Canopus ADVC100

[NES_Master]

OK...since noone decided to help me with my previous question, I came to the conclution that the Canopus ADVC100 would be my best bet. However, I still have some issues, so please respond to this message...

First off, about how much memory would 15mins of DV take up? As I'll be working with raw DV, I figure my 10G HD isn't nearly enough, but I'd like to get an idea on how large I should go...

Next, say I insert somthing in premiere that is compressed...will I need to render this into DV format before I can export it through DV?

And last, is the Canopus ADVC100 a card worth buying? I was about to get the Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge, but after reading the reviews, it seems the Canopus is by far the better card. But are their any others on the market(still in the $250 price range)?

[pb]

Not knowing what your previous question was, here is my expereince with the ADVC 100. It is a capture box, external to the PC. It is used in conjunction with an OHCI firewire (IEEE1394) card that plugs into a spare PCI slot in your PC. It connects via firewire port on the card, and transfers DV (3.6Mbps I think from memory) at a fixed rate and resolution (PAL/NTSC 720/640 x 576/480). DV transfer is a file transfer, no compression (done by the DV device e.g. DV camera). If capturing analog, which this box does, then it uses a codec chip on-board to compress to DV, and this is transfered by the firewire port. Sending files back to the box is the reverse, transfer DV if to a DV device (camera to tape etc) or DV to box, converts to analog and back out to VCR etc. It has composite and S Video coneections in/out.

Audio and video are in perfect sync no matter how long the capture is, no dropped frames either. Only PC resources are writing to disk. Approx. 18 minutes of DV is 4Gig on your hard drive, or about 13-14 Gig an hour.

You cannot capture through it in any other format than DV PAL/NTSC, or send back out through it either except in the intended DV format.

I use Vegas Video to capture and edit, and either the included Main Concept or TMPG (render to new DV AVI file first) to encode to SVCD etc. I don't have a DVD burner yet, but I would probably get the Sony DRU500.

I have a registered version of IuVCR (newest beta) that alllows perfect capture from the Canopus box, and has a scheduler that I will try with TV programs.

The Canopus box is great, no hassle, no problem with audio or video. It is the only capture device I would use in my short capture experience. Vegas is alos great, easy to use, but powerful if you know how, edits any video file as long as you have a codsec under windows (DV, mpeg 1/2), encodes to many formats as well.

You will need to get a lager seperate hard drive, should be ATA100 7200 rpm, but a lot also depends on the rest of your computer.

[The village idiot]

Damn, beaten by a minute edited


I can answer some of your questions (haven't seen your other post, sorry).

10GB won't let you do very much! 80 is a good amount, and 40 will get you by. 120 would be even better, and several TeraBytes would be FANTASTIC! I would say 80 is a good amount, an 80 and a 40 in the same machine is really great! A little slower, but you could use a drive in a firewire box of some kind (ADS technologies, QPS etc.) USB2 might also work, but I haven't used it.

DV runs at about 13GB per hour! You will want to be running an OS that allows NTFS format for your hardrives! otherwise the 4GB limit will hit you, and it is a hassle. Win2000 or XP (maybe NT4).

Don't know about your Premiere question.

Razzle (Dazzle)=EVIL You get what you pay for, and the bridge is cheaper!!!!! Support ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! That said, the DV bridge will most likely work. I have a bridge (I have a bridge that I'd like to sell, but don't want to shell out for something else right now). It works, but there are places that they cut corners, and those corners keep hitting me everytime I try some other new firewire device.

If cost is the concern, try the ADVC-50 (you will need a firewire card to make either one work). Or also try the DAC-100 from Datavideo (still need the firewire card).

[NES_Master]

The MAIN reason I wanted one of these converters is for the output. My current setup is great(Winnov Videum, ATI Radeon 8500) but it takes too long to render the freaking things...and then if I find a mistake...you get the idea. So now I have another computer dedicated to captureing. I will be getting a mini dv camera soon, so I can just use DV in, but I bet most of my finished produects will be on VHS.

I knew HD space would be a problem. I plan on getting a 80+ gig. HD pretty soon. However, I think my capture computer may only be ATA66, but I think it'll suit me just fine...

Oh, just noticed somthing. When I go to Premiere, it dosn't detect my Firewire card... Do I have to have a camera connected to it? I know my card is working, as I have half of a Firewire tape drive, and it detects it when connected.

Well, I'm havn't to spend much more money then I first anticipated, but I think it'll be well spent... Oh, here's my capture computer specs...should it be suitable for DV capture?

Intel PIII 733MHz w/ 256K cahce
128M PC133 RAM
GF2 GTS with TV-Out
3 port Firewire card
10G HD(plan to add a much large capture drive)
IDE is probably ATA66
Windows 2000

[The village idiot]

captionsmachine specs

Yikes, you did say that most things will be going back out to tape, right? The only reason I say this, is 'cause I got tired of converting to mpeg on a similar speed machine, only to find something wrong and having to redo it. DV to mpeg will take about 6 hours, for a 42 minute movie.

Your premiere most likely will not see your card until something is connected to it, like a camera or analog to DV device.

ATA 66 drives will be good enough for DV! Even ATA33 will get you by in a pinch. The firewire boxes (and most likely USB2) only get around ATA33 speeds, and they have worked well for me.

[NES_Master]

Yea...most will be on tapes, but some may be on CD. I plan to make videos for other people, and most would perfer a VHS over a VCD. Anyway, thats the best part about my capture comp...it's only used for captureing! So if a video is going to take days to convert, thats fine, I still have tons of other comuters to use (If you didn't know, I personally own 35 computer )

[yg1968]

If you are getting a DV camcorder, you might as well get one with video in and a passthrough feature in order to use it as a capture card. If you do this, you have no need for the Canopus. You can export the DV back to the camcorder when you need to.

Nevertheless, you may want a TV out card for other purposes. For example to record to your VCR an mpeg-2 file, etc.

[SKITZOMIKE]

If you dont mind springing, you should get a Canopus DVSTORM SE PLUS.
It is the best video in\out device i have ever used! The only thing, make sure you have a deep enough case for the internal card, its probably a foot and a half long... the box fits right into your 5.25 in bay, and if you aint got one free, it converts to a breakout box.... hehehee, come in handy when you're switching computers.... (inside joke)...

and nobody cares if you have a crapload of computers... they all suck...
heheehee

[NES_Master]

DV-Storm...not a bad idea. But I think you misread my first post. I have $300 to spend, not $3000 Also, whats that about switching? Is it not the DV-REX that is switchable?

I'm sure someone cares about my computers...atleast my 3 700+ MHz ones. Anyway, I wasn't bragging(well, not completely) I was just saying it dosn't matter if one computer is caught up rendering somthing.

[Leon8]

Can anybody what is the different capturing with the Canopus ADV 100 vs
capturing via firewire from a DV camcorder? Is there a quality different?
And have anybody try the DAC-2?

Thanks,

Leon

[bertmartin]

The Canopus ADV 100 is for capturing analog. This is all I use it for. I use it to capture old analog tapes from my Sony camera and to capture VHS tapes. You could use it with a TV feed also but I don't. I don't need it for DV. I don't use the output feature with the Canopus ADV 100. I have a DV camera so after I capture (with the Canopus) I edit or whatever and copy to my DV camera. Then I can copy to VHS (record) from my DV camera. If you capture with the Canopus ADV 100 and then output back thru the Canopus you are doing 2 conversions and may loose more quality than necessary. Of course the DV camera is converting the output to analog too, but it seems to do a good job and I don't tie up my computer.

[NES_Master]

The ADVC 100 is a a device to convert analog to DV/Firewire and back. I plan to do most of my capturing via DV, but I do want a way to export my video to VHS without converting and playing full screen.

[tokyootaku]

How can you use the Canopus box ADVC 100 to do a Perfect TV Capture ? Advise ? Thanks and appreciate. As the football season is now on and I would like to get a TV capture solution.

tokyootaku@hotmail.com

Not knowing what your previous question was, here is my expereince with the ADVC 100. It is a capture box, external to the PC. It is used in conjunction with an OHCI firewire (IEEE1394) card that plugs into a spare PCI slot in your PC. It connects via firewire port on the card, and transfers DV (3.6Mbps I think from memory) at a fixed rate and resolution (PAL/NTSC 720/640 x 576/480). DV transfer is a file transfer, no compression (done by the DV device e.g. DV camera). If capturing analog, which this box does, then it uses a codec chip on-board to compress to DV, and this is transfered by the firewire port. Sending files back to the box is the reverse, transfer DV if to a DV device (camera to tape etc) or DV to box, converts to analog and back out to VCR etc. It has composite and S Video coneections in/out.

Audio and video are in perfect sync no matter how long the capture is, no dropped frames either. Only PC resources are writing to disk. Approx. 18 minutes of DV is 4Gig on your hard drive, or about 13-14 Gig an hour.

You cannot capture through it in any other format than DV PAL/NTSC, or send back out through it either except in the intended DV format.

I use Vegas Video to capture and edit, and either the included Main Concept or TMPG (render to new DV AVI file first) to encode to SVCD etc. I don't have a DVD burner yet, but I would probably get the Sony DRU500.

I have a registered version of IuVCR (newest beta) that alllows perfect capture from the Canopus box, and has a scheduler that I will try with TV programs.

The Canopus box is great, no hassle, no problem with audio or video. It is the only capture device I would use in my short capture experience. Vegas is alos great, easy to use, but powerful if you know how, edits any video file as long as you have a codsec under windows (DV, mpeg 1/2), encodes to many formats as well.

You will need to get a lager seperate hard drive, should be ATA100 7200 rpm, but a lot also depends on the rest of your computer.

[yg1968]

NES_Master,

I hope that you realize that you can most likely export DV back to your camcorder and then directly plug your camcorder to your VCR. If you have a digital camcorder with a passthrough feature, I think that you can do this without even recording it to a miniDV tape. It seems to me that the Canopus does the exact same thing as a Camcorder with a passthrough feature. I am still not sure why you need the Canopus.

[NES_Master]

Actually, my camera dosn't seem to do that... But either way, I'd rather have somthing else to connect it to. I don't want to wear all the ports out on my new camera. Also, I've heard some cameras show the video much darker then the origanal. Oh, and I don't want to always rely on my camera when I want to capture somthing from the TV or VCR...

[yg1968]

I can tell you that it works on the Sony TRV-25. It's a bit complicated but it works. You have to use a freeware program like DVIO to export the DV to the camcorder. DV out has to be disabled in the camcorder's menu. The display must be set to LCD and video out on the camcorder's menu. The RCA connections must be connected to your VCR. You may have to close and open the LCD display for the display settings to take effect. Anyways, it works. I was kind on of curious to try it after you mentionned it.

[NES_Master]

Hehe...I was going to get that exact camera. However, I settled with TRV240, as I don't need super quality, and $375 was a great price.

I tried what you said, and it works great... It's just, as I mentioned before, I don't want to rely on my camera to do everything. I tried that with a D8 deck we had at school. With in a year, not only dose it look horrible, it's starting to mess up. I don't want the same to happen to my equipment...

[The village idiot]

NES_master:
I think you have a good plan in mind. No sense beating up your camera everytime you want to grab something off of TV. Just makes sense if you have the money to be able to do it.

[yg1968]

I agree with the villiage idiot (what does that make me?). I have heard only good things about the Canopus ADVC-100 but it's nice to know that you can also do it with your camcorder.