USB Instant DvD?

[sumshi]

Hello can anybody tell me if they use ADStech USB Intstant DVD..and if so is it worth buying?...it may just have came out I'm not sure...Thanx

[TitaniumDragon2001]

NO DON"T GET IT!!! It is no good, No USB is anygood!! That is all I have to say!!

[oldfart13]

Well, it depends on what you use it for. I want to use it to cap old Macrovisioned movies that aren't coming out onto DVD anytime soon. I bought mine yesterday and so far, the only problem I've had is with caps over 45 minutes. At that point, I lose the audio/video sync. This seems to be a common problem with Mpeg encoders. My only other option was to use a DV encoder like the Hollywood Bridge but the render times for DV AVI to Mpeg-2 are horrible, something like 14:1!

And to Titanium Dragon, if I didn't try to use a USB device like the ADS IDVD, what would he suggest? I can't use the firewire from DV Cam trick as every one of them will disable the camera in some way so you can't use it as a pass through to the computer. As soon as Macrovision is detected, the cameras disable themselves or put big "Copyrighted Material" signs into the recording. I also have an ATI AIW 128 AGP and it also can't cap a Macrovisioned signal. I tried Stinky's Macrovision Tool but it simply doesn't work on my system. Caps grab the first frame of video and then display a green screen through the rest of the cap. Alternatives? The Sima Macrovision DVD defeat might work but only the expensive one apparently works with the ATI cards. That one is $110US. The other option was to get a Time Base Corrector card. Those START at $300US. Want to loan me the money on those options? I thought not...

[Bondiablo]

Don't get the USB Instant DVD. If you want something similar that will work much better get either the Dazzle Hollywood Bridge or the Canopus ADVC-100. I have the Canopus and it works great. Excellent quality relative to the source, haven't dropped a single frame and the audio never gets out of sync no matter how much you capture.

And if you really need to disable MV, I've heard the Dazzle doesn't recognize it at all and you can disable it on the Canopus.

[oldfart13]

Aren't the DV Bridge and the Canopus DV AVI only products? I want to cap directly to Mpeg-2 and save the many hours of conversion time. I don't want to edit anything, just a straight cap, then burn to disc. Sounds simple, no?

Where I am, the Bungee, Hollywood Bridge and Canopus are unavailable. With the ADS IDVD, I can try it out for 30 days and if not satisfied, I can then return it for a full refund. Virtually all of the "Mom & Pop" computer stores tell me it's mine after I plunk down the money for whatever I want. Anything after that is to be taken up with the manufacturer or distributor. And people say not to trust the big box stores, and buy local. They obviously haven't dealt with the electronics stores in my area...

[sumshi]

Thankyou guys for your help and opions...

[CMP1223]

Like oldfart13, I too am looking for a MPEG-2 capture device. My hardrive isn't big enough for DV AVI capture, and I don't want to convert. Has anybody looked for any patches? What about 3rd party capture software? I want to capture from hi8, any Hi8 users out there with this product? That why I don't care about only 45 min captures, i can just stop and start over. What about artifacts, I have heard about that with this product? Any long time users of this product out there?

[oldfart13]

Well, I'm still reading the ADS IDVD forums and testing the unit myself. The biggest problem seems so far to be capping over 60 minute segments. For some people everything seems to work and a burn can be done with the file. For me, I get 45 minutes and then the audio/video sync goes out. Apparently this is common to other low end Mpeg-2 encoders. Since I'll mostly be capping movies over 60 minutes, this is unacceptable. But, videos under 60 minutes seem hit or miss. I just did an SVCD compliant cap for 1 minute and it looks and sounds superb with very little artifacting and great sound. However, I also tried to cap an old cartoon tape of mine and the sync was off by 2 seconds at least. These problems can be fixed but it's rather drawn out, requiring a demux to separate audio and video streams and then cutting the audio stream (after being converted to a WAV file) so it's the same length as the video stream and then remuxing. A bit drawn out but it works. I'd say the device is good for capping under 60 minute segments and not doing too much editing (apparently editing software will throw the sync off when it saves the file). For transferring longer segments or old movies/TV shows, it's a bit too early in the software development to get all the bugs ironed out. Give it another 6 months to a year and we'll see if better units or software get released.

[TitaniumDragon2001]

an ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro, (Or Better) That is what I use and it works great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a USB capture box but it was crap!

[Stelios]

I am using USB Instant DVD and I get very good results converting my old PAL VHS tapes to SVCD. Simple to use and the audio sync problems can be sorted out with the latest patch available.

http://www.adstech.com/support/downloads/drivers/drivers.asp?os=Windows&product_id=USBAV-700

Stelios

[oldfart13]

an ATI All In Wonder 128 Pro, (Or Better) That is what I use and it works great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a USB capture box but it was crap!

Well, I'm glad you found something that works for you. That is the name of the game. I have had quite a few cap cards over the past few years. My latest (and probably last) ATI card is the All In Wonder 128 16 Meg AGP version. Using my 1GHz Pentium 3 with Maxtor 7200 rpm drive (capture only other drives have the programs on them) and 512 Meg of SDRAM, I can only cap at 352 X 240 or 352 X 480 in AVI or Mpeg2. Any other settings give me 7% - 30% frame drops. Nothing short of building another more powerful computer will help. The ADS IDVD Solution is just another tool I'm testing to get to my final spec which is DVD quality (I intend on buying a DVD burner in the next few months), 704/720 X 480 48KHz 5+Mb/s. So far, I'm only having difficulty with the software which is being revised as we speak. Also, the Mpeg-2 encoders (as well as some of the DV AVI encoders) will allow me to cap my old prerecorded tapes that have Macrovision on them. The ATI card I have (as well as all the other current ones) will not allow that. You MIGHT be able to get it to work with Stinky's Macrovision Tool but it doesn't work at all on my system. I asked for solutions to this problem but other than yelling a lot, I've not seen too much constructive help. You've seen my spec, now tell me what I need...

[nemethmik]

I'm using the latest CapWiz available from the site shown above.
Most of the videos I captured have no audio sync problem in itself.
But, when I make DVDs from them with DVDit, MyDVD or Ulead DVD MovieFactory all of them has severe audio sync problems.
The audio sync problem is apparent since the 10th minute.
Practically, the mpeg2 files created by IDVD are unusable for DVD creation. However, most of the mpeg's are quite good when viewd by Windows Media player.
Tomorrow I'm taking IDVD back to Fry's
and I'll give a try to Dazzle DVC II.
Too many problems with IDVD, I hope I'll be luckier with DVC II.

[oldfart13]

Yeah, well I still have a couple weeks to go on my tests. I've heard that all the Mpeg-2 encoders have problems. You can go DV with the Canopus or DV Hollywood Bridge. They will make good (depending on the source) in sync DV AVI's. But then you have to convert them to something that will play on your DVD player. I'm trying to sort out problems on the ADS forum. Still trying to get the out of sync audio problems sorted out. I just did a trial cap using the AIW 352 X 480 16 bit stereo 44.1 KHz 2600bps and it came out with no frame drops and in perfect sync. No higher though without massive drops. Perhaps I'll have to try a newer card like a 7500 AIW and see if that will work for me. Still can't do anything about the macrovision but that can wait. Still playing around with the new toy...

[oldfart13]

Check out the new SNAZZI USB 2.0 Mpeg-2 capture device. Unfortunately, it isn't available here yet but it looks like it will be able to hold the audio/video sync using special chips. Also, beacuse it's USB 2.0, it will be able to cap up to 9Mbps, much higher than the ADS IDVD. Something to look out for...