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  1. Hello,

    I have a couple of short questions about settings in a Canopus ADVC-110 for digitizing. Input is analogue PAL VHS.

    - Switch 1 is "Digital-in reference sync". OFF is Stream Sync. ON is Fixed. Which one?
    - Audio mode may be 48kHz 16bit or 32kHz 12bit (switch 3). Switch 4 is Locked or Unlocked audio mode. I suppose that Locked means that the device resamples the signal as chosen in switch 3, right? What is better?
    - Switch 5 applies only to NTSC input: what do 0 IRE and 7.5 IRE mean? Which one to chose for a NTSC tape?

    And a very important question about digitizing NTSC tapes. I am in Europe (PAL). My VCR is not true tristandard, but it can play NTSC tapes. TVs can display that signal with no problem, adjusting for resolution and refresh rate. But I haven't managed to make the Canopus output a signal that a computer (iMac) or my (old but great) Panasonic HD-DVD recorder could record without it losing either color or frame sync or both.

    However, a very basic Roxio USB capturer which I have that digitizes in MPEG2 (lowish bitrate, pixelation) did capture this NTSC signal from the VCR without those color/framerate problems. Strange.

    Any hint at how I could make the Canopus output a good DV signal from NTSC, or at software that could take that DV stream from the Canopus and fix it? Thank you.
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  2. Member DB83's Avatar
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    I do not know about Switch 1 since that does not apparently appear on my ADVC 300. I would select 48khz 16bit for the audio. 'Locked' means that video and audio remain in sync.

    7.5 IRE applies to NTSC for the U.S.. 0 IRE applies for NTSC in Japan.

    However, as you have found out, a PAL vcr does not output a true NTSC signal. It is called Pal60. A ADVC does not see this as Pal or NTSC. So you can only capture NTSC tapes through a Pal vcr when the capture device can handle Pal60.
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  3. Thank you very much, DB83!
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  4. Have you tried playing with DIP switch 6? It’s switches between PAL and NTSC. For IRE NTSC should be set for 7.5 but I don’t know if your VCR output affects that. It’s for the black level so if it’s set at 7.5 and everything is way too dark then 0 would bring the black levels up but my guess is 7.5 since it’s NTSC footage. I would leave audio set to locked audio at 48 kHz
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  5. See previous posters reply He posted while I was typing mine up and obviously seems to know more than I do. Good luck!
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  6. Originally Posted by Christina View Post
    Have you tried playing with DIP switch 6? It’s switches between PAL and NTSC. For IRE NTSC should be set for 7.5 but I don’t know if your VCR output affects that. It’s for the black level so if it’s set at 7.5 and everything is way too dark then 0 would bring the black levels up but my guess is 7.5 since it’s NTSC footage. I would leave audio set to locked audio at 48 kHz
    Yes, when playing NTSC tapes I change the switch. But, as explained above by DB83, that's not a true NTSC signal anyway. What is strange is that the other gizmo, Roxio USB encoder, does capture it in NTSC. If I could somehow bridge that correct signal (before it converts to MPEG2!) to the Canopus, it could work.
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  7. Originally Posted by Christina View Post
    See previous posters reply He posted while I was typing mine up and obviously seems to know more than I do. Good luck!
    Thanks anyway!
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  8. When PAL VHS decks play NTSC tapes they output a hybrid signal with NTSC timing (59.94 fields per second, 525 lines per field) but with chroma on a PAL 4.43 MHz subcarrier, not the normal NTSC 3.58 MHz subcarrier. This hybrid signal is called PAL60. PAL TVs are designed to handle PAL60 properly so you get a nice color picture. But most video capture devices don't handle it properly. Capture devices set to capture PAL can't sync to the the NTSC timing, you get nothing useful. Devices set to capture NTSC get the luma properly but don't understand the PAL chroma, leaving you with greyscale video.
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  9. Originally Posted by jagabo View Post
    When PAL VHS decks play NTSC tapes they output a hybrid signal with NTSC timing (59.94 fields per second, 525 lines per field) but with chroma on a PAL 4.43 MHz subcarrier, not the normal NTSC 3.58 MHz subcarrier. This hybrid signal is called PAL60. PAL TVs are designed to handle PAL60 properly so you get a nice color picture. But most video capture devices don't handle it properly. Capture devices set to capture PAL can't sync to the the NTSC timing, you get nothing useful. Devices set to capture NTSC get the luma properly but don't understand the PAL chroma, leaving you with greyscale video.
    Thank you very much. A very far-fetched option: since my Roxio USB gizmo does convert the NTSC signal from the same VCR fine into MPEG2 NTSC (same frames and lines), would it be possible to capture and redirect this signal before it turns into pixelated, low bitrate MPEG2, and feed the signal into the Canopus as real NTSC? Say, I digitize the tape in a MacBook with the USB capturer, and somehow send this signal out before it's MPEG2 by software. Or it is already MPEG2 as soon as it outputs the capturer via USB?
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  10. Originally Posted by celsoac View Post
    since my Roxio USB gizmo does convert the NTSC signal from the same VCR fine into MPEG2 NTSC (same frames and lines), would it be possible to capture and redirect this signal before it turns into pixelated, low bitrate MPEG2
    If your capture device captures raw video and uses software on the computer to do the MPEG encoding you can probably skip the encoding by using some other capture software (VirtualDub, AmarecTV) and saving with a lossless codec. If your capture devices uses an on-board hardware MPEG2 encoder chip, where the computer receives an MPEG 2 video stream via USB, you cannot do that -- the damage is done before the computer gets the video.
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  11. Originally Posted by jagabo View Post
    Originally Posted by celsoac View Post
    since my Roxio USB gizmo does convert the NTSC signal from the same VCR fine into MPEG2 NTSC (same frames and lines), would it be possible to capture and redirect this signal before it turns into pixelated, low bitrate MPEG2
    If your capture device captures raw video and uses software on the computer to do the MPEG encoding you can probably skip the encoding by using some other capture software (VirtualDub, AmarecTV) and saving with a lossless codec. If your capture devices uses an on-board hardware MPEG2 encoder chip, where the computer receives an MPEG 2 video stream via USB, you cannot do that -- the damage is done before the computer gets the video.
    Thank you, I'll check that, though I doubt that USB 2.0 can carry raw (uncompressed) video, right? For example, the Canopus DV plugs into Firewire.
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  12. Originally Posted by celsoac View Post
    Thank you, I'll check that, though I doubt that USB 2.0 can carry raw (uncompressed) video, right?
    USB 2.0 has enough bandwidth to transmit lossless YUV 4:2:2 SD video. Not HD though.
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  13. Celsoac- You have a mac, right? I haven't figured out a way to capture lossless to a mac with the equipment I have, but you may want to try OBS Studio with your USB capture device and try to to capture lossless (not uncompressed - 2 different things). If you have access to a Windows machine, you can use VirtualDub or AmarecTV, but those aren't available for the mac natively.
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  14. Originally Posted by Christina View Post
    Celsoac- You have a mac, right? I haven't figured out a way to capture lossless to a mac with the equipment I have, but you may want to try OBS Studio with your USB capture device and try to to capture lossless (not uncompressed - 2 different things). If you have access to a Windows machine, you can use VirtualDub or AmarecTV, but those aren't available for the mac natively.
    Thanks to Christina and everyone. OBS Studio is good. I also found Videopad, Debut, and others. None of them recognize the device, which is a USB pendrive type for Roxio Easy VHS to DVD Convert . Only Roxio software has recognized it so far. But in Mac it only outputs in MPEG2, which is the limitation I want to overcome.

    I do have two Windows virtual machines installed in Parallels, [Win 32] Win XP and Windows 10. Both give problems in terms of old software or graphic card. The installation to Windows 10 from the original CD hangs when installing Direct 9 X. Any hint about how to go about this problem with Windows 10 ? It's an iMac, graphics card is AMD Radeon Pro 580X, GPU type, PCIe bus, x16 bandwith, 8Gb of VRAM.
    Last edited by celsoac; 28th Apr 2019 at 13:30.
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  15. Member DB83's Avatar
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    What is Win 32 ?

    There are two things that strike me here.

    1. There is very limited capture software for a Mac. And really this should be addressed in the mac specific forum.

    2. Win 10 is NOT a capture-friendly OS. You may actually be attempting to install a software that was intended for an earlier version of Windows. I know of some that never had support beyond WinXp. So using a virtual machine you a) require Win 10 drivers for your capture device and b) software that works in Win 10.
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  16. Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    What is Win 32 ?
    32 bit Windows.
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  17. Member DB83's Avatar
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    ^^ Jagabo,

    That much I understood. But, more specifically, what version.
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  18. Originally Posted by DB83 View Post
    What is Win 32 ?

    There are two things that strike me here.

    1. There is very limited capture software for a Mac. And really this should be addressed in the mac specific forum.

    2. Win 10 is NOT a capture-friendly OS. You may actually be attempting to install a software that was intended for an earlier version of Windows. I know of some that never had support beyond WinXp. So using a virtual machine you a) require Win 10 drivers for your capture device and b) software that works in Win 10.
    Sorry, I meant Win XP. Pff, confusion.

    Thank you for your help.
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