Ready to buy and need advice please

[steve84]

I recently bought the Sony DRU-510A DVD recorder. I am now looking to buy a capture device so I can transfer our home movies that are on VHS and Super 8 tapes to DVD

I have been looking at the Pinnacle Studio MovieBox USB which has been recommended on Tech TV and the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 which PCmag recommended. Many reviews on the Pinnacle say it is incredibly slow when finishing projects.

The people online here seem to love the Canopus ADVC-100 which uses firewire. All the reviews on it are fantastic but it costs around $270 and does not include any software. It is more money then I hoped to spend but if it is that much better then the usb choices I would be willing to think about it.

Does anyone have any opinions on which device you would recommend for me? Like I mentioned earlier they are always recommending Pinnacle products on The Screensavers but the speed issue worries me.

I have a Dell 1.7 Gigahertz computer with 512 memory and around 240 gig of hard drive. I do not currently have USB2 or firewire but am sure I could add either if I need to

One other question is I know the Canopus does not come with any software so if I buy it what would be a good software package to make my own DVDs.

Thank you very much for any info and help

Steve

[broadway]

The general consensus is spend the $$$ on good equipment. Otherwise, you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get crappy equipment to work.

Canopus is one of the more highly rated products by users of this forum.

Another option, you may want to think about is to buy a standalone DVD recorder and use it as a capture device.

[Gees]

You mentioned "reviews". Have you looked here: https://www.videohelp.com/capturecards for owners' comments?

Same sort of info's available for software, but that's easier as a lot of it has trial periods so you can test it for yourself and find which you like best.

Very generally speaking, most people abandon the packaged/supplied/bundled software after learning some basics with it and move on to what suits them best.

Very hard to make recommendations as not everything works the same for everyone. Too many variables, even with your specs provided.

Also, you know best what budget you may have to stay within.

[Richard_G]

I'd agree with the others, but one thing hasn't been mentioned so far. Don't even consider USB, not even USB2, if you want good quality. It has to be Firewire if using an external unit.

[steve84]

The one thing that appealed to me with the usb 2 device was it converted to mpeg 2 right away. With the canopus dont I have to convert the files once they get on to my computer? It seems like I have read the conversion process takes many hours

[redwudz]

You can't go wrong with the ADVC-100. It transfers even poor quality video and is transportable between different computers and operating systems. You do need a firewire card (about $30US) I use WINDV for tranfers, then TMPGEnc and TMPGEnc Author to create the final DVD. You can use a DV video camera to capture your 8mm from a screen and run it through the same software. For editing there are quite a few choices for editing DV. But spend a little time to look at all the options available for what you want to do. Read the reviews and the guides here and elsewhere. If you are only doing a few VHS tapes you might just go with an inexpensive capture card. But the ADVC-100 is a lot easier. Good luck.

[SLICK RICK]

The best advice that I can give is when dealing with transfering video, Stay away from USB, it does not give good results. I have an ADVC 100 but if you were not looking to spend about $250-$300 then I would recomend getting a DAC 100. Similar device but about $100 cheaper.

Good luck,

SLICK RICK

[RWANDREWS]

For the easiest solution pick the CANOPUS ADVC100. It works perfectly out of the box, and even better, should you upgrade your computer or sell it, you can transfer the CANOPUS to another. However, you MUST run WIN XP or 2000, because AVI needs the NTSC file system. Also, get another 80MB HD (about $80) for faster & more convenient use.

You can capture & convert & burn with some freeware programs available here, so software should not be a factor. Run away form MPEG conversion on the fly. I like TMPGEnc & TMPGEnc Author, and bundled together cost $100.

The hardware & software costs are minor issues compared with the amount of time & the value of your projects you are going to put into this hobby. Don't have that much ? Save until you do. Don't even THINK about cheap.

[lordsmurf]

Why not go internal with a card like an ATI ?

[SLICK RICK]

I was wondering when my buddy lordsmurf was going to show up suggesting an ATI AIW card. steve84, if you get a ATI AIW card, going to lordsmurf.com is a must (very informative).

SLICK RICK

[obeck]

I recently bought the Sony DRU-510A DVD recorder. I am now looking to buy a capture device so I can transfer our home movies that are on VHS and Super 8 tapes to DVD


Thank you very much for any info and help

Steve

Okay, I'm going to give some non-typical advice that no one ever gives:

Buy an inexpensive camera that does Analog->Digital conversion in passthrough mode. The Sony digital 8 and miniDV cameras do this, and many others do as well. Advantages are that.... when you are finished with transfering your home movies... you have a nice digital camera to keep taking movies with. My TRV18 does a great job, and it cost $400 after rebates. Im sure that Canon, Sharp, others can be found that cheaply (or less) and do the job. If you know someone that has a camera, borrow it and give it a try (I knew a coworker had a TRV25. He let me take it home for the weekend and try it out before I went with the TRV18). I use the Sony camera with an Audigy sound card (has a firewire port) and Pinnacle Studio 8 (for capture and authoring DVDs).

[Thorn]

There are thousands of ways to get this done, so you need to decide on a few things: Price, time, and quality. You can't have all of 'em, but some methods are better.

If you are a quality freak, there's no substitute for getting a capture card (like the good old ATI AIW). ALL other methods will degrade the quality to some degree. You can use up to 40GB/hour and then you need to encode to mpeg2. You *can* capture directly to mpeg2 with this, but you need a fast CPU and good software to minimize the quality degredation.

Avoid usb1.1 capture devices at all costs. They are an affront to video encoding and should be repealed from the market.

Firewire devices (including a camcorder) may be fairly easy and the quality is very good. You do need about 13 gigs per hour, and then you encode. FYI I encode overnight, so encoding time isn't a problem for me.

The usb2 device may be a crapshoot. Realtime encoding devices are typically either expensive or crappy. The market may have come out with something good, but don't take it on faith (or trust the marketing department). If you can see some output from it and like the quality, that may be a good option. Unlike when you re-encode from DV or raw capture, you can't tailor this to the disc (say to fit 80 minutes on a DVD).

In the end, if you just want to transfer some videos at decent quality with a minimum of effort (and learning curve) you'll probably choose something that captures directly to mpeg2 and slap it on a DVD. Just don't settle for crappy quality because if it's not good enough, you may want to redo it in a few years.

[bottle-necked]

For quality, easy of use, dependibility, cost, programming, compatibility, put in and forget, easy video in/out, manuals, experienced people to help ya, real time MPEG2 encoding, TV function, computer on TV output, file play compatibility, (and the list goes on and on) Get an ATI Video/Capture/TV card. You can't beat the quality for the price. Plus the gaming ability, 3D, Color reproduction, resolution, supported driver updates, etc etc.

With my little old worn out AMD 1900 running stock I'm capturing 720x480 VBR 8Mbps NTSC DVD MPEG2 48k 16bit Stereo video on only 55% CPU load. If I choose CBR it's lower than that. 352x480 4Mbps NTSC MPEG2 capture it's running at only 35% and that's with VBR. There are "no" dropped frames even at the begenning of my caps. I get good audio sync even after scrolling and jumping around in the playback window looking for it. I'm very satified with ATI and their products and I think you would be also.

[fritzi93]

I'm seeing a pattern here from malcomp123. SPAM.