Hi All,

My main goal is to take analog tapes (family movies) and convert to nice mpeg2s and DVDs.

I have tested many products (SW and HW ) and have tried avarious PCs and I am still not getting what I think is a sharp enough image.
(I have good audio/video sync - just not a sharp image)

I thought I had issues with capture cards ..
then I blamed it on older VHS tapes ..
and slow PCs.

I went to raw AVI capture and then tmpg"ing" it - and still not totally sharp.

I was using a very clean p4 2.4 system with XP and very little else.
I was using a canopus advc50 and still the picture that I got was fuzzy.

I thought the ADVC may be bad/ the cable/ the 1394 port?

As A test I have now done a straight scenalyzer capture to AVI from a new tape on a mini DV to the clean XP system with plenty of disk space and memory and fast disks.

and STILL I am getting a fuzzy result - even with the AVI (HUGE) file

now here I am confused, because - I should be totally digital now no?
firweare from camcorder stright to AVI, NO lost frames ..

am I naive (or wrong) in thinking that this picture should look as good as the orginal off a tape?
In Avi?
In mpeg2 after tmpg.
On a dvd after tmpg dvd maker?

I have removed analog tapes and vcr from the picture.
pulled the advc ..
the 1394 fireware card is the same .. but it seems to work .
I no longer use any "quick to mpeg sw"..
and still with all this I am fuzzy

Am I expecting too much (I think not cause I see decent results from a friends mac)

could my video card and or monitor have any input on the result (not on how I see it but how the actual capture is made) - I have tested the resulting AVIs on several computers.

Any suggestions ideas etc?

Thanks
allen