Canopus ADVC55 vs Roxio USB

[edDV]

The manual explains the dip switch settings
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/ADVC55.pdf



Typical settings

North America - OFF ON OFF
Japan - OFF OFF OFF
Europe (PAL) - ON OFF OFF
Europe (SECAM) - ON ON OFF

[edDV]

3) I looked at the Roxio mentioned in this frame and it does output movies at 8mb/s MPEG-2, would it be fair to assume thats DV quality at that bit rate or is it still fairly poor given it being MPEG2?

The ADVC-55 caps to frame based DV format at 25 Mb/s. This is high quality for editing.

8Mb/s MPeg2 is reasonably high DVD quality but uses 15 frame GOPS, not frame by frame. Most editors will re-encode the whole clip if edited.

[kamil]

The manual explains the dip switch settings
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/ADVC55.pdf


[Attachment 12468 - Click to enlarge]

Typical settings

North America - OFF ON OFF
Japan - OFF OFF OFF
Europe (PAL) - ON OFF OFF
Europe (SECAM) - ON ON OFF

All of my recordings are north american, so should I have mine set to
1. OFF
2. ON
3. OFF
4, 5, and 6 OFF

??

[kamil]

3) I looked at the Roxio mentioned in this frame and it does output movies at 8mb/s MPEG-2, would it be fair to assume thats DV quality at that bit rate or is it still fairly poor given it being MPEG2?

The ADVC-55 caps to frame based DV format at 25 Mb/s. This is high quality for editing.

8Mb/s MPeg2 is reasonably high DVD quality but uses 15 frame GOPS, not frame by frame. Most editors will re-encode the whole clip if edited.

Gotcha, thanks!

[edDV]

The manual explains the dip switch settings
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/ADVC55.pdf


[Attachment 12468 - Click to enlarge]

Typical settings

North America - OFF ON OFF
Japan - OFF OFF OFF
Europe (PAL) - ON OFF OFF
Europe (SECAM) - ON ON OFF

All of my recordings are north american, so should I have mine set to
1. OFF
2. ON
3. OFF
4, 5, and 6 OFF

??

Yes. NTSC, 7.5% setup, 0dB nominal audio.

[kamil]

The manual explains the dip switch settings
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/ADVC55.pdf

Typical settings

North America - OFF ON OFF
Japan - OFF OFF OFF
Europe (PAL) - ON OFF OFF
Europe (SECAM) - ON ON OFF

All of my recordings are north american, so should I have mine set to
1. OFF
2. ON
3. OFF
4, 5, and 6 OFF

??

Yes. NTSC, 7.5% setup, 0dB nominal audio.

Thank you!

Do you know if there are any analog to digital converters that dont skip frames where the signal is of poor quality? I'd prefer to be able to record an entire VHS tape even with crap quality.

I have to admit that even though the Canopus does skip a few frames I'm almost willing to live with it as the picture quality is great and would much rather have that than the Elgato's (or Roxio's as you mentioned) output. A second or two of lost footage is a lot better than the entire video being in CRAP quality.

[edDV]

The manual explains the dip switch settings
http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/ADVC55.pdf

Typical settings

North America - OFF ON OFF
Japan - OFF OFF OFF
Europe (PAL) - ON OFF OFF
Europe (SECAM) - ON ON OFF

All of my recordings are north american, so should I have mine set to
1. OFF
2. ON
3. OFF
4, 5, and 6 OFF

??

Yes. NTSC, 7.5% setup, 0dB nominal audio.

Thank you!

Do you know if there are any analog to digital converters that dont skip frames where the signal is of poor quality? I'd prefer to be able to record an entire VHS tape even with crap quality.

I have to admit that even though the Canopus does skip a few frames I'm almost willing to live with it as the picture quality is great and would much rather have that than the Elgato's (or Roxio's as you mentioned) output. A second or two of lost footage is a lot better than the entire video being in CRAP quality.

If it is skipping frames when the VHS hits a blank spot (gap) that is normal. Most standalone TBCs will continue syncs (for example blue screen) when input video is lost.

[kamil]

[QUOTE=edDV;2162993]

If it is skipping frames when the VHS hits a blank spot (gap) that is normal. Most standalone TBCs will continue syncs (for example blue screen) when input video is lost.

No, it skips frames when the original footage is a bit scrambled, or sometimes the tape is a little weird and speeds the video for a split second. Generally it sometimes skips a frame when something odd happens, but not always.

I do still get the blue when there is nothing being played. As a whole, this is thus far the best solution I've come across, but being a natural perfectionist, I think it could be a little better.

[innocent12]

[QUOTE=kamil;2163012]

If it is skipping frames when the VHS hits a blank spot (gap) that is normal. Most standalone TBCs will continue syncs (for example blue screen) when input video is lost.

No, it skips frames when the original footage is a bit scrambled, or sometimes the tape is a little weird and speeds the video for a split second. Generally it sometimes skips a frame when something odd happens, but not always.

I do still get the blue when there is nothing being played. As a whole, this is thus far the best solution I've come across, but being a natural perfectionist, I think it could be a little better.

Hi,

I bought the ADVC-55 a week ago. I use it with a Sony SLV ED88 (6 head multisystem, Hi-Fi VCR) and old Dell Dimension 9150 with 4 GB RAM running under Win XP. (My new Dell laptop doesn't have a firewire port.) For the interconnects, I use Sony or JVC products for the audio and a separate LO/VDO ER-2 video interconnect. After reading a post on VideoHelp, I decided to use WinDV for the capture software instead of VirtualDub.

My PC has 2 x 500 GB hard drives - one for the OS and the other for captures. When capturing, I disconnect the LAN cable and turn off the anti-virus software, screensaver and all other unnecessary applications.

The first VHS tape I converted was a bought PAL tape of WW2 documentaries. During capture the ADVC-55 state lamp was solid green for 70 minutes. The second tape was the same company's product but consisted of original US documentaries converted to PAL. During capture the ADVC-55 state lamp went berserk and was flickering red every few seconds. I fixed the problem by:

1. Not manually selecting PAL playback on the Sony SLV ED88 (i.e. allowing the autodetect and ADP to managing everything)
2. Opening the original video cassette and removing the tape spools. I lightly smoothed the bottom of each spool to remove burrs and installed them in a quality cassette shell (TDK blank). Then I inserted the "new" video cassette in the VCR and fast forwarded/rewound it a half dozen times to correct the tape tension and confirm the tape travel is smooth.

The capture was fine and the ADVC-55 state lamp only flickered red for a millisecond or so twice during the 90-minute capture.

I concluded the ADVC-55 is very signal-sensitive and that if decent hardware and interconnects are used, any problems with signal fluctuations may be due to the poorly made video cassette tape shells used by many film companies. (If the VHS tape fast forwards and rewinds several times at a constant high speed it shouldn't be a problem.)

Many people also don't care about properly storing video tape (vertical and under controlled temperature and humidity) so they can't expect much.

I am very happy so far with the ADVC-55. Although expensive. it seems good value for money.