VCR + Cables Question?

[DB83]

Not sure if Alwyn has an ADVC but as a user myself I can confirm that the unit must be connected to firewire for the Picture-Controller to recognise it.

But if your vcr has a TBC there is little to gain from the ADVC. After all the ADVC was desingned for Analog to Digital conversion (hence its name). See the manual for the main purpose of analog outputs on the ADVC - there is no mention of pass-through.


If you have a B&W picture direct from the USB-Live it normally means that you have a NTSC source but a capture setting of PAL

[Alwyn]

Not sure if Alwyn has an ADVC but as a user myself I can confirm that the unit must be connected to firewire for the Picture-Controller to recognise it.

Thanks DB, no I don't.

[JadHC]

Not sure if Alwyn has an ADVC but as a user myself I can confirm that the unit must be connected to firewire for the Picture-Controller to recognise it.

But if your vcr has a TBC there is little to gain from the ADVC. After all the ADVC was desingned for Analog to Digital conversion (hence its name). See the manual for the main purpose of analog outputs on the ADVC - there is no mention of pass-through.


If you have a B&W picture direct from the USB-Live it normally means that you have a NTSC source but a capture setting of PAL

Hello DB83,

thanks for your reply. Yes, i went through 20 different topics on this forum as well as other websites and they all talk about NTSC. But I am not following. I have Panasonic NV-FS200 which is a PAL version of Panasonic AG-1980P which I ordered from Germany. I have a PAL tape. My USB-Live box says it accepts PAL input and I installed it as PAL as well. When I change the input to NTSC, the input is still B&W.

Therefore, not sure where NTSC comes in in this workflow.

Thanks a lot in advance.

[JadHC]

Not sure if Alwyn has an ADVC but as a user myself I can confirm that the unit must be connected to firewire for the Picture-Controller to recognise it.

Thanks DB, no I don't.

Yes, but we only use it as pass-through to fine-tune the video so we do not need Picture Controller or Firewire, correct?

[DB83]

^^ The ADVC does not need the Picture-Contoller. There is a DIP-switch on it - SW1-8. When set to 'OFF' the ADVC works in 'unit mode' and all adjustments are made by the buttons (see the manual for full details). When the switch is 'ON' the ADVC works in 'pc mode' so then all adjstments are made by the PC. The manual only mentions that the unit must be connected to a PC via firewire in PC mode.

[JadHC]

^^ The ADVC does not need the Picture-Contoller. There is a DIP-switch on it - SW1-8. When set to 'OFF' the ADVC works in 'unit mode' and all adjustments are made by the buttons (see the manual for full details). When the switch is 'ON' the ADVC works in 'pc mode' so then all adjstments are made by the PC. The manual only mentions that the unit must be connected to a PC via firewire in PC mode.

Hi, thanks for your clarification. If I am reading this right, then Canopus can work as passthrough without firewire as long as its not in PC-mode, correct?
It seems that my Canopus is having trouble as the red light is on. Did you experience this before, please? It seems the signal is not passing through it...

[DB83]

TBH I have never tried capture in 'unit mode' - it has been in 'pc mode' since the day I set it up. I merely echo what the manual states.

As for the red light the manual states that either it has detected a macrovision signal or some other anomoly.

[JadHC]

TBH I have never tried capture in 'unit mode' - it has been in 'pc mode' since the day I set it up. I merely echo what the manual states.

As for the red light the manual states that either it has detected a macrovision signal or some other anomoly.

well, I cancelled on my firewire port upgrade because I understood from the discussion that it is possible to do it without it and that it is working. So ill test it and see.

I read the manual and in my prior post I was stating that i do not think it is a macrovision problem because it is red even when i do not play any tapes. I tried to google what other anomalies could be causing this but nothing returned. I might have to reach out to Canopus directly.

[lollo]

I suggest few steps to validate your workflow.

1- connect your PAL VCR with your PAL tape to your PAL TV and be sure the video is in color

2- connect the output of your PAL VCR to the Hauppauge USB-Live 2 (no ADVC). If you do not have Y/C signal (S-Video connector) available connect the Composite signal to the yellow input of the card.
Use Hauppauge Capture software (I understand you have it installed), setting Standard to "PAL" and input to "Composite", and check if the video is in color. Eventually run a short capture (it will be in MPEG2) and also check the captured file.

3- Use now AmarecTV 3.10. A configuration guide is here https://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/12986-amarectv-virtualdub-inserts.html and visualize and/or capture in HuffYUV (or other lossless codec) YUV 4:2:2, checking that the video is in color.

4- Once everything works, try to add the ADVC between the VCR and the card to check if you have any improvement in the quality of the captured file. I suspect in general it will not bring a benefit in term of picture quality, but is worth to try in any case, because you have it available.

If you use Composite signal path to the Hauppauge USB-Live 2, the results will not be optimal. Eventually check if the ADVC can accept a Composite input and make available at its output a Y/C signal when in pass-through mode.

[Alwyn]

JadHC, I'd leave the ADVC out of the workflow for the time being.

Re the black and white, connect the VCR to the USBLive2 with a composite (yellow) video cable. Disconnect the S-video cable and then set "Composite" in AmarecTV on the Graph 1 (Device) tab then try again.

[JadHC]

JadHC, I'd leave the ADVC out of the workflow for the time being.

Re the black and white, connect the VCR to the USBLive2 with a composite (yellow) video cable. Disconnect the S-video cable and then set "Composite" in AmarecTV on the Graph 1 (Device) tab then try again.

Hi Alwyn/Lollo,

Panasonic NV FS200 does not have yellow composite port, only scart. So i cannot test this. I will have to test this on TV first.

[lollo]

Panasonic NV FS200 does not have yellow composite port, only scart.

There are SCART to Composite adapter. Just an example: https://www.amazon.it/Goobay-407-200-2-0m-SCART-21-pin/dp/B000M5VOXK/ref=asc_df_B000M5...700986955&th=1

[Alwyn]

@JadHC, try another tape and the S-Video cable just in case the one you've been experimenting with is dodgy.

[lordsmurf]

It does improve the quality of the incoming signal as long as you do not overdo the various settings.
There has been more than enough discussion as to whether it is a TBC. All I know is that I noticed major differences when I acquired mine to what I was seeing before.

The root problem of the ADVC-300 is that many settings are always-on, and the "off" is essentially just "low". As in "on/off" actually = "low/high".

Furthermore, the known-flawed chipset purported to add "TBC" function was weak or did nothing at all. Sure, you can find scenarios where it'd "work" (arguable) or kinda-sorta kind. But it had a lousy track record, and could not be repeated tape to tape.

Worst of all, the ADVC-300 would actually sometimes make the image worse, not better.

Features like "audio lock" were complete BS, a reference to a DV spec not actually used in the device (DV25 does NOT have "audio lock"!), and thus it was misinformation from the Canopus marketing department.

Canopus ADVC-300

The ADVC boxes are literally 1990s tech, ancient. Read the documentation. The minimum specs are Pentium II, and the recommended specs are Pentium III. Everything changed in the P4 era, and we could capture lossless, capture MPEG, etc.

The DV boxes were a big compromise to quality, compressing color, and adding blocks.

The tech was made for shooting video, not as a conversion. While it did an admirable job to higher-bandwidth color sources, it chewed up VHS and spit out a mess. The NTSC was awful (4:1:1), the PAL was passable (4:2:0, similar to DVD-Video though a different axis).

The guy I talked to sells NV-FS 88 instead of Panasonic NV-FS 200 but told me the VCRs are pretty much the same but 88 does not have TBC. Since I have Canopus, I do not need TBC anyway, but wanted to check if it is a good VCR for digitalization, please.

What a bunch of BS.

The Canopus doesn't replace a TBC whatsoever. The field TBC in the Panasonics is vastly superior, and actually functions.

He just wanted to sell you stuff.

[JadHC]

It does improve the quality of the incoming signal as long as you do not overdo the various settings.
There has been more than enough discussion as to whether it is a TBC. All I know is that I noticed major differences when I acquired mine to what I was seeing before.

The root problem of the ADVC-300 is that many settings are always-on, and the "off" is essentially just "low". As in "on/off" actually = "low/high".

Furthermore, the known-flawed chipset purported to add "TBC" function was weak or did nothing at all. Sure, you can find scenarios where it'd "work" (arguable) or kinda-sorta kind. But it had a lousy track record, and could not be repeated tape to tape.

Worst of all, the ADVC-300 would actually sometimes make the image worse, not better.

Features like "audio lock" were complete BS, a reference to a DV spec not actually used in the device (DV25 does NOT have "audio lock"!), and thus it was misinformation from the Canopus marketing department.

Canopus ADVC-300

The ADVC boxes are literally 1990s tech, ancient. Read the documentation. The minimum specs are Pentium II, and the recommended specs are Pentium III. Everything changed in the P4 era, and we could capture lossless, capture MPEG, etc.

The DV boxes were a big compromise to quality, compressing color, and adding blocks.

The tech was made for shooting video, not as a conversion. While it did an admirable job to higher-bandwidth color sources, it chewed up VHS and spit out a mess. The NTSC was awful (4:1:1), the PAL was passable (4:2:0, similar to DVD-Video though a different axis).

The guy I talked to sells NV-FS 88 instead of Panasonic NV-FS 200 but told me the VCRs are pretty much the same but 88 does not have TBC. Since I have Canopus, I do not need TBC anyway, but wanted to check if it is a good VCR for digitalization, please.

What a bunch of BS.

The Canopus doesn't replace a TBC whatsoever. The field TBC in the Panasonics is vastly superior, and actually functions.

He just wanted to sell you stuff.

Hello lordsmurf,

thank you very much for your feedback this is very valuable. Previously, i was doing a quick research on what would be the best option to digitize videos and when i was checking out the website of local companies, all of them were using Canopus for digitizing on top of TBC VCRs. Didn't know the technology was so outdated, and only realized when I found out that canopus requires Firewire port which isn't commonly used anymore.

Next time, I will go to this forum first, so much valuable information that can save me money in the future. Thanks for your detailed explanation and provided examples. It helps me a lot

[JadHC]

@JadHC, try another tape and the S-Video cable just in case the one you've been experimenting with is dodgy.

Hello Alwyn/lollo,

apologies for the later reply, I was experimenting with the VCRs and I was able to find out what the issue was. The old VCR was PAL/NTSC, but I found out my tapes were SECAM-L. When you play SECAM tapes on PAL VCR, you receive black & white video, hence mystery solved. I have purchased SECAM VCR now and the video is now in color Although the video is not as superior as Panasonic, I am glad I was able to fix the issue

[Alwyn]

@JadHC, glad you got it sorted out.