Canopus ADVC-100 - Best tool for analog to MPEG2?

[snidely]

Hello,

I am completely new to analog capturing, but I plan on converting some VHS tapes and laser disc to MPEG2 format (DVD-R) for convenience. After looking over the reviews of various capture cards, it looks to me as if the Canopus ADVC-100 is the best tool for the job. Do you agree?

I also have several other newbie questions:

1. What software do you recommend for capturing? Adobe Premiere, or is there a better choice?

2. When capturing laser discs, is there any way to capture the DD 5.1 audio tracks, or am I limited to stereo?

3.If I understand correctly, I will be capturing from analog to DV (By the way, what does "DV" stand for? Digital Video?), and then I will need to convert to MPEG2 and then author, correct?

4. Can I author using IFOEdit? I have used IFOEdit in the past for file manipulation, but I have never used the new authoring capabilities. What is the most effective, yet user friendly way to author?

5. TMPGEnc is mentioned quite often around here. I know it is free for 30 days, but how much does it cost to become a registered user? Is it an essential tool, or are there other choices?

6. What is the purpose and function of VirtualDub, and do I need and/or want it?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I want to get this going the right way from the beginning, rather than making a bunch of mistakes that I will regret later. So in a nutshell, am I going in the right direction?

Thanks in advance

[EricB]

The Canopus ADVC-100 is a great piece of hardware and I have seen very few compliants.

1. Premiere is primarily for editing and would be overkill if you are basically looking to capture. For capture only I like Scenalyzer.

2. DV sound does not support DD 5.1. You capture in stereo, 48 kHz.

3. Yes. DV is lightly compressed (216 MB / minute) which makes it a good compromise for editing. You encode to MPEG2 to create reasonable file sizes that are DVD (SVCD) compatible.

4. No you wouldn't use IFOEdit to author DV files. There are lots of programs that you can reference by searching this site. I like ULEAD DVD MovieFactory and DVD Workshop.

5. TMPGENc is mentioned so much because it is a high quality and versatile encoder. Check their website, I believe registration is ~ $50.

6. VitualDub does all sorts of things including frame serving, processing to DIVx, filters, etc. Very powerful but probably not needed for what you are doing.

One of the reasons for using so many different products, is no single package has done a great job at each step: capture, edit, encode, author. Usually, encoding is the weak point. But new releases are improving all the time. There is a new version of ULEAD DVD MovieFactory that might do everything you are trying to do, and costs less than $50. Give the trial version a shot and see if you like the quality.

[snidely]

Thanks, Eric!

You answered my questions very precisely and completely

Just a couple of last questions - Which guides do you recommend that I read, or should I just dig in and start reading them all? And is there a good guide for TMPGEnc, as I find that it looks the most intimidating of the programs that you have mentioned, but it is such a good encoder that I had better get a grip on it. Thanks for all of your help!

[chaseru]

6. VitualDub does all sorts of things including frame serving, processing to DIVx, filters, etc. Very powerful but probably not needed for what you are doing.

Depending on the quality of VHS video your transfering, you may need to do some processing of the dv avi capture to remove video noise prior to encoding to MPEG otherwise you may be disappointed in the quality of the DVD. Video noise makes is very difficult for an MPEG encoder to do its job. VirtualDub has some filters to reduce this noise. With VHS I tend to use a filter add-in called "2D Cleaner".

Also you may want to resize your VHS captures to 352x480 in VirtualDub. VHS doesn't need the full DVD resolution.