ADS USB Instant DVD Reviewed

[bilestyle]

Okay i JUST got this bad boy workin so im going to do a little first impression review.

the ripping software VERY easy to understand, and pretty good control over ripping/color control/noise reduction.

ability to rip to VBR or CBR

bitrate range 1-6

available sizes to rip to for MPEG-2
720x480
640x480
480x480
352x480

mpeg-1
352x240
320x240

available sound birate choices: 192, 224, 256, 384
frequency choices: 32, 44.1, 48

additionally you can adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and hue.

peaking frequency, low, mid, high with ability to set the frequency from 0-7 and the core from 0-2.

there are advanced options for noise reduction that i dont feel like typin out, but there are alot of them.


quality rating. TOP NOTCH... but one BIG complaint. there is NO option (that i can find) for deinterlacing while capturing. so the video will have interlacing problems when viewed in any media program that doesn't support deinterlacing. I assume once the media is burned it wont be an issue, but if you prefer quicktime over vlc you will have issues.

and for those of you who are considering buying to be able to rip copyrighted material... DONT. it has a built in detector that will let you know when you are ripping copyrighted material and it will stop processing. this aspect doesn't personally bother me (aside from it violating fair use laws, but im sure ADS doesn't want the bastards in the MPAA breathing down their necks) because i had no intentions on using it in this regard. but for those of you who are trying to use it in this way, from what i see (with everything that it comes packaged with) you cant do it. now maybe it is possible with some macrovision removal box or something, but dont hold your breathe waitin for me to find out cuz im not going to bother.

[jo-jo ma]

u da man!

i've been looking for somebody to give me the lowdown on this.... trai's dvd site has a mega review of all encoders, software and hardware, but the membership is too $$$

when you say copyright protection... are you talking about porting a VCR to the ADS and encoding say Total Recall or something similar? my SONY DVMC-DA2 has a macrovision lock-out, but it never locked out macrovision encoded movies (not that it was ever an issue, mind you.. i just thought it interesting)

AAR, going from VHS to mpeg2(ultimately DVD) would be counterproductive and silly (as you stated earlier)

any more long-term follow up issues?

[bilestyle]

the copy protection issue applies to video tapes as well as DVD. The video tapes just shift colors slightly and its nothing that cant be solved w/o tweaking some denoising features. The DVD (DVD player to the ADS unit) will spring an error from the capture unit that the video is copy protected and it stops the capture completely. -- But again that doesn't really bother me, i was just testin it to see what would happen. My biggest complaint still is no deinterlacing while encoding. So if you try to view the product w/o any re-encoding, on your computer screen the interlacing is completely messed up and it looks terrible. Once burnt it shouldn't be an issue, but its still upsetting that you need to re-encode to view it properly on the computer screen

[pants]

bilestyle

do you know if the program that comes with this unit, the ones that allows for the basic mpeg editing, will it edit mpegs not captured with the instand dvd hardware? like if i rip a mpeg stream from a dvd and wanted to cut or trim some of it, would it import the stream and be able to edit it?

also is it pretty easy to make svcd's with this guy?
i was looking at this at macworld today and it seems pretty cool, but the people at the booth didn't really know it. the guy who knew the programs was out to lunch so i couldn't get too m uch accurate info on it. but it did look impressive.

thanks

pants

[MichaelLAX]

I purchased one about 6 weeks ago from Creative Computers in Santa Monica (Mac Mall), and I am impressed with the combination package of both hardware and software. I am still experimenting with it, so I do not have a complete report on it.

To answer your original question, I have found that their software will work with some 3rd party MPEGs. For example, I was able to take some MPEG-1s that were created in Forty-Two and use their authoring software to create VCDs. However, some files could not be imported.

It does support changes in the MPEG-2 digitizing for SVCD authoring, however I have no experience here. With the price of DVD-Rs now down below $1, and the process for SVCD too complicated on the Mac, I make either VCDs (for trimmed TV shows) or DVDs (for Movies).

However, their Technical Support seems to be MIA. The following is an email message that I sent after my initial phone call with TS over 1 month ago, with many email followups, but no answer yet (I have excised some material that is not germain). If I do not get a successful answer soon, I will return the product for a refund. Any additional info here in response would be helpful.

Since I wrote the letter detailed below, I have been using my Powerbook G3 to create MPEG-2 files at the 2 Bit rate for DVD for archival purposes. I expect to experiment again later this week with my G4 to create DVD from MPEG-2's at higher bit rates.



"Dear _____:

[introduction deleted]

I am disappointed and frustrated at having spent $450 on a product which seems to not perform as advertised, and for which I am now becoming a Beta-Tester. [deleted]

As you will recall, my complaint was that VCDs created from MPEG-1 files using PixeDV and then burned onto CD with Toast were playable on my Mac, but not on my DVD player, or any of those I have access to (even though other VCDs created on the same blank media do function properly on these DVD machines).

When I did not hear back from you, I called you again on Friday to get an update. You indicated that the senior tech support people were getting similar problems, and that they are working on it.

I spent a considerable amount of time with the product over the weekend and I have much information to report.

Firstly, the manual included does not seem to be for the version of the software that is shipped with the product. I am seeing selections available to me when using the software that is different than the screen shots printed in the manual. You will see examples of this below. Also there are many undocumented features of the software, some of which apparently are crucial to the proper functioning of the software.

I am now able to create VCDs that will properly play in our DVD machines. Let me point out that I am working with “cut” files, which I expect to work with 99% of the time. For example, TV shows from my DirecTV TiVo (DirecTiVo) that I trim out the non-programing content before and after the show and the commercials. So I have never tried to create and play a VCD from “uncut” MPEG-1 files. This ability to “trim” MPEG files is a major advantage of your product, so I will focus on files that have been cut.

To get VCDs to properly play on our DVD machines, I take the “cut” MPEG-1 file, and using a Control-Click on the file, I select EXPORT TO MPEG… This feature is explained on Page 29 of the Manual for exporting to DVD Studio Pro and splitting standard MPEG files into ELEMENTARY MPEG files with separate Video and Audio files.

When I select this function, up comes a Dialog Box that indicates CREATE VIDEO CD SOURCE, but differs in the picture offered on Page 29 in that there is a Button Selection for either Type 1 or Type 2. I tried both, and neither one results in two separate audio/video files; both times it creates one MPEG file. I found that if I used Toast to burn a Type 2 file to a CD, it will now play on our DVD machines.

While this is a useful work-around, this is not what you promote in the sales of this product. That is, you promote “real-time” digitizing that can then be burned (in the case of VCDs) on a CD. However, I now find that a second step is required which adds nearly 100% of the time needed to the “real-time” digitizing before the file can be created that will result in a playable VCD. This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

Let me give you the benefit of some other discoveries that I made while experimenting with digitizing files for VCDs:

Capture Settings: For MPEG-1 there are three settings – Best, Normal and Custom. I find that as I click on the Best and Normal buttons, the bit rate does not change from 1.15. I have to click on, for example, Best and then Custom and then back to Best to get the bit rate to change to 2. The same is true when I want to go back to a Normal bit rate of 1.15. I have to click on Normal, Custom and then back to Normal to get it to reflect a bit rate of 1.15.

Interestingly enough, I decided to try out the bit rate of 1.5 on a Custom selection. After I digitized the file and created a “cut” file, when I went to EXPORT TO MPEG… a dialog box came up warning me that it may not create a workable VCD, indicating that the bit rate WAS LESS than 1.15 and the frame rate was not the proper one. In reality the bit rate was greater than 1.5 and the frame rate was the proper one. So I went ahead and created the new Source MPEG-1 file, and burned it to a CD. Not only did it play on my DVD machine (at better quality than the same programming burned at a 1.15 bit rate), but when played on my Macintosh using MacVCD software it played in a larger window than the VCD created from a 1.15 bit rate. In conclusion, while it is true that some DVD machines may not play a VCD created at 1.5, your software is incorrectly notifying the user that they bit rate and frame rate are different than they really are.

I have not yet attempted a VCD from a file digitized at a 2 bit rate, but I suspect that it will play (with better quality) on my DVD machine and on the Mac will play on an even larger window. Of course, the issue becomes file size versus the capacity of the CD. But, for example, on one-hour television shows where the commercials have been “trimmed” out, the bit rate of 1.5 will create a file that will still fit on a 700MB CD when made into a VCD.

[UPDATE: After becoming a member of this forum, and doing much research, I now realize that these are XVCDs]

Let me point out some other problems I discovered including discussions in the manual:

1) I find no discussion of what the purpose of the three Audio/Video RCA jacks on the front of the Instant DVD box are for. What are they for???

2) On Page 13, I believe that the Recording Time box is wrong in its statement that 160 mins of Digital Video [DV] will fit on a CD-R/RW (640MB). Perhaps it is 1.6 mins?

3) When using PixeDV on executing cut files, when the screen went blank or went to a screen saver, upon returning to the screen, the Mac OS menus would be present instead of the PixeDV menus. I would have to force quit to get out of the program. Your manual does suggest turning off Energy Saving options, but I do not think it mentions the screen saver option should be turned off as well.

4) Certain features, such as CBR vs. VBR are for digitizing MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-1. The manual needs to make a clearer distinction of which features are applicable for each different digitizing function. This comes up in other places as well, where discussions are applicable to MPEG-2 only, but the manual is not clear about this distinction.

5) Another example of an undocumented (and hence unexplained) feature is the slide rule that appears when you select VBR for digitizing MPEG-2. I would like to know more about the function of using this slide (which only goes up halfway to 50) and what its effects are, without having to experiment on files to find out.

6) Page 26 of the Manual shows a picture of the MPEG Editor with a split screen in the window above the Slider. In my experience there is only one screen in this window, not two.

7) On Page 32, Frequently Used Terms, the description of each term is out of alignment from the term itself, and the last description has no term for which it is describing (i.e., after Project). What is the term?

8) I have only used CaptyDVD/VCD once for a minimal use of creating one DVD, so I do not have any comments on this software/manual at this time, other than to say that the functions of Creating a DVD-Video on Page 53 are confusing. For example in the shaded box “Point” it suggests clicking the box “Video TS” to create a Video TS Folder. However, no such box exists. If you examine the picture right about the shadowed box, you will see there is a “Save Video TS” box, which I did click. This seems to increase the time needed to create the DVD tremendously and copies the files to my hard disk; a function I did not need. I am still not clear about the Video TS functions.

Finally, at this time, I would like to make an observation of a feature that may well increase the usefulness of your product, if indeed it is functioning properly. I am currently using my Powerbook G3 (Firewire) with an external Seagate 120Gig HD in one of your Pyro Firewire enclosures for the purpose of digitizing in my Den/TV room where my DirecTiVo is located. I expected that I would have to bring my 17” Flatscreen iMac down to the TV room to digitize MPEG-2, as your product box and manual clearly indicate that a G4 is required to digitize to MPEG-2.

However, just for the hellovit, using my Powerbook G3, I selected MPEG-2 and digitized about 15 mins of content onto the external HD. I then moved the hard drive up to the iMac G4, used CaptyDVD to create a rudimentary DVD and burned it onto a DVD on the iMac’s Superdrive. It played on the iMac as a DVD. Unfortunately, it turns out that my Denon 1500 DVD player cannot play DVD-Rs, so I have to take the DVD over to a friends house to see how it performs on his DVD player (needless to say I am in the market to purchase a new DVD machine for this reason.

[UPDATE: I have now purchased a SONY 315 which plays all of the DVD-R and DVD-RW that I have burned]

My question is: would the creation of MPEG-2 files on the G4 result in any difference in quality, or can I continue to use my Powerbook G3 to create MPEG-2 files and then burn the DVDs on my G4 at the same quality level?

[UPDATE: I of course discovered that at higher bit rates the G3 would create DVDs that "stutter"]

[deleted]

Regards"