G4, Canopus ADVC100 and capturing Cable...

[terryj]

Canopus users on a mac, here is a stumper:

Digital cable comes into the living room.
Splits off with a Radio Shack Y splitter.
One cable ( set 1) goes to living room set.
Picture and sound OK.

Cable two ( set two) goes into a VCR, which from there
outputs via RCA to my Canopus ADVC100.

Open iMovie to capture, the picture is grainy, has rolling bars of white
through it , and audio is choppy.

Here's what I have done to troubleshoot thus far:

I have tried removing the tv side ( set one), going down to one input,
bringing in only to set two ( VCR), and still it persists. It is digital cable, could the problem be bringing that into a VCR and then out again as analog?

I have all cable moved away from electrical plugins.
Could it be my G4, since my ADVC100 sits on top of that,
causing some type of electrical interference?


No problems with pre-recorded tapes or recorded tapes done in another part of the house.
Everything though from this VCR has the grey bar rolls in it, if recorded
off the cable input.

I have even tried an Attenuator ( 9.00 Radio Shack) and still nothing.

any ideas would be appreciated.

[born bad]

Have you checked the digital cable box itself for RCA jacks? My USB Instant DVD capture device runs directly from the RCA jacks on the back of my Motorola digital cable box, and it's always worked like a charm.

[terryj]

No cable box, this connection is going into a cable direct tv.

Things I have tried thus far:
moving the G4, the ADVC100, and the VCR onto one surge protector,
making sure it is properly grounded, and I have recorded both direct in
and also a recording made on the sme VCR. The hum I heard in audio
is now gone from both areas, but the rolling grey bar still persists often though it is now fainter than before.

[bilestyle]

i have the same problems with my ADS instant dvd.. when i run from cable to VCR to my ADS instant dvd i get the scrolling grey bars... when i did straight digi cable to teh comp it works fine no scrolling bars... digi cable to box to my laptop, no grey bars.. but regular cable to vcr to my G4 desktop yields the bar, while interestingly regular cable to a vcr to my laptop lacks those bars.. very bizarre indeed.... i just remedy by capping to my laptop, unfortunately that isnt the best solution since not everyone has a laptop and desktop at disposal... maybe my rambling at least gives some insight