PixeDV

[mhar4]

I have acquired an ADS Instant USB for Mac with no software. (It's a short and unhappy story). Although you can download a version of the PixeDV drivers from Pixela in Japan, it requires a serial number. Does anyone know of a source of this software? I am willing to pay for it.

thanks

[Frobozz]

Pretty useless box without the software. I suggest contacting ADS (adstech.com) for purchase information.

[mhar4]

Well, the guy who sold me the box is sending the disks he forgot, so the whole problem should be solved. But here's a bit of trivia: he emailed me PixeDV as a zip file, but it would only quit on startup. I had a look in the package to see if anything was missing, and who knows, but I did notice a different file called "CaptyUSBLib.bundle" So I copied this from the corrupt English version to the Japanese, and hey it worked. I'd been meaning to learn Japanese anyway. I am wondering if it would work the other way, so the English version would run Pixela's own hardware MPEG encoder.

Anyway, although I've read some negative comments about the ADS unit and its software, it seems to work well. The capturing I did looked good, was in sync and had no dropped frames. Demuxing the files and authoring with Sizzle also worked with no problems. And it's a *lot* quicker than software encoding.

[AntnyMD]

Anyway, although I've read some negative comments about the ADS unit and its software, it seems to work well. The capturing I did looked good, was in sync and had no dropped frames. Demuxing the files and authoring with Sizzle also worked with no problems. And it's a *lot* quicker than software encoding.

All of the problems with this box you've read about in your research are referring to the PC version, and not the Mac version. The Mac version when it came out was a more logical and consistent application of the technology. PC users not exposed to the Mac version would never know this.

I have this box and the large amount of television I've been able to capture and burn has been incredible, and in my opinion has more than made up for the extra cost of the Mac version of the box. And now that Toast 6 Titanium's version 6.0.3 doesnt try to re-encode the MPEG audio to PCM audio for DVDs, making a quick-and-dirty DVD of those captures couldn't be more simple.