analog video capture

[madjack53]

what a great place , I am wanting to add a video capture device to my system and am thinking about the ADS instant DVD usb 2 or the Pinnacle moviebox usb 2 any thoughts or comments or advice on these choices also can i capture straight audio with these devices(old vinyl) my main use would be archiving old commercial vhs tapes and capture of old family 8mm and super 8 film any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
thanx a bunch,
madjack 8)

[redwudz]

For a few dollars more than the Pinnacle, you might consider a ADVC-100. Uses a firewire card. USB 2 is usually OK, but firewire almost always works better.
I think an audio card would be much better for capturing sound off vinyl. There are good programs for audio that filter and clean up music from records.
If you have a fair amount of 8mm movies, another option is to buy a DV video camera with feedthrough. You can use it for your capture device, have a nice video camera, and tape your 8mm and transfer it to DV.

[FulciLives]

what a great place , I am wanting to add a video capture device to my system and am thinking about the ADS instant DVD usb 2 or the Pinnacle moviebox usb 2 any thoughts or comments or advice on these choices also can i capture straight audio with these devices(old vinyl) my main use would be archiving old commercial vhs tapes and capture of old family 8mm and super 8 film any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated
thanx a bunch,
madjack 8)

Just about everyone on here who has tried a USB type video capture solution has had problems.

Most of those are junk.

If you want a no hassels capture device then either get the CANOPUS ADVC-100 or the DataVideo DAC-100 which is pretty much the identical unit but can be bought for an average of $50 to $75 less than the CANOPUS ADVC-100

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[proxyx99]

Datavideo DAC-100 uses colorburst signal as a "lead" to enable capture. If this is signal is not present capture will stop. So no, you cannot use this device to capture sound only (there are workarounds). I suspect that in case of Canopus ADVC-100 the capture process is similar (you need to check with Canopus). As one of the respondents indicated, the best way to get sound is via line-in input on you sound card (better S/N ratio as well). In case of ADS I'm not sure about ver. 2 but ADS Instant DVD could capture sound only. Since as far as I know new ADS ver 2 implemented their version of locked audio the limitation could be the same is in case of Datavideo (color video signal has to be present).
Btw. I used to own ADS Instant DVD and never had issues with sound sync. or video quality. Even professionals are plesently surprised with its capture quality (see videoguys.com). I've captured over 60 hrs of video and never had any issue. Since you capture to MPEG2 directly there is some slight softening of the picture. I tested it against Vitec DCM and Navis Pro as well as Canopus Amber. Nothing to be ashamed of. Considering the price, quality is very good with almost zero arifacts (better then Vitec and Navis at 5MBps). For its price and ease of use thumbs up. Those who say its bad either have never used it and simply echo someone's opinion or lack some basic computer knowledge.

[FulciLives]

Datavideo DAC-100 uses colorburst signal as a "lead" to enable capture. If this is signal is not present capture will stop. So no, you cannot use this device to capture sound only (there are workarounds). I suspect that in case of Canopus ADVC-100 the capture process is similar (you need to check with Canopus). As one of the respondents indicated, the best way to get sound is via line-in input on you sound card (better S/N ratio as well). In case of ADS I'm not sure about ver. 2 but ADS Instant DVD could capture sound only. Since as far as I know new ADS ver 2 implemented their version of locked audio the limitation could be the same is in case of Datavideo (color video signal has to be present).

Well the original poster said he wanted to capture videos as well. Obviously for audio only stuff you would just use the LINE IN on your soundcard

Btw. I used to own ADS Instant DVD and never had issues with sound sync. or video quality. Even professionals are plesently surprised with its capture quality (see videoguys.com). I've captured over 60 hrs of video and never had any issue. Since you capture to MPEG2 directly there is some slight softening of the picture. I tested it against Vitec DCM and Navis Pro as well as Canopus Amber. Nothing to be ashamed of. Considering the price, quality is very good with almost zero arifacts (better then Vitec and Navis at 5MBps). For its price and ease of use thumbs up. Those who say its bad either have never used it and simply echo someone's opinion or lack some basic computer knowledge.

Well you are a first. Everyone I know who has tried the old version of the ADS Instant DVD USB device as well as the newer so-called 2.0 version have had audio sync problems more often than not.

I wouldn't use one if it was free.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SLICK RICK]

I just wanted to add, try to stay away from USB when dealing with video. Firewire is the way to go.

SLICK RICK

[proxyx99]

What a timely reply! As a former owner of ADS Instant DVD I still have original mpegs to prove my point (unedited). I also indicated that most fierce defense as well as attacks usually come from those who never owned it. God, was I I right!.
I try to limit myself to facts I can support. Tests I refer to went with cooperation of Berclare Video (www.bernclare.com) whom I also happen to know in person. FulciLives, I have no doubt has good intentions but knowing the subject first hand has more value to me then second hand opinions.

[FulciLives]

What a timely reply! As a former owner of ADS Instant DVD I still have original mpegs to prove my point (unedited). I also indicated that most fierce defense as well as attacks usually come from those who never owned it. God, was I I right!.
I try to limit myself to facts I can support. Tests I refer to went with cooperation of Berclare Video (www.bernclare.com) whom I also happen to know in person. FulciLives, I have no doubt has good intentions but knowing the subject first hand has more value to me then second hand opinions.

No I never owned the ADS Instant DVD capture device I'm just reporting on the fact that I've seen many many many posts on this website from people who have used it and had many problems ... most noteably audio sync problems.

Read what other people have said about it ... not too good:

ADS Instant DVD

ADS Instant DVD 2.0

The 2 most recent comments for the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 are actually good so maybe they did finally fix the problems with it.

Almost everyone seems to hate the original version though and there even the comments on the 2.0 version are mixed.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

*** EDIT ***
Fixed the link for the ADS Instant DVD 2.0 which was originall incorrect.

[madjack53]

thanx all the reason i was looking at the ADS or Pinnacle devices was the software bundles included with them the canopus doesn't come with any but from what i have learned here on sitethat is not really a problem with what is available onlinethanx again ...madjack 8)

[proxyx99]

I hate to go on and on but you don't give up. As I said it depends on the user. My experience was nothing but excellent. Check this, the guy who bought it from we (on Ebay), no expert, wrote in his feedback: " Praise : Awesome product! Reliable service! Great communication! A======!!!!"
So there must be something to it, don't you think?
Many users mistake audio sync issues that arise from editing MPEG 2 with original input file quality. It's well known that MPEG 2 is not a preferred editing format for variety of reasons (audio sync being one of the most prominent). No.2 : it happens very often that produced MPEG 2 program stream shows delayed or sped up audio on playback. Just look at the number of posts about it (probably no. 1 issue...?). And what's interesting the stream may be 100% OK, happened to me and many others. PC's low on resources have huge difficulty syncing both. Too many processes running and... voila. You reboot, test again, sync is perfect. I suspect that those who had issues with USB capture belong to this category of users, not well versed in computers. Don't blame them for that. Sometimes "...it takes a village..." to figure something out. But one should stay away from giving advice based on hearsay, very dangerous and ignorant. Take my word for it FulciLives.

[proxyx99]

madjack53 don't worry about the software too much. Make sure you research newsgroups and read about the quality of encoding, reliability and features of both. Determine your budget. Both names are good and have lots of experience in the subject. More diligent your research wiser the decision. I use now firewire DAC-100 as I wanted a higher bitrate encoding then max 5 Mbps that ADS offered before ver. 2. If you plan to edit a lot, DV capture is better, but not perfect either. Plus u must have lots of space ( 1 hr of 25 Mbps capture = 12 Gig !). Considering edition and test runs it's good to have 3x as much for every hr. captured.
Plus you need to have a decent software MPEG 2 encoder as well.