Home movie conversion - am I missing any info before I commit?

[Hawks]

Hi everyone. Long time reader but first time poster to this wonderful treasure trove. I've learnt a lot over the past weeks of reading and I'm keen to start practising.

I've been given the task of transferring home movies using my new laptop through the USB/CardSlot/iLink? ports. At first I was hoping I could buy a relatively cheap but quality DAC that would not just do the analogue to digital conversion but tune HDTV and Analogue for recording. Reading around I get the distinct impression that unless a lot of money is being forked out the results aren't so hot on the conversion front? I also get the impression that the best valued DAC just for quality analogue tape conversions, despite the fact that the model is now a number of years old, is the Canopus ADVC-100 (or 55 if you don't need analogue out?). I'd rather a unit that would comfortably do it all (tuner/conversions) and I can trust, but I can't see anything that does it all that stands out for what I can afford and since the conversion is the main thing I've decided to just lump for the ADVC and forget tuning stations for the moment.

So this post is really just to check one last time before I commit that I'm on the right track. One other thing though, I wondered whether it's possible to hook the ADVC up to an analogue video camera and stream real time video through it (like is done when an analogue video camera is hooked straight up through a tv but is still on record mode) to be converted and stored on the laptop as digital. Would be pretty handy.

Thankyou all for reading and setting me straight if need be.

[Hawks]

It's very late where I am and I'm off to bed so please don't think it rude if I haven't responded straight away if you've replied as I'll check back as soon as I can. I'll just add some specs before I hit the sack:

Toshiba M100 Laptop
Operating System: Vista Home Premium
CPU Speed: Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 @ 1.73 GHz
Harddrive space: 120GB Hitachi
RAM Memory: 1022 MB
Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
Motherboard: Toshiba HAQAA Ver 1.00
DVD/CD: Matshita DVD-RAM UJ-850S

[Hawks]

Before I go again I thought I'd better mention that the laptop is networked through a wireless router with an old Desktop PC (733Hz/15GigHD). Couldn't see the point in sticking a PCI card in such an old machine unless it could reliably stream and store the content to the laptop somehow? So I was thinking an external unit (with it's own processing power) hooked up directly with the laptop was the way to go.

[redwudz]

Some of this you may already know, but DV is about 13GB an hour. You seem to have a fair amount of hard drive space on your laptop, but once you have the DV, you also need to edit, then encode it to MPEG-2 if you desired output is DVD. That will add at least another 5GB. I usually figure three times the size of the original video in hard drive space. Consider adding a external USB hard drive for storage.

The ADVC units have the advantage of locked audio/video sync. A great advantage. Also DV is very easy to edit. ADS Pyro and Datavideo also make analog to DV converters, which are lower priced than the ADVC.

Other options are a video card that has hardware conversion to MPEG-2 like one of the Hauppauge units. Hauppauge does have USB tuners/hardware converters also. http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/prods_usb.html
Hardware conversion is much less load on the computer CPU, but MPEG-2 is more difficult to edit than DV.

Or you might look into a DVR that can capture directly to a DVD disc or burn a DVD disc from it's hard drive.

If you need to edit MPEG-2, VideoReDo or MPEG-VCR are two economic MPEG editors.

Then you will need a authoring program like the freeware GUI for dvd author.

Or you can use a all in one like Ulead DVD MovieFactory or similar.

Others may have better suggestions for those type of programs.

For burning, ImgBurn is one of the best, and it's freeware.

And welcome to our forums.

[Richard_G]

I would agree 100% with the above. The Canopus ADVC will do everything you want for the transfer, including real time transfer while you record. I would also suggest an external drive to transfer the footage to, hard drive space is like money, you can never have too much of it.

For a beginner, I would also recommend Ulead DVD MovieFactory. I installed a cut down freebie version of it recently and it is being used by someone that has not even mastered reading a text message on a mobile phone yet, it is that straightforward.

[Hawks]

Wow thanks for that redwuz and Richard you've helped me out a lot. I hadn't even heard of the ADS Pyro but I think I'll still go with Canopus given it's high praise. I will definitely be getting a spare hard drive and thanks for the tips on editing space - I hadn't given any thought to it.

We don't own a digital video camera so I'd love to know whether anyone has tried converting real time video on the fly from a connected 8mm video camera? There's no reason why this can't be done is there? I was thinking it might be a good way of converting standard and super 8 projector film? Avoiding video tape by streaming the projector screen image to the Canopus. The other way would be I guess to borrow someone's digital video camera but I'd rather avoid that if I can.


Another thing I wondered is whether the ADVC's adapter has switachable voltage btween 120v & 240v ? I understand the ADVC 100 can't receive power through the firewire unlike the 110?

[redwudz]

I'm assuming you know the ADVC-100 is the older model and out of production? You may find it used in a few locations. That's what I have and it comes with a power adapter. I assume the power adapters for 240VDC/50Hz are different as mine is just for 120VAC/60Hz.

The ADVC-110 took it's place and it can run off FireWire power from the computer with a six pin FireWire cable. It can also use a power adapter, which from the ADVC site, a 'DC5V AC Adapter AC100V/220V'. So that adapter appears to be universal.

And I believe I forgot to mention that a DV camcorder with pass through will also work for analog to digital DV-AVI conversion.

[tmh]

Hawk, lots of good info above, but just wondering what the details of your project are. So you intend to cut out any of the films ot just make exact copies? ANY editing planned? Do you want to have chapters at the beginning of the DVD so you can choose which part to watch? Do you want the footage available for future editing?

Whatever you do, I highly recommend a large external hard drive to at least transfer files t after you work with them. You'll want to have the DVD compliant files saved forever on the HD as well as burn a few DVDs of each (keep one in a safe place unplayed unless the original gets scratched or lost).

Good luck.

[jagabo]

To get really good transfers from VHS tapes you need S-VHS deck with a line TBC. No amount of filtering will be able to fix the scanline skew problems you'll have otherwise -- and this will kill MPEG compression. If the tapes are badly degraded you may need a full frame TBC too.

[Hawks]

G'day redwudz: I was aware that the 100 was the older model but I thought if I can find it cheaper (and an adapter if the 100 wont switch btn volts) I don't mind that it doesn't output analogue or receive it's power through the firwire but that would be nice too and I'd prefer it of course, just comes down to finances and availability. Checking ebay it seems there isn't very much difference between their average going price but there are a hell of a lot more used 100's than 110's. I was aware that you could use a DV camcorder but we don't have access to one unfortunately - is the quality and ease just as good?

tmh: I'll be editing the film as my parents were prolific film-ers to the point of distraction - thanks for the excellent advice.

Thanks for that jagabo, I intend to hunt around friends and see if any have a better quality VHS machine I could borrow for the project, so TBC will be a must.

Thanks everyone - so using an 8mm video camera to stream analogue image directly through the lens to the DAC and the laptop for editing is possible for transferring old projector films?

[Hawks]

I'm still looking at the ADVC-110 to buy but I wondered whether anyone knew how the DataVideo DAC-200 compared to the ADVC 100/110?

[zoobie]

I think one of 'em defeats macrovision...I forget which
I know the DAC-100 does...
Try the ADVC-55 without analog out
Probably cheaper

[Hawks]

I would try that one zoobie but isn't analogue out necessary to be sure of the end picture quality. or am I over-rating this? Also, does the 55 run off firewire rather than power adapter like the 110?

I also saw this PYRO A/V Link Basic [ http://www.firewire-1394.com/pyro-av-link-basic.htm ] that had me wondering?

No wonder people throw their hands in the air and just go for the one everyone raves about. So many decisions are agonising...

[Hawks]

Now I've come across a really cheap used Hauppauge WinTV-PVR2-USB I could pick up for around $40 Australian - is the quality of this machine much worse than the ADVC's given the price difference?

Something else I thought of was to do with the TBC - modern televisions would have a TBC incorporated into them wouldn't they? So if the analogue video was passed through the tv before it goes into the DAC the analogue video would be corrected...or not so?

[thecoalman]

The Hauppage is a MPEG hardware encoder, the ADVC is DV-AVI hardware encoder.

If you only have the intention of making minor edits like cutting frames and adding transitions its suitable, so would a DVD recorder. If on the other hand you want to try some post capture filtering and other things that will affect the entire length of video stick with the ADVC.

More here: nepadigital.com/articles/analog-capture.php

TBC's come in two varieties, the ones in devices like TV's are generally LTBC's which will sync a few lines at time which can help with horizontal jitter. Full frame TBC's sync the whole frame which will help eliminate both horizontal and vertical jitter. If your tapes are in good shape I'd hold off on worrying about it unless you run into issues.

A TBC is like a toothpick, it's not something you need all the time... but if you need one there is no substitute..

[Hawks]

Thankyou all for the great information and links. I've gone ahead and bought a used ADVC 110 off ebay. Pretty good considering they go for around US$440 new in Australia. Postage and insurance was a little over $30. Can't wait to play.