Datavideo DAC-100?

[zanos]

Can anyone recommend this?

[Toogy]

I do believe that the DAC-100 only converts Digital TO Analog.

Not really want you want at all.

[fourthquark]

The Datavideo DAC-100 encodes directly to DV format. It does not encode directly to MPEG.

If all you want to do is record TV programs in realtime to mpeg2, all you need is the PVR-250. You don't need a Canopus 1394, unless you are planning to do something that you didn't mention in your posting.

[zanos]

My bad, I must have been reading something else. I think I'll go back to bed now.

[reubenray]

I am using the DAC100 similiar to a VCR with Scenlyzer. It works great. Have not had any dropped frames and the audio is always in line with the video.

[Marco33]

I have one. The only problem I have is when the tape (VHS) is in poor condition. The DAC will skip over the poor quality portion of the tape. I think this is done to keep the audio in sync so, here and there you will see 2 seconds of footage missing.

[ZenZen]

Fourthquark wrote..."The Datavideo DAC-100 encodes directly to DV format. It does not encode directly to MPEG"

Using the DAC-100 and the new MainConcept Mpeg Encoder ver 1.4 it DOES indeed encode directly to MPEG. As soon as you click the Stop Capture button, you have an SVCD or DVD compliant Mpeg 2 ready for authoring and burning. The quality of the Mpeg2 is remarkably good

[fourthquark]

ZenZen,

That's a nice feature, I didn't know that MainConcept did real-time MPEG2 encoding, I thought it only did "offline" encoding. MainConcept is a software encoder, so I assume you use MainConcept to capture from the DAC-100, and as it captures it does on-the-fly conversion of the DV-video to MPEG2? You would certainly end up with an MPEG2 at the end of the process, but then what is the point of spending $180 on a DAC-100 box? You could just capture into MainConcept through a cheap capture card.

The DAC-100 unit itself only does hardware encoding to DV format. It does not have a chip to do hardware encoding to MPEG2. In the scenario you describe, it is the MainConcept software that is doing the on-the-fly conversion to MPEG2. The DAC-100 unit itself is not capable of encoding video directly to MPEG2.

[zanos]

Hmm, that's interesting. I didn't know mainconcept could do that. Wouldn't a hardware encoder do a better job though? If not I'll just get mainconcept from a friend of mine and get the DAC-100, for transfering vhs and recording tv shows. I was thinking about getting the wintv pvr 250 up till now but I might reconsider. Anymore details?

[ZenZen]

The latest version of MainConcept encoder (ver 1.4) has an option under the Tools menu to capture video. Here you can set up to capture to AVI using any of your favourite codecs, or you can select the MC encoder and capture realtime. Simply set the SVCD or DVD bitrate then press the Capture button and it captures realtime as an Mpeg 2. The quality of the DVD compliant Mpeg2 file is certainly very acceptable

On the downside, you need a reasonably powerful computer to capture realtime without dropping frames. You also need to tick the buffer option on the MC capture screen. Someone on this forum in another post is having trouble capturing real time via a TV capture card. Dropping heaps of frames. But with the video being transferred from Cable TV to my computer via the DAC-100, no problems and no dropped frames
Also be aware that Mpeg2 video is a lot harder to edit. If you need to chop out lots of TV station breaks and add filters etc, you are much better capturing to AVI then frameserving from Virtual Dub.

You can download MC 1.4 and try it for free. The trial leaves a watermark on the video, but it works. After trying it for a day or so, and with its fantastic speed and excellent quality, I flashed the plastic card. And no, I don't work for them

[zanos]

How powerful are we talking here? Check out my computer details. Also what do you mean by tick the buffer option?

[ZenZen]

My computer is AMD 1900 with 7200rpm drives.
As mentioned above, it may not work successfully with an El Cheepo TV capture card without dropping lottsa frames. But I can verify the DAC-100 (and also the Canopus ADVC-100) can capture realtime, using MC 1.4 and without any frame drops
Here's how:
1) Load MC 1.4 and select Tools - Capture
2) Select a Video Capture Device
3) Click Setup
4) Click Capture tab
5) Set an Output file
6) Under Compression - Video select MC Encoder
7) Click on Enable Buffering (or even the DAC-100/ADVC-100 will drop frames)
8 Click on Config
9) Select Video Type (SVCD or DVD) and a suitable bitrate
10) Click OK and Start Capturing

[zanos]

Thanks for the info