just bought ADVC 110....

[dvdguy24]

Hi,

I just bought ADVC 110 and hooked everything up to my iMac G5 - works fine - I can capture through iMovie - but my problem is that the quality is fuzzy - I did a search on the board and all I could find were Macrovision disscusions, I'm using a home made vhs tape - so it can't be that - any ideas what it could be? the vcr is hooked up with composite cords and the card is set to "analog in" - i'm not using an S-Video cable.

thanks!

it seems like a lot of people have good luck with this convertor, so i'm probably doing something wrong.

[budz]

Hi,

I just bought ADVC 110 and hooked everything up to my iMac G5 - works fine - I can capture through iMovie - but my problem is that the quality is fuzzy - I did a search on the board and all I could find were Macrovision disscusions, I'm using a home made vhs tape - so it can't be that - any ideas what it could be? the vcr is hooked up with composite cords and the card is set to "analog in" - i'm not using an S-Video cable.

thanks!

it seems like a lot of people have good luck with this convertor, so i'm probably doing something wrong.

The card is set to "analog in"? You mean the ADVC-100 device is set to analog in. Try using the front panel of A/V inputs instead of the back ones. If the source which is your vhs tape is not of good quality to begin with then there's not much you can do about it.

[dvdguy24]

hi, no the tape quality is fine, it looks worse on the computer - i've captured video before with other set-ups but on a pc not a mac. They are hooked up in the front - not on the back.

I tried the back, and I got the same result.

[edDV]

hi, no the tape quality is fine, it looks worse on the computer - i've captured video before with other set-ups but on a pc not a mac. They are hooked up in the front - not on the back.

I tried the back, and I got the same result.

To confirm, you are doing this?

VCR-> composite NTSC -> ADVC-110 (7.5 setup NTSC) -> Firewire -> MAC iMovie

If so, hook it up to your cable box or other higher quality source and see if the problem is still there.

[thecoalman]

You are aware that the video won't look as good on the monitor as it would on a TV? I know you mentioned that you have captured before but I'd try a test burn to see if that's it.

[dvdguy24]

You are aware that the video won't look as good on the monitor as it would on a TV? I know you mentioned that you have captured before but I'd try a test burn to see if that's it.

Yes, i'm aware of that - and when it finally came to me, I did just what you suggested - I burned a quick clip to dvd with iDVD and it looks just as good as my vhs.

One thing, actually a couple that threw me off was, #1 - I've captured before on a pc, and the quality always displayed just as good as it was on TV - however, I was using the capture software that came with my hardware - in this case, i'm using iMovie.

#2 - since i'm using iMovie, I remember reading that the quality wouldn't be displayed at an extremely high quality in order to make the software run to it's fullest capabilities...although when purchasing my computer a month ago at the apple store, I saw iMovie being used, actually, I have iMovieHD, and the quality of the playback was increddible - granted, i'm not using HD video - FAR from it - but if I was, I guess then I would see high quality - but how could I if the system does not play back at it's fullest capabilities??? I know you can change things in the prefferences menu, and I did change to display at highest quality during playback, but it still looks the same...

does that many any sense??

thanks!!!!!!

[dvdguy24]

You are aware that the video won't look as good on the monitor as it would on a TV? I know you mentioned that you have captured before but I'd try a test burn to see if that's it.

that's right, that's my set-up.

[thecoalman]

One thing, actually a couple that threw me off was, #1 - I've captured before on a pc, and the quality always displayed just as good as it was on TV - however,

Different software simple as that, I don't know about apple software but for a PC you will see a huge difference between WMP or PowerDVD. PowerDVD is superior by far.

I saw iMovie being used, actually, I have iMovieHD, and the quality of the playback was increddible - granted, i'm not using HD video - FAR from it - but if I was, I guess then I would see high quality - but how could I if the system does not play back at it's fullest capabilities???

As you mentioned that was a HD movie, it's done professionally and frame based I'd imagine which plays back on a computer monitor very well. Remeber that your VHS footage is interlaced which plays great on a TV but looks like crap on a monitor... That's where the software comes in and deintelaces on the fly. Some just do it better than others. You are either watching the footage in interlaced or the software just does a bad job of deinterlacing.... Suggest you try the mac forum for that question.

They have their own little world down there. :P

[edDV]

I still suggest you try a higher quality source (e.g. cable box or NTSC from camcorder) to separate ADVC-iMovie issues from VHS issues.

A good quality input should produce a similar quality DVD.

[holdar]

@dvdguy24

When I used a Mac for video several years ago (before I discovered Avisynth), to view DV correctly you must open the file, open Quicktime player preferences, and set the viewer/file to “high quality”. Save/close the file, and open it again. I am not at a OSX Mac to test this right now, but please give it a try. Do you have Quicktime Pro? If not upgrade.

[dvdguy24]

@dvdguy24

When I used a Mac for video several years ago (before I discovered Avisynth), to view DV correctly you must open the file, open Quicktime player preferences, and set the viewer/file to “high quality”. Save/close the file, and open it again. I am not at a OSX Mac to test this right now, but please give it a try. Do you have Quicktime Pro? If not upgrade.

I'll have to give this a try - Quictime pro? I don't believe I have that - I know I have the basic version, with all the updates, as well as the Mpeg2 component that I purchased from Apple. I'll look into that! thanks for the tip.

edTV - right now things seem to be working pretty well - the output to dvd looks just as good as the original vhs - which is great - but I may try your suggestion in the future - thanks for the help!

thecoalman - thanks for the explanation - and yes, the mac world is a different world