JVC SR-VD400US to ADC (ADVC-300) via firewire?

[adondeeres]

Is it possible to have my JVC SR-VD400US output via firewire to my Canopus ADVC-300 which then outputs to my computer via firewire? Would this be significantly better than the method I'm using now, which is outputting the JVC VCR to the ADVC-300 via composite or s-video? I currently don't own a 4pin-4pin firewire cable to test this out--I only have 4pin-6pin and 6pin-6pin.

Although the manual states that connecting the JVC VCR to computers via firewire is not "guaranteed", I tried it anyway for a brief moment and found that my computer can control the VCR through firewire and it also captures the analog video as mpg and not avi. I guess this is pretty obvious in hindsight since the VCR wasn't meant to be an ADC.

All opinions are welcome.

[2Bdecided]

The firewire output of the VCR, if it works, will be standard 25Mbps DV. There is no need to connect it via the ADVC300, since the ADVC300 will simply pass the digits through without change. That second (4-pin) firewire port on the ADVC is just there for convenience.

If you're getting MPEG rather than AVI, then it's likely your software is re-compressing it. It's rare (to say the least!) to send MPEG via Firewire - and rarer still to have an MPEG encoder built into a VCR!

I could be wrong.

Cheers,
David.

[adondeeres]

The firewire output of the VCR, if it works, will be standard 25Mbps DV. There is no need to connect it via the ADVC300, since the ADVC300 will simply pass the digits through without change. That second (4-pin) firewire port on the ADVC is just there for convenience.

If you're getting MPEG rather than AVI, then it's likely your software is re-compressing it. It's rare (to say the least!) to send MPEG via Firewire - and rarer still to have an MPEG encoder built into a VCR!

I could be wrong.

Cheers,
David.

The only reason I'd need to pass it through the ADVC-300 is to use the built in filters, which do a very decent job of cleaning up most of my old VHS tapes. So if you were to make some assumptions, would you say that using the firewire output on the JVC VCR to the ADVC-300 could possibly result in better image quality overall?

[edDV]

Is it possible to have my JVC SR-VD400US output via firewire to my Canopus ADVC-300 which then outputs to my computer via firewire? Would this be significantly better than the method I'm using now, which is outputting the JVC VCR to the ADVC-300 via composite or s-video? I currently don't own a 4pin-4pin firewire cable to test this out--I only have 4pin-6pin and 6pin-6pin.

Although the manual states that connecting the JVC VCR to computers via firewire is not "guaranteed", I tried it anyway for a brief moment and found that my computer can control the VCR through firewire and it also captures the analog video as mpg and not avi. I guess this is pretty obvious in hindsight since the VCR wasn't meant to be an ADC.

All opinions are welcome.

Several things here are strange. If you connect S-Video to the ADVC-300 and IEEE-1394 to the computer, how could the computer be controlling the VCR?

Where does MPeg2 encoding come from? It must be the capture program.

I don't think you have established yet that the JVC outputs DV from the VHS deck.

[adondeeres]

Several things here are strange. If you connect S-Video to the ADVC-300 and IEEE-1394 to the computer, how could the computer be controlling the VCR?

Where does MPeg2 encoding come from? It must be the capture program.

I don't think you have established yet that the JVC outputs DV from the VHS deck.

I went ahead and did the test again. Of the 3 programs (Sony Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, and Ulead Video Studio), only Pinnacle recognizes the JVC VCR when it's plugged into my computer via firewire--which is the only time that Pinnacle can control the VCR. Pinnacle recognizes the VCR as an MicroMV Camcorder and captures in mpeg. Perhaps it's a long shot to think that it will be able to output DV through firewire into my ADVC-300?

[gsh]

As you know page 67 of the user manual says

Do not connect this vcr to the pc with the i.Link cable. The operation is not guaranteed

http://books.jvcservice.com/Download/962524531/LPT0789-001B.pdf
As only one programme is recognising it, and incorrectly at that, I'd say you're out of luck doing it directly. (Strange that Pinnacle is doing the conversion to mpeg though - I'd have thought it would simply capture whatever it was fed) However if you are trying to capture analogue you might as well stick with using the svhs connection to the ADVC and let it digitise the footage. I doubt you would see any improvement if you were able to output via the firewire connection - will the ADVC apply filters to a DV signal?

[edDV]

Strange beast that JVC. MicoMV was a tape based MPeg2 camcorder format ~12Mb/s that predated miniDVD and HDV. It did use IEEE-1394 for interface but very few editors supported that format. Two were Pinnacle Studio and ULead Video Studio.
http://www.manifest-tech.com/media_pc/micromv.htm#MICROMV%20Format

I agree with gdh that you are probably best off doing S-Video to the AVDC-300 and use the proc amp controls as needed.