Canopus ADVC-100 vs. ADVC-110 vs. ADVC-300

[TrackingError]

I'm doing some research before purchasing my first "real" analog-to-DV interface. I've heard very good things about Canopus boxes, and liked the ADVC-100 I borrowed from a friend, so I think I'll probably spring for something in the ADVC line. However, I'm somewhat confused as to the differences/advantages/disadvantages between the ADVC-100, ADVC-110 and ADVC-300.

Would anyone here care to enlighten me?

[DB83]

I do not think there is much difference between the later 100's and the 110. The early 100's had a 'hidden' feature whereby one could over-ride macrovision in certain VHS. That feature was removed.

The 300 is 'pro-sumer'. Some people (me included) love them. Some hate them. There are loads of topics on here about them. The 300 offers some proc-amp settings and noise reduction and basic time-base correction.

The biggest difference between the 1xx and the 300 is the price. For the money you could be better off obtaining a decent capture card and a time-base corrector and have the benefit of capturing in lossless formats rather than be tied to DV.

[Endzone]

I used the ADVC-110 with great results. It recorded well off TV converting to DV and it did a great job of converting my old analog VHS tapes.

For VHS to DVD:
1. I used JVC HR-S9600U as input to the ADVC-110
2. I used Roxio 9 and/or Adobe Photoshop elements 6 as the capture program to save the DV from the ADVC-110
3. I used the same two programs to convert the DV to MPEG-2 (DVDs) and other smaller files (.WMV format) to email.

The results were great. The HR-S9600U is the best VCR to use.

For recording directly from TV, here is a DV that was converted by Vimeo, and believe me a lot of quality and resultion was lost by my conversion and their conversion from DV. The original DV from the ADVC-110 is crystal clear, and I'm guessing no more than 30mS of difference between audio and video. The DV was just way to huge of a file for me to try and upload to Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/63222588

[DB83]

@Endzone.

Your comments add nothing to this topic and IMO do not address the questions posed by the OP.

The link to a conversion of a converted video is pretty pointless.

Just my 2 cents.

[Endzone]

@Endzone.

Your comments add nothing to this topic and IMO do not address the questions posed by the OP.

The link to a conversion of a converted video is pretty pointless.

Just my 2 cents.

Knock off with the false modesty you arrogant British twirp. I wonder if Memorial Day includes memories of us kicking your @ss out of the colonies? Care to comment on that?

One of things about this site is that it is always long on overblown technical explanations and almost endless choices and suggestions. Even you yourself couldn't stay on subject, but you had to go off on how the OP would be better off not even converting to DV.

I think it is good to offer something practical every now and then--just ONE example.

OH, and BTW, your Olympics sucked compared to China's. Thank you, thank you very much.

[DB83]

I will not stoop to your level of ignorance.

In my initial reply I said 'could' not 'would'. There is a big difference.

[Endzone]

I will not stoop to your level of ignorance.

In my initial reply I said 'could' not 'would'. There is a big difference.

Thank you, thank you very much. I'm glad you didn't go on about what a state of decline America is in--because you would be right.

[pippas]

As another Brit, I realise I'm treading on thin ice here..but here goes anyway....

Best value for money with the Canopus (Grass Valley) cards is the ADVC55 - (IMHO of course).
These days there's not really a lot of point in paying extra for the facility to convert back from digital to analogue - which is the extra facility that the 100/110/300 range includes.
The '300' does has some fancy 'tweak' controls, but it's probably better ( and cheaper) to find those features in your editor.

You can of course try the capture card/ lossless approach, but it's probably over the top, for most VHS tape capture.
The Canopus converters work really well for that task, in my experience.

(Off topic....I've just come back from a cruise on an American ship. Most passengers were Americans. Really friendly bunch of guys. They got on well with us Brits on board.....

I don't think Endzone and DB83 were on board, somehow?......)

[TrackingError]

Well, I'm half British and half American, so...

Thanks very much to those who did answer my question. Looks like I have some thinking to do.

[bendixG15]

(Off topic....I've just come back from a cruise on an American ship. Most passengers were Americans. Really friendly bunch of guys. They got on well with us Brits on board.....

I don't think Endzone and DB83 were on board, somehow?......)

Thanks for that smile

[Endzone]

As another Brit, I realise I'm treading on thin ice here..but here goes anyway....

Best value for money with the Canopus (Grass Valley) cards is the ADVC55 - (IMHO of course).
These days there's not really a lot of point in paying extra for the facility to convert back from digital to analogue - which is the extra facility that the 100/110/300 range includes.
The '300' does has some fancy 'tweak' controls, but it's probably better ( and cheaper) to find those features in your editor.

You can of course try the capture card/ lossless approach, but it's probably over the top, for most VHS tape capture.
The Canopus converters work really well for that task, in my experience.

(Off topic....I've just come back from a cruise on an American ship. Most passengers were Americans. Really friendly bunch of guys. They got on well with us Brits on board.....

I don't think Endzone and DB83 were on board, somehow?......)

No, but I did work on U.S. merchant ships for 10 years as a radio officer. I always said I would never go on a cruise unless THEY PAID ME $300/day to go because that is what I made when I worked on the ships. I managed to go to all 7 continents and Greenland. Check out this scan from my old passport. Notice "McMurdo Station Ant" postage stamp. I just think it's pretty cool, but I know db83 won't be too impressed. Anyway, I did enjoy the stay at the fine British island of Diego Garcia. I really had a good time there. Nice place, and thank you Brits for letting us use it at the bargain rent price of $2 billion USD/year.

My apologies to DB83 for getting in his face a little bit. I have always rated Yenbu, Saudi Arabia as the most unfriendly place in the world with Seattle, Washington not far behind. But a British fellow I was talking to in Seattle a couple of years ago said London was even more unfriendly than Seattle. I've only flown through there changing planes on a trip home from Malta. I took the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick. Those pretty girls serving drinks on the 30 mile ride were friendly enough though.

[2Bdecided]

You might find you need the 300's proc-amp, and wish you could defeat the 300's (supposedly undefeatable) primitive noise reduction.

The 110 captures pristine sources very well, but ideally needs a line-TBC for removing wobbles from most VHS sources, and a frame TBC for removing gaps from really trashed VHS sources (never needed one myself).

Some lesser-regarded options (some DVD recorders, some cheap capture devices, some DV camcorders) have the luck/trick of making VHS look better without any tweaking - they just get the levels and denoising "just right" - but some of them get other things wrong. ADVC110 captures it as-is, which is often quite noisy, and sometimes the wrong video levels. I get the feeling some people around here like having their lives made more difficult.

Cheers,
David.

[Surfdude1982]

Hello all!

I'm a converter newbie. Interesting posts here!
Would the ADVC-300 still be the best choice? (quality over price!). As I don't find it anymore on http://www.grassvalley.com/products/stub-see_all_products I suppose there must be a successor?
30-40 old VHS cassettes to convert.

Thx
Johan

[redwudz]

I've had a Canopus ADVC-100 for some time and it works very well. I use it with WinDV for capture and Cedocida DV Codec for output back to DV. I've been using VirtualDub Mod for editing. All sort of old software, but my ADVC-100 is old, and it's been very dependable and you probably won't find an easier format to edit in. Newer formats like H.264 are much harder to edit.

I have a early ADVC-100, but most all the ADVC's work similar. You can look around on Ebay for a used one, but you want to get it with the correct power supply. The 110 runs off FW power, I think. The 300 is a PC card, I think that's correct.

[redwudz]

endzone, personally directed abusive comments can get you banned on our site. Please read our rules before posting. Fair warning.

Moderator redwudz

[pippas]

You might find my suggestion in post post #8 of this thread some help?....

[Surfdude1982]

Do you think it's necessary to use a standalone TBC like the Datavideo TBC-5000 Time Base Corrector ?

[canalope]

I use a model 100 and noticed it doesn't capture every frame. I'm recording video from an old video game system, and any games that show graphics that flicker (30 fps), my resulting video capture only shows 'half' of the graphic image that was flickering. So it seems the 100 doesn't capture at 60 fps. I've read the descriptions for the 110 and 300, but neither mention framerate.

[smrpix]

So it seems the 100 doesn't capture at 60 fps. I've read the descriptions for the 110 and 300, but neither mention framerate.

These units were designed for PAL and NTSC standard def. Period.

[canalope]

The game system in question is designed for NTSC and works just fine. But again, I'm asking about framerates and not scanlines or television standards.

[jagabo]

NTSC is 59.94 fields per second, not frames per second. It is captured as 29.97 interlaced frames per second. To view that with full fluid motion you have to use a player that bobs.

[smrpix]

I'm asking about framerates and not scanlines or television standards.

See jagabo's explanation above. These units only put out PAL and NTSC. PAL is 25fps interlaced -- only, NTSC is only 29.97fps interlaced -- only. Your answer to 60fps is no.

[jagabo]

Interlaced video and deinterlacing methods: http://www.100fps.com/

Many players support bob deinterlacing. VLC has bob and yadif 2x, for example.

[2Bdecided]

Most vintage video games systems output a modified SD video signal which TVs of the time could display fine, but many modern digital video capture devices can't cope with, because it's not quite standard. The difference is only half a scan line (creating a lower resolution progressive image approximately 240p60, rather than the regular interlaced image approximately 480i60), but it's enough to confuse many capture devices.

See the second paragraph onwards here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-definition_television#Sources

That could be what's happening here, but you need to understand (and use correct) bob-deinterlacing first to see what you really have - as others have said, the capture might be fine.

Cheers,
David.

[2Bdecided]

Vintage video games use a completely different type of "progressive scan" to recent-ish DVD players. If this is the problem here, you need something that's specifically known to work with this vintage format. Things that handle 480p are of no use to you.

If this is the problem, you're not the first. Google capture 240p.

However, it's still highly possible that the capture is just fine (or as good as it gets), and it's your method of playing that isn't right. Have you tried VLC / deinterlacing on / deinterlace mode = linear?

Cheers,
David.

[sklittles]

Gentlemen, many of the requests have been from people converting VHS tapes. I have 8mm and Hi8 cartridges I'm needing to convert. Because these are irreplaceable family videos, expense isn't a concern.....within reason.

I still have the camera that made the recordings but wondered if cleaning the heads(????) before project, using a high end 8mm deck(if I can still find one), even thought of sending them off to a service but I have about 50. Thought of the service because I do have 2 40+ year old 8mm reels I need converted professionally.

Would finding, if it exist, a later model Hi8 camcorder that has some type digital output. I would guess the A to D conversion would have to be in the camera. Would it have the quality of the Grassvalley products?

Looking for best solution for best quality conversion.

Thanks

[smrpix]

Would finding, if it exist, a later model Hi8 camcorder that has some type digital output. I would guess the A to D conversion would have to be in the camera. Would it have the quality of the Grassvalley products?

What you're looking for is a Digital 8 Camera/Deck. Almost all are backwards compatible with 8mm, Hi8. The quality would be quite similar -- slightly better or worse depending on the quirks of the individual pieces of gear on the analog side.

[JVRaines]

My recommendation is to play back with a Digital8 HandyCam or deck with built-in noise reduction and TBC/frame sync. The hardware is tailored to 8 mm video and sends DV straight into your computer via FireWire.

[VHStoThunderport]

I came across this thread via general internet search. I see it's somewhat dated, but wondered if anybody has any suggestions for the hardware I'm best acquiring.

I have a Sharp VCR player and recorder, model VC-H730.

I have a bunch of 30-ish year old VHS tapes containing hours upon hours of home video, which I’d like to convert to digital.

I have a 2019 16” MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 8-core i9, 32GB 2667 MHz DDR4, 4TB SSD.

I’m thinking about acquiring the necessary converter to enable me to export the VHS content to the MacBook Pro. Anybody know what I need, and have a recommendation? Are these ADVC-nnn devices still sold? Have they been replaced, and if so what's the latest and greatest?

Also, there’s a variety of professional services who offer conversion services, for a cost of somewhere around AUD 25 to 40 per tape, some depending on number of tapes. Is the kinda gear they’re likely to have going to end up producing a better quality end result?

Any thoughts / tips gratefully received.

[lordsmurf]

if anybody has any suggestions for the hardware I'm best acquiring.

These Canopus boxes are dated 1990s technology. DV loses color quality. It's really unacceptable for NTSC, and tolerable for PAL. These are many better capture card options, for both Windows and Mac. Exact OS matters more than platform. You didn't mention what you're using.

I'm not entirely anti-DV, I'll understand when you're essentially backed into a corner, no other options (usually due to newest macOS in use), unable to build a quality capture system.

I have a Sharp VCR player and recorder, model VC-H730.

Minimally passable VCR. Not great, not good, just passable. An ES10/15 is required in the chain, after the VCR.

Have they been replaced,

For the past 15-20 years, yes.

and if so what's the latest and greatest?

The latest-and-greatest isn't what you want: those are crappy HD cards. What you need is pre-HD and post-DV, the sweet spot of the mid/late 00s and early 10s hardware.