A problem with ADVC55

[Mehedict]

Hello,
I bought this device 3 days ago, and now, finally I tried to capture some old VHSs.

The problem is - when I use the 3 cinches (red, white, yellow) the picture is at very low quality, kind of blurry, and there's a slight black stripe in the top. I've tried several cables, always the same result.

Next, I plugged the VCR over a S-Video cable. The whole video "shakes", that's even worse than the cinches.

I tried the same with an older DVD player, just to prove the issue isn't caused by the VCR. It acted the same, so it seems the ADVC converter is bad.

I currently have about 15 VHS' to capture and store in digital format, they're pretty old already and precious, for me. This is my third analog video capturing device, I've had 2 TV cards before, both didn't work well. After realising there's no TV capture card fully compatible with Vista, I bought this device. Oops; doesn't work too.

Is there anything I should try before reclaiming the product?
Thank you.

[Mehedict]

Two more facts:

I got two S-Video cables, a thicker and a thinner one. When connected over the thick one, video is black and white, and only over the thin it's colored. What causes this? The thick cable was more expensive and the thin was packed with my GPU 2 years ago.

Might it help, If I used an external power supply for the ADVC55? There is that option (DC IN) but no DC adaptor was included. I have actually no clue where to get one (with 5V output).

[Cole]

I have an ADVC50 and I will only use it on Windows 2000 and via a Time Base Corrector. If I use it on my current PC under XP the recording is full of block drop-outs. On my last PC, using XP, it worked perfectly. This suggests to me that a conflict on hardware/Software may be the culprit for both our PCs.

Have you tried the Canopus forums?
http://ediusforum.grassvalley.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=d93c61ff13f1798166c407f2f050b0d8&f=8