of the settings on the advc 300 (noise reduction, color enhancements, ect...).

Just overall I was just getting nowhere. The video was not that much worse, but was looking a little more worse than using my camcorder.

So I gave up. I was getting pissed off on spending so much money on this little thing and actually was getting some what a less than steller capture. So its like, I may as well sell it and use my camcorder or something.

I just want to capture better quality video because this is video that I want to preserve and treasure for many years to come.

I'm just letting you guys know on my experience with the canopus advc300 and i'm a little let down.

If anybody has questions let me know

[Westcott]

That is very helpful info on the Canopus ADVC300. I was seriously considering buying that box - now you've put me off - Thanks for saving me and others the time and money.

Things that look good on paper (like specs and listed features and functions) don't always pan out.

Did you return it?

What are using now - the camcorder pass through?

I'm using a Canon Optura 20 as pass through for my analog material into the computer. It works fine but I can't tweak sat, hue etc until I get it into an edit program where the efx have to be rendered (time, time, time).

-----------------------
BTW, your capture shots via the Hauppauge 250 card posted here :

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1026748&highlight=hauppauge+350#1026748

look fantastic.

Do I gather that the 250 and its SW captures frames (2 interlaced fields) rather than a single field?

[NightWing]

Same her on the info!

Been doing almost the same as you but with a ADS Pyro box. Actualy my old DC10+ card works better with less noize in the background. And the iLO DVR I got is better than the ADS! And yes I know it soft on the image. But does not take the extra processing to clean things up.

Was thinking of splitting for a 300 but realising now that the stand alone boxes are not up to it. Else one of the old cards ort a camcorder would be better.

[lenti_75]

camcoreder passthrough is the best and easiest option....I use it, and I don;'t fall for any other crap.
the result is the same as the input.

[gshelley61]

I use a JVC DVD recorder and professional video processors (TBC, Proc Amp, Detailer) to clean up, correct and sharpen the video prior to encoding. Far better and much faster than what I was able to do with computer capturing. I capture in DVD-Video format MPEG2 using -RW's, edit with Womble MPEG Video Wizard, then author and burn my finished DVD-R on my PC. Results are very good to excellent doing it this way. FWIW

Here's a couple of sample MPEG2 frames, captured at 720x480:

Blade Runner laserdisc - resized to 640x480




Titanic VHS - resized to 640x480




20 year old VHS music videos (Phil Collins, Sade) - resized to 320x240

[lordsmurf]

Welcome to the hype that is Canopus DV.
Pissed, huh? You should be.

They work nicely, but are a far cry from the self-touted
miracle machines for making pro video.

[redlester]

Can't comment on the 300, but I've been using the ADVC100 for a year or so. I don't have the luxury of a camcorder with pass-through.

The 100 works beautifully and I've never had a problem or complaint with it.

[NightWing]

Would be nice to have just the parts out of a camcorder to do the conversion.

The thing that gets me is the strange thing these boxes do to solid background.

[Westcott]

gshelley61 - Your stuff looks great to me. What you please post the makes and models numbers of your processing equipment and your JVC DVD recorder.

[gshelley61]

VCR's: JVC SR-W5U, JVC BR-S378U
Proc Amps: Leitch VPA 331N, Vidicraft Proc Amp
TBC: Feral A4:2:2
Enhancers: Sign Video DR-1000, Vidicraft Detailer III
Other: Laird VC2000, Knox K700 video/color correctors
DVD Recorder: JVC DR-M10

subject to change... :P

[SHS]

Sound Nice gshelley61 if someone want blow $5000+ on that type of setup

[Westcott]

hey gshelley - That is an impressive list of gear.

[vhelp]

TGIF everybody

Would be nice to have just the parts out of a camcorder to do the conversion.

The thing that gets me is the strange thing these boxes do to solid background.

Hay NightWing,

..like, what kinds of things do you see in the background ??


@ gshelley61

I lost my part in getting Blade Runner on Laserdisc some time ago ( long story
though.. ) on ebay.

I'm gonna do another search for it, cause it's one of my favorites too :P
I have the VHS widescreen version, but the version I have on this tape was
not processed "Digitally" .. so quality is not gonna be as I would expect.
Anyways..

-vhelp

[NightWing]

This is on a ADS box. But from some of still shots from the Canopus boxes could be a problem on them also. Take a solid background. Like the "New day" break in Monster House. Tuesday whatever. It looks like a thin pool of water shimmering on it. Kind of like a bad mpeg encode. Or like a simulation of a pool of water in a first person game. Looks like some colors show up more and other not.

I dont get that on my DC10 { MJPeg HW card } or either of the iLO or Pioneer DVD recorder.

[vhelp]

..yeah, the DC10Plus card is a great little card (I have) ..just wish that they
made it capable of capping at 720 ( stead of the 640 )

-vhelp

[The_Pioneer]

..yeah, the DC10Plus card is a great little card (I have) ..just wish that they
made it capable of capping at 720 ( stead of the 640 )

-vhelp

I bet it is but the DC30 (and +) would kick some ass if someone at pinnacle actually gave a f*ck about the end users, instead of refusing to release a WinXP driver full-stop.

Bastards.

[NightWing]

Will get back on topic in a minute...

Some where a long time ago I read something about editing the registry to allow it to go 720 or was it 704. I think the DC30 used the same Zora chipset. But not sure if it did 720 or even 704!

Its really strange that its hard to get samples of the output of some of these converter boxes. Have a few still from the Canopus that on really pulling them apart to be kind of weak in quality. The reason I been on this quest is that I want something that can do DVD rez in good quality. Look at the Canopus 50, 55, 100 and even the 300. Also after switching MB my drop fram rate jumped from 1 to 2 an hour to about that every 8 to 15 minutes.

[vhelp]

.
.
I'd settle for the 704 capture. That's what I use in my Rage Fury Pro card.
I can do 720, but I prefer 704 (for personal reasons at the moment)
.
I once read somewhere's too, about the reg hack of the dc30 / dc10 but I
never did see any *actual* code to do it ( for test purposes )
If anyone does, great.. please post link.

Back on topic..

I don't have the ADVC-300 but since i have the 100 and am very proud of it,
I can say, that I can do without the added bells and whiles that the 300 offers.
I think that the TBC is really for those once in a while troublesome VHS tapes
that have *age * within them. But, I can't see a TBC for anything else
I have the TBC-100 (card type) but to be honest, it doesn't do much, other
than strip MV from all my commercial tapes, but even this TBC-100 has
problems of its own.
.
I can't see the ADVC-100 not holding up to any source. But then again, I
don't think I have such bad tapes, though I do have a shelf or too, full of older
tapes waiting to be converted to DVD (in the near future) once I am truely
settled with my techniques and skillfullness of this Video process
.
I think that if you haven't already gotten the ADVC device, AND that if you
are just testing those who have, to base you decision on, I would not waist
my time (yours) with this, and just go with the ADVC-100 device. Getting
the 300 and it's bells and whiles are just over-kill and $$$ waisted.., unless
you have TONS of very bad VHS tapes acking to be converted or convert
TONS of bad tapes on a regular bases or are a busines, who deals with the
public in converting their tapes to DVD, and you are very skill at the art of:

* converting
* editing
* encoding
* and finally authoring to DVD

... with very good quality DVD output from these tapes (or other sources)

That's my many cents worth. Good luck,
-vhelp

[trock]

lenti_75, which camera do you use for your passthrough?

Thanks,

trock

[gshelley61]

Sound Nice gshelley61 if someone want blow $5000+ on that type of setup

Due to some very fortunate eBay deals and the fact that used analog gear is in such low demand, it's closer to about $800 total.

But, yes... all that stuff brand new would have been about $8,000 - $10,000

[BSR]

I use my Sony DCR-PC101 cameras passthrough for all captures and they come out excellent.
I always assumed the ADVC-100 was pretty much the same as a DV cam with passthrough, just without camera abilities.

[rhegedus]

..yeah, the DC10Plus card is a great little card (I have) ..just wish that they
made it capable of capping at 720 ( stead of the 640 )

-vhelp

I bet it is but the DC30 (and +) would kick some ass if someone at pinnacle actually gave a f*ck about the end users, instead of refusing to release a WinXP driver full-stop.

Bastards.

There is an XP driver, I've used it, and it works - but it's not official.

http://www.mirosupport.de/

If I remember rightly, it costs about £10.

[The_Pioneer]

There is an XP driver, I've used it, and it works - but it's not official.

http://www.mirosupport.de/

If I remember rightly, it costs about £10

From what I can gather, it's far from perfect (audio issues, software issues with files >4GB)

My experience with the DC30 was never trouble-free but the captures were always impressive. I'm sure it would kick my ADVC-100's butt but I'm not prepared to constantly correct problems that crop up.

side note : anyone trying to capture from OLD old-VHS, should buy a DC30 off ebay now! It never dropped a frame unless the frame had been dropped by the VCR.

[rhegedus]

It worked fine for me - it dropped about a seconds worth of frames over a one and a half hours capture from a VHS tape made in the 70's.

The only audio problems I had were linked to the quility of the VHS tape itself, and I captured in DV resulting in a file size of over 20Gb.

I used it for a one-off capture of an NTSC tape played on a PAL VCR, otherwise I'd have used my ADVC-100. Picture quality wise, I can't comment due to the quality of the VHS tape I was using, but it gave an excellent reproduction of it.