Software for use with Canopus ADVC-100

[murf]

Hi

Just ordered a Canopus ADVC-100 for archiving/editing analog camcorder and VHS tapes.

Does anyone have advice on which software is compatible (and cheap/free).

I believe Virtualdub isn't compatible as the ADVC uses IEEE 1394 which isn't supported.

I read one user was using Windows Movie Maker and said it worked but another said it didn't.

I have TMPGEnc for encoding and Nero for burning.

I'm having trouble understanding which software I can download to capture the video in a format that these other programs can process in to VCD or SVCD format (and ultimately DVD when I get enough money together).

Any suggestions or advice gratefully received!

TIA

Mark

[TheInformer]

murf,

For free, check out Michael Carr's program DVIO:
http://www.carr-engineering.com/dvio.htm

For a little money, the program ScenalyzerLive can't be beat! It's the best $33 I ever spent on a software program:
http://www.scenalyzer.com/

[patrickjamesreid]

I use WIndows Movie Maker in XP; no sweat, although you need to press "play" on the DV device controls or just start capture before the preview window will show the video that you are capturing.

I have also captured with IntroDV and PowerVCR II.

[patrickjamesreid]

For free, check out Michael Carr's program DVIO:

I tried to use DVIO on my system; no joy. Same deal for VirtualDub and AVI_IO. I believe that this may have something to do with the fact that I am running XP and there is some issue regarding WDM wrappers and such, since my captures using Windows Movie Maker, IntroDV and PowerVCR II all have been no hassle.

[DVWannaB]

For free, check out Michael Carr's program DVIO:

I tried to use DVIO on my system; no joy. Same deal for VirtualDub and AVI_IO. I believe that this may have something to do with the fact that I am running XP and there is some issue regarding WDM wrappers and such, since my captures using Windows Movie Maker, IntroDV and PowerVCR II all have been no hassle.

Patrick, I recommend spending the $33 for Scenalyzer. Works perfectly with ADVC-100. It is an unbeatable combination.

[murf]

Thanks to you all for the quick replies.

My ADVC-100 should arrive today so I'll try WMM and also the trial version of Scenalyser (with a view to buying the 'full' version if I get on well with it).


Thanks again,

Mark

[tlegion]

It should come with its own capture software. My Dazzle Hollywood came with MainActor of which I use the DV-Capture program. It just captures and does not try to detect scenes or anything else. It has an option to do multople file captures (ie 2gb file limits) and will sequentially number the capture files. You can get a demo at http://www.mainactor.com and the capture program doesn't insert a watermark in the capture files.

[patrickjamesreid]

It should come with its own capture software.

Unfortunately, not. At least mine did not.

[DVWannaB]

It should come with its own capture software. My Dazzle Hollywood came with MainActor of which I use the DV-Capture program. It just captures and does not try to detect scenes or anything else. It has an option to do multople file captures (ie 2gb file limits) and will sequentially number the capture files. You can get a demo at http://www.mainactor.com and the capture program doesn't insert a watermark in the capture files.

Canopus ADVC-100 package does not include capture software.

[murf]

When I ordered the ADVC-100 I checked and it doesn't come with software but thanks for the link - I've downloaded it to try.

With all these options I'm sure I'll find something that works well for me!

Cheers

Mark

[murf]

Update

Hi

The ADVC-100 came this afternoon and was easy to hook up.

I have captured analog video through the ADVC, converted to SVCD format with TMPGEnc and burned an SVCD with Nero. It was lengthy but fairly simple. My problem is the resulting quality is much worse than if I hook the camcorder up to my TV and replay the tape. The SVCD is blrry in places and also pixellated (?) there too. It's a little like a webcam with too little bandwidth but not nearly as bad.

I tried SCLive but TMPGEnc said it couldn't recognise the resulting .avi file.

I tried Main Actor Video Capture but couldn't get it to work.

Does anyone have any suggestions on something obvious I might be missing?

I think the problem exists with the capture (but I might be wrong) as the jpeg I used for the menu background came out very clear and sharp but the video doesn't.

TIA

Mark

[The village idiot]

I tried SCLive but TMPGEnc said it couldn't recognise the resulting .avi file

Sounds like it gave you a type 1 DV file. You need to convert it to DV type 2. Get the demo of Edit Studio from http://www.puremotion.com, then use that to convert to DV type2. Or just use ES to capture you stuff to start with. Also try DVio from the link above. It is a wdm capture utility, but I don't know if it works with XP, works flawlessly with win2000. I often use DVio to capture, then do my edits and conversion to mpeg with Edit Studio and their mpegXS mpeg encoder.

[murf]

Update 2

I tried ScenAlyser (trial version) and once I selected the correct output file format (as suggested in previous post -thanks!), the resulting quality of the final SVCD was vastly improved. I bought the full version for $33 but now I'm running in to the 2/4 GB file size limitation. The ScenAlyser site says there is a work around for this but I can't seem to find out how to do this. I want to achieve a seamless transition between captured files or, ideally, capture a camcorder tape in a single file.

I'm using Windows XP professional (FAT 32 format).


Any suggestions?

TIA

Mark

[The village idiot]

I'm using Windows XP professional (FAT 32 format).

convert to NTFS!

[Toogy]

Try Vegas Video 3.0. I use it for capturing, editing and encoding. Works great with my ADVC-1394.

[ironwood321]

Have your deinterlaced your video?

NTFS:
convert /?

You can type something like

Convert c:\ /FS:NTFS

[Mrsash]

A question guys

Does this card capture dirctly to DVD svcd and vcd compliant formats
If it does what software to use and can i expect the same quality captures you guys are talking about

thanks

[Greg12]

No, it captures to Digital Video (DV files)

They must be transcoded to MPEG.

[Mrsash]

can you guys recommend a capture card whcih does hardware capture to DVD svcd and vcd compliant formats

thanks

Also curious ona 2.2Ghz machine how long will it take to transcode an hour worth of video from the dv captures using a Canopus ADVC-100