Canopus ADVC vs. Matrox RT.X100

[mracer]

The MPEGPRO MVR is an MPEG capture card. You don't do any but the very slightest editing in MPEG. MPEG is a presentation format, not an editing format.

Editing is the reason you will want to capture in DV and be able to use all the fantastic software and hardware DV editing tools out there now. I'm talking about professional software/hardware like Avid Xpress Pro (with Mojo is crazy good), almost professional software like Premiere Pro, Media Studio Pro and Vegas and consumer software like Studio 9 or Video Studio. Most can deal with other formats like huffy, MJPEG, MPEG, etc., but they all work so much better with DV that it's not funny.

Here is an example: your shooting a new project on DV and editing in Premiere Pro. Now, you realize you also need to edit into this same project some analog Hi-8/SVHS/8mm/VHS from 9 -10 years ago. Do you want to capture this analog footage in as DV for seemless integration into your project? Or do you break out the old TV card, DC10+, DC30, or ATI to capture huffy, MJPEG, or GOD forbid MPEG2 and then have to render it to DV in software to go into the project? Unless you are insane, you want that footage put through a hardware DV converter to go into your project.

If all your doing is capturing a TV show or VHS movie with very light or no editing, then a consumer mpeg solution is good enough, but good enough for capping TV shows was not the point of this thread.

[lordsmurf]

I'm dumbfounded by the way people deify the ADVC as if it were a video god. It's useless to me. Loose image quality while I convert?

I was under the impression you never tried the ADVC?

I never quit trying new things and expanding knowledge.
DV 4:1:1 sucks for conversion.

[ajc53]

DV 4:1:1 sucks for conversion.

Follow it all the way through to playing a DVD on TV: it is not very noticable. Matter of fact, I can't tell the difference. May be it is because camcorder VHS is inferior anyway.

I will tell you what sucks!!!

Going over the "Top ten Do's and Don'ts to prevent DROPPED FRAMES and AUDIO SYNC problems", to see what I may have missed.

That is not a problem for me in DV conversion using the ADVC.

[AuditSup]

So mracer, with all that said, if I want to capture from VHS and Hi8 as a direct copy to DVD as an archive, what would work best? Plextor Convertx or Canopus ADVC-100? Or another product? Quality is important as well as time and cost.

Now once I have the copies on DVD, am I correct in stating that I will need to recapture in order to edit? What equipment/software would be best keeping in mind that these are home projects.

Thanks again for your assistance.

[mracer]

AuditSup, I'm sorry but I must defer any comments about the Plextor Convertx to someone who actually uses one. I do not want to make comments about equipment I have not had the chance to use myself.

My thoughts on your situation are this: if you don't need to edit, buy a standalone DVD recorder to make DVDs of your old tapes.

If you need to edit and want more control over your projects, I think the best solution for you would be a software package like Ulead Video Studio 8 or Pinnacle Studio 9, the ADVC-100, and a DVD+/-R /RW burner.

I 've used the ADVC-100 extensively and I'll be very happy to try and answer anything I can about it. In my experimentation and testing, I've used the NEC 2500a, Avid Xpress Pro, Avid Xpress DV 3.5, Media Studio Pro 7, Premiere Pro, Movie Factory 3DC, Studio 9, Encore, Video Studio 7, DC10+, BT878, Mainconcept 1.4.2, TMPGEnc 2.5, and TMPGEnc DVD Author.

When I work with analog material my work flow is usually something like this if I need to edit:
1. Capture analog through ADVC-100 using Studio 9.
2. Edit in Studio 9, Premiere Pro or Media Studio 7
3. transcode DV to DVD compliant MPEG2 in TMPGEnc 2.5
4. Author and burn DVD in TMPGEnc DVD Author

Or if I don't need to edit:
1. Capture from ADVC-100 straight to MPEG2 using Mainconcept 1.4.2
2. Author and burn DVD in TMPGEnc DVD Author

[lordsmurf]

Just some info on the Sampling that I was talking about:


** 4:2:2 sampling is used in ITU-R BT601, D-1, D-5, Ampex DCT,
Digital Betacam, Digital-S, and DVCPRO50 formats.



** 4:1:1 sampling is used in 525/59.94 ("NTSC") DV and DVCAM,
and in both 525/59.94 and 625/50 ("PAL") DVCPRO.



** Co-sited 4:2:0 sampling is used in 625/50 ("PAL") DV and
DVCAM formats. Cr and Cb samples are on alternate lines in each field (a
frame view would show two lines of YCr,Y pairs, then two lines of YCb,Y pairs).
Note that this is different from the 4:2:0 chroma sample positioning in JPEG,
MPEG, and H.261 formats!


Here is the website of the info (you see above) for more info:
* --> http://www.adamwilt.com/pix-sampling.html

-vhelp

Would you happen to know of any good images that show MPEG 4:2:0 standard? This is a topic of great interest to me right now.