canopus remote capture 'boxes' (advc100, mpeg-pro)

[linux-works]

I can't seem to find a lot of real discussion on the canopus mpeg hardware low-end encoders. meaning, the $500-range mpeg-pro that converts analog a+v to some propr. usb2 protocol, but ends up as a .mpg file after you hit 'stop' on the recording/controlling pc.

I am trying to decide what's best for my needs. I currently have the advc100 analog capture box that sends firewire (compliant) output that any old capture program can work with. works great, its standards compliant, its very stable and works well. but its a lot of data and maybe you don't always need 'uncompressed' raw data.

I only plan to edit out commercials (typical use case). never anything more than that. so given that constraint, it seems reasonable for me to consider my 'raw capture' format to be mpg and to consider the lower end boxes like the plextor, the canopus and the adaptec (maybe others).

there are a bunch of cheap-ish boxes that do dv->mpg (or analog-in and mpg-stream out) conversion for you. to greater or lesser degrees.

if your goal is to get .mpg files on disk so that you can slice and dice them then burn to dvd, are the lowend ($100) and mid-end ($500, canopus) boxes real serious rivals to the alternative of capture to dv, encode in software (wait, wait, sleep some more..) ?

will that $500 canopus box really perform that much better than the $100 plextor? anyone have any datapoints on those?

or should I just give it up, get a fast host cpu and do all the encodes in pure host-based software. and keep using my advc100 and be happy with that.

some guidance would be helpful and sorry for the long initial post.

thanks!

/bryan

[linux-works]

also, to throw into the discussion, the adaptec and plextor and canopus-mpeg boxes all use usb2.0 for their remote connect. the canopus advc100 that I use is firewire.

this is worth noting as I've experienced better connection reliability with a long long firewire cable than a usb2 cable. with usb2.0, you have to daisy-chain hubs or repeaters to extend the length. usb2.0 seems to be the wrong choice for when the capture box is going to be located far away (near a tv, for example).

unfortunately, I can only find analog->dv boxes that use firewire as their interconnect. all others that emit mpeg as 'raw' on the cable use usb2.0. quite unfortunate, IMHO.

[jimmalenko]

I can't offer any promising advice regarding buying any extra devices, but I can offer this guide written by FulciLives, for use with your ADVC-100. I use it for your run-of-the-mill TV and VHS caps, where you you just want to trim commercials and not much more. It integrates the convolution3D noise removal filter using AVISynth also. IMO it's much easier to edit with AVI to avoid the synch issues when editing MPEGs.

[lordsmurf]

I've been warned ... twice ... by people I trust (and are pros) to avoid the Canopus MPEG hardware encoders.

Whatever that's worth to you.

[linux-works]

I've been warned ... twice ... by people I trust (and are pros) to avoid the Canopus MPEG hardware encoders.

Whatever that's worth to you.

this is the first I've heard of this. I googled and googled - but only saw ADS from them, to be honest. not much in the way of USER reviews.

and I also called their tech support and had some chats with their guys.
posing the same questions as here. they can talk a lot about storm2 and such but not a lot about the outboard (or pci version) of their mpeg encoder. seems you can run an avi thru their pci card and get realtime encode from it - but no way to send a file to the usb server thingie and have it send compressed results back. pity. same engine, from what I hear. and since its a batch job, even if its not realtime but close, it would still be nice funct to have. an mpg encode slave device. think if you could gang them and parallel them..

anyway, maybe conventional wisdom is to spend my $$ on a faster cpu (I'm at 2.6 p4 right now) and just keep going the software route.

its just SUCH a pity to have to beat the disks and cpu up so much. mpg is sooo much smaller and quicker to edit (womble) and save and burn almost directly. avi, while the ultimate in editability, seems way way overkill for me. womble-style editing of after-the-fact mpgs seems good enough for my needs, I think.

but if the canopus really isn't worth its $500 tag then I'll thank you for your post and having saved me a lot of grief!

maybe amd64 would be a good encode engine for video - and money better spent (?)

[lechtin]

Could you not just use a software that can capture from DV but encode to MPEG in real-time? I think the Mainconcept MPEG encoder does just that and you CPU seems to me like it should be powerful enough to keep up.

Also, if efficiency/quality is of any concern to you, keep in mind that this approach prevents you from going for 2-pass VBR encoding.