ADVC-300 vs. ADVC-100

[DeadLily]

Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like Canopus had discontinued the ADVC-100 in favor of the ADVC-300. While the picture make them look identical, I guess the 300 has more corrective tools. Does anyone know if the 300 defeats Macrovision like the 100 did?

[FulciLives]

Unless I'm mistaken, it looks like Canopus had discontinued the ADVC-100 in favor of the ADVC-300. While the picture make them look identical, I guess the 300 has more corrective tools. Does anyone know if the 300 defeats Macrovision like the 100 did?

The ADVC-300 does not replace the ADVC-100 but is a "step-up" version in that it has a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and some sort of DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

This makes the unit cost a lot more than the ADVC-100 but then again the price is around the same as buying the ADVC-100 and a seperate stand alone TBC so it almost makes sense ...

I say almost because it has been reported that the ADVC-300 does not ignore MACROVISION.

That pretty much sucks

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[DeadLily]

The ADVC-300 does not replace the ADVC-100 but is a "step-up" version in that it has a built-in TBC and 3D Y/C comb filter and some sort of DNR (Digital Noise Reduction).

Does this mean that Canopus is still making the ADVC-100? It's not on their website, as far as I can tell.

[BrainStorm69]

It's still on their US website.

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/ADVC-100/pm_advc-100.asp

[MacHound1]

Canopus has been making frequent changest to their website over the past couple of weeks. I've found products disappear from the website, only to reappear a few hours later.

Regarding Macrovision, there is an instructive thread on this subject over at the canopus forums. (You need to be registered & logged into the Canopus forums to be able to open this link.)

http://forum.canopus.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=GenADVC&Number=134781&page=1&view=col...5&o=&fpart=all

Bottom line: Despite initial optimism to the contrary, ADVC-300's TBC has been engineered NOT to defeat Macrovision. If you want to do this with ADVC-300, you will apparently need additional hardware (external TBC, or VCR with a built-in TBC) to make it happen.

Some mention was made about whether Canopus could re-enable the ever-popular "undocumented feature" through a firmware patch, though it seems unlikely they will do so for the US market. [It will be interesting to see what they ship to Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan and other countries that pay lip service to DMCA regulations, or if an unsupported firmware update will quietly slip out via anonymous sources sometime in the future. This is, of course, pure speculation.]

I think anyone who buys an ADVC-300 today should accept the fact that this capability will not exist for their product anytime soon, if ever.

[Speed Demon]

Bottom line: Despite initial optimism to the contrary, ADVC-300's TBC has been engineered NOT to defeat Macrovision. If you want to do this with ADVC-300, you will apparently need additional hardware (external TBC, or VCR with a built-in TBC) to make it happen.

It seems you can disable MV now.

By the way, does anybody know if the TBC enhancements are still working if MV is turned off?

[FulciLives]

This is an old thread. There have been other threads about the ADVC-300 and from what I understand the built-in TBC is only a Line TBC ... not a Full Frame TBC.

Also from user reports it would seem that this built-in TBC does very little which does make sense since a Line TBC is not nearly as good as a Full Frame TBC.

I do not own one ... just saying what I know based on what other users have said.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[videobread]

I have a ADVC-100, Hotronic AP41 TBC, big ass Panasonic decks and a Marco Terminator II. Great setup. Does a great job at digitizing my S-VHS. The TBC is the real deal. I bought it new in 2000 for $1500. The Macro Terminator II is a great unit but, you have not been able to get them for years. I can't imagine why you would want to over ride the Macro Vision. In this digital age it would seem to be the long way around the barn.
The TBC in the ADVC-300 is hoaky.

[videobread]

Also, the Hotronic AP41 is a real TBC. There are two listed one on ebay. One for $200. Most people don't know what a TBC is.

[edDV]

The ADVC-100 was replaced by the ADVC-110.

The 300 has aditional features such as proc amp controls and line TBC/DNR. I don't think the line TBC was intended to be a solution for consumer VHS machines. A line TBC may be enough for more stable pro S-VHS machines at SP speed.

The ADVC line was recently discussed here
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic336600.html

[Speed Demon]

Thanks for your reply.

I can't imagine why you would want to over ride the Macro Vision.

Why not?? I have VHS tapes (original) I spent money for (e.g. concert tapes) that are still not available on DVD - I'd buy them at once but they asre just not available. Also, I heard that the ADVC 300 wrongly assumes some old tapes with many distortions to have macrovision.

The TBC in the ADVC-300 is hoaky.

What does "hoaky" mean?

Anyway, does anybody know whether or not the LTBC and all of ADV 300's enhancements are working when MV is turned off?

[miamicanes]

IMHO, the ADVC-300's TBC just seems kind of half-assed and pointless compared to even the cheapest external TBC. Hell, at the VERY least, they could have included a full-frame TBC that ACCURATELY (as opposed to PARANOID-ly) detected Macrovision, then re-injected it into the repaired signal if they felt compelled to. As I understand it, the whole reason frame TBCs were rare historically was due to RAM costs. RAM now costs almost nothing, at least in the quantities required by even the most ambitious TBC. Even things that once required expensive SRAM can now usually get away with PSRAM (SDRAM with additional onboard circuitry to make it look like SRAM to the outside world).