PAL Capture Black & White

[SGGS]

Power supply is connected to the ADVC.

[SGGS]

Yes, the powercord is attached to the ADVC while capturing.

[usually_quiet]

The reports I read where the firewire 400 to firewire 800 cable was apparently the source of the problem said a Belkin cable fit the firewire ports on their equipment better than the cable it replaced. Is the connection on both ends nice and secure?

If there is nothing wrong with the connection, and the ADVC110 has enough power, then I'm out of ideas as to why the ADVC110 does not work for you. It apparently works very well for some iMac users http://www.amazon.com/review/R2PY44Q1ZGMXDL/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_alt_1

[edDV]

Step 2: Tested the Hi8s on PAL TV and they played in color.
Step 3: Tested the ADVC and Camcorder capturing to XP PC. It was in color! Could not use the WinDV successfully but used the Windows Movie Maker. It looks really good too, the capture. I used firewire 6pin (back of ADVC) to 4 pin firewire port on the side of the Laptop. The ADVC Dip switch was only set to 6 ON and everything else OFF.

If it works on the Windows PC, the problem is the Mac Firewire connection or Mac software.

[SGGS]

Yes, the connection is secure. The iMac has only firwire800 and usb ports. Is there a work around for this or I will have to capture on a PC? I also tried FCP as well as iMovie for capturing. Could there be some filter or software interfering with PAL capture? I recently just captured on the iMac using iMovie about 50 NTSC C-Cams with no problems.

[2Bdecided]

It was never going to be a PAL-N(C) tape.

Since it works on a PC, it's not any of the problems I suggested.

If it's not Firewire 800, I wonder if there's some specific interference or power supply problem when working with the Mac that wipes out the chroma?

Or more simply, the Mac is still set to "NTSC" (480-line) somewhere, and doesn't want to switch to 576-line ("PAL"), even when that's what it's sent. I know nothing about Macs.

Cheers,
David.

[edDV]

I suggest you start a new question to Mac forum and ref this thread.

The ADVC-110 works for SD VHS PAL capture to Windows XP PC but not with Firewire800 Mac. Suggestions?

[SGGS]

SOLUTION found

For anyone in a similar situation, the solution was found to be DIP switches on the ADVC110 set to 6 and 1 ON. Everything else OFF. Apparently, the Sync has to be fixed for the color to come through. I do not understand the why and how but Canopus tech support explained it to me this way. So I wanted to share the solution with anyone who may need help in the future.

One thing I did notice with the capture in imovie is that it is very grainy and the original Hi8 is a really nice recording so I will try some different settings in FCP to fix the grainy issue if it can be fixed at all.

[2Bdecided]

SOLUTION found

For anyone in a similar situation, the solution was found to be DIP switches on the ADVC110 set to 6 and 1 ON. Everything else OFF. Apparently, the Sync has to be fixed for the color to come through. I do not understand the why and how but Canopus tech support explained it to me this way. So I wanted to share the solution with anyone who may need help in the future.

Do you mean the "locked" audio? Never tried it unlocked. Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

One thing I did notice with the capture in imovie is that it is very grainy and the original Hi8 is a really nice recording so I will try some different settings in FCP to fix the grainy issue if it can be fixed at all.

The ADVC110 has an output, as well as an input. Try playing the captured footage back to the ADVC110 (your software probably has a feature for writing back to DV tape - that'll work). Watch the output of the ADVC110 on your TV. "Grainy" or "really nice"? If grainy, then the capture is poor and you maybe need to think about what's going wrong. However, I bet it'll look "really nice", meaning the capture is just fine, and you're just seeing the result of watching old analogue home movies on a PC display, which doesn't bring the best out in any video, and makes all the faults visible. If you intend to burn to DVD for watching on a TV, maybe you don't need to worry about them. Newer TVs won't be so forgiving though. If you want to watch it on a PC, upload to YouTube/facebook/whatever, then it'll probably need work.

Acceptable video levels for watching on a TV often need some tweaking to look OK on a PC - especially against a white page on YouTube.

Cheers,
David.
P.S. By PC I mean computer - I know you have a Mac - same issues apply.

[SGGS]

Thanks for the tips. Apparently the DIP switch 1 setting is "Digital Reference Sync." The ON position is FIXED and the OFF position is "Stream Sync." So turned of the Stream Sync. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks again

[SGGS]

Just an interesting side note is that we were able to capture color on the PC when the DIP switches was just 6 ON everything OFF. This stuff hardly makes sense does it.

[edDV]

Basic PAL settings for the ADVC-110 are

5 OFF - PAL
6 ON - PAL

Others that are easy

3 OFF - 48KHz/16bit audio should normally be used
4 OFF - Locked audio is the normal mode to prevent audio sync drift

That leaves switches 1 and 2

The manual says for switch 1 start with OFF. If the video becomes black and white, turn the switch ON.

The strange thing is switch 2 must be set OFF (Analog) or PAL is impossibe. This is different than my ADVC-100.



http://www.pro-video.it/provideo-incorso/images/File/Canopus/ADVC110%20Manuale.pdf

[2Bdecided]

Just an interesting side note is that we were able to capture color on the PC when the DIP switches was just 6 ON everything OFF. This stuff hardly makes sense does it.

Probably a slightly different clock frequency or something on the PC's firewire interface. Sounds unlikely though.

I guess edDV is the only one here who read the manual!

Cheers,
David.