Pyro A/V Link from ADS tech

[sdm]

I've been (attempting to) capture my VHS tapes and export as divx avis using the Pyro A/V Link and Toast 7.

I’ve been trying to capture from a Sony VHS player. Somehow signal stops occasionally causing my software to stop capturing.
I would say I have about a 25% success rate on my attempts. Ie. 3 times out of 4, the capture stops.
(Always at a different spot too, and with different VHS tapes)

When I use other software to capture (Final cut pro) it allows me to ignore dropped frames, but warns me I’ve got dropped frames and I’m concerned because I don’t know how many or where. Also Final Cut Pro isn’t as convenient for my purposes.

Previously I was using a Canopus ADVC 100 I had borrowed from work. It never had this problem.

If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks, SDM

[MerlinMacuser]

I have had that problem too with a recording of a TV show on a non-commercial tape (meaning the tape was recorded by a person on his home deck not by a company as a made-for-sale item). One alternative would be to record until it stops then restart from the spot where it skips and stitch them together in iMovie. Takes a lot of patience though...

[Frobozz]

Keep the Pyro cool. Make sure it has good ventilation under the box. A trick my brother used was to put it in the freezer for awhile before using it. But those boxes have a problem with dropped frames. Canopus is far superior.

Also, you don't say what you're using for the capturing application. Try the freeware Vidi.

You also might consider using a DV camcorder that has Firewire pass through or getting an EyeTV 200 to do your capturing.

[sdm]

Interesting.... I'll try keeping it cool and ventilated first.

Yes I discovered Vidi yesterday. It seems pretty good, and it seems to just keep on capturing even if the tape is crappy (which some of them are)

I was using toast 7 for the .dv capture and divx export from there. Or FCP if I need to do any edits.

Thanks for the suggestions.

-- sdm.

[decay]

http://www.macintouch.com/digitizingvideo.html