Dear Farss,

Perhaps Spot is right when he suggests you have a defective unit. I'm very sorry for your predicament. At least mine is giving me a good image.

Spot, you referred to an image edge. The full screen image of the last frame shown remains on the monitor. Is that what you mean? Also, any suggestions on the audio asynchrony? As I said in my earlier post, it begins just fine when I make the switch-over to external monitor, but when I do continuous playback for more than about one minute without interruption, the audio begins to lag behind the video, and it gets worse as it plays on further through the timeline. Thanks.

Farss, keep the faith.

JCG

jcg,

as a matter of interest whcih model did you end up with, mine is the API - 550 Rev B, you need to look at the bottom for the model number.

As I've said before, when it goes it goes really well, I've got no complaints about the image quality, best I've seen even on my crappy monitor.

Dear Farss,

Good question. I have the same model (the API-550 Rev B). Maybe I should go to church tomorrow...

JCG

You know, Farss, when I read the subject line of the thread and then your first message in the thread, I first felt panic that someone else was having problems with the same piece of equipment I had just installed and was having problems with myself. But then I felt somewhat relieved that I wasn't the only one. So thanks for beginning the thread.

JCG

jcg,
well assuming yours works OK driving a preview monitorthen I now know that the design of the unit should be OK unless its marginal components.

Mine will run OK with a small segment but eventually seems to loose it at random points so it looks like its not something in the video stream going to ti.

I doubt your drifitng audio sync is the fault of this unit. You should check to see if its OK on the internal monitor, I'm assuming that with DV on the timeline there is something that locks frame of video to the audio so it cannot drift like you're saying, then again I find it hard to get any real insight into the underlying structure of DV so I could be wrong here.

I have a suspicion this unit is being affected by external interference, I've tried sitting it on its end beside a metal box to give it some sheilding and it seems to be more relaible. Il try a full metal jacket for it and see if that helps to make it bullet proof :).

BTW are you running your unit in PAL or NTSC?

Farss,

OK, maybe I spoke too soon. I was just working with it and I started getting pretty prominent pixelation out of nowhere!!! Didn't helpt to switch back to internal then to external again. Had to turn off monitor and exit Vegas. Then was OK again. This is not good.

Regarding the audio asynchrony, I definitely do not have this probelm when using the internal monitor. In fact, in the almost one year that I've been using Vegas, I have not had this problem. Since my monitor is a new Sony PVM-14L2, it sure as hell better not be the monitor!

I'll let you know as more things either go wrong or right on this end. I am running in NTSC. Are you serious about shielding? Should I try that?

JCG

JCG

Just checking... when you say the audio gets out of sync the further it gets through the timeline.... are you doing a print-to-tape from the timeline? Or are you just doing an external preview? If you are just doing an external preview that does not actually feed audio out the firewire in any case. Try a real print-to-tape as an experiment.

Of course if you are doing a real print-to-tape then that is not the problem.

and... by the way... I returned my ADS unit right after I got it... as I could not get it to work reliably either. I cannot recall the exact scenario... but it included getting unreliable print-to-tapes and previews (where the thing would maybe be ok for a few seconds and then throw a wobbly).

jcg,
I'm only thinking of that because I live in an area of very high RF interference from a TV transmitter. It gets into a lot of my analogue stuff, even composite video feeds running in good coax get patterns in the blacks from it. We've had to go to a digital STB just so we can watch more than one TV channel.

If your situation isn't the same then I'd say its not an issue. Sounds like your seeing the same problems as me. I guess you've also picked up from my previous gripe that this box is no good for analogue capture either despite what they say. If you're wealthy enough to afford a VHS VCR with a TBC it might be OK but thinking about the other problems we're having I'm not so sure.

I think I'm going to buy up old D8 cameras, both PAL and NTSC, for the money they are the best things going for A/D conversion. Unless the Canopus box includes a TBC even it is not going to be much use to me.

Dear Lioam,

The audio asynchrony I'm referring to is with previewing using the external monitor - the only task for which I'm currently using the PYRO. And, yes, the audio does not come through it. So what happens? What is the problem? Is the video play-back slowed down every so slightly when it's fed through the PYRO going to the external monitor that it is eventually noticeable and gets more and more out of synchrony with the audio? It does not happen when I use the internal monitor.

I am delighted to hear you successfully returned your ADS unit. Did you purchase it online or at a storefront? How did you manage the return? Thanks for your input.

JCG

Farss, thanks for the additional information. And Liam, apologies for misspelling your name in my previous message - a slip of the fingers. Farss, maybe we should return our PYROs, if this is possible...

JCG

JCG,
unfortunately I've imported mine from the US and had to cut the lead of the plug pack tp fit it to a local new power supply. I guess I'll just write it off to a lesson learnt the hard way.

Thing I'm really browned off about is that I couldn't even flog it off on eBay in good faith, offer it for use for what? If it was just a problem with not having a TBC causing me problems with analogue capture maybe someone could make use of it for capturing off air or doing DV to VHS copies but it will not even do that reliably. I'm going to try it with a clean composite feed and see if I can at least get it to do that reliably, if so I can sell it for that purpose. I can see why they're being sold at such a huge discount, glad I didn't buy it locally at double the price, although then I might have been able to return it.

Hopefully you'll be in a better position to get your money back than I am. I've heard no complaints about the ADVC-100, Canopus do mention an issue using it with TI 1394 chips so watch out for that, at least that's easy enough to fix at only a small cost and Canopus are being dead honest about it AND they do have a name to protect so even if you have a problem I'm sure their tech supprt people will be swarming over you.

JCG

I bought it in the USA.. from a local computer store.. so we just pack it up, take it back, get a refund... no questions asked.

-Liam
p.s. don't sweat about the spelling of my name... no problem.... spelling (typing) is not my best skill either.

Just to bring everyone up to date on this issue:

Just for a laugh I tried installing ULead MSP 6 that cames with the unit. Same result.

I have also tried it on my laptaop running VV under XP, again same result.

Conclusion, it's a dog.

I'd be interested to hear if there are any VV users that have actually gotten this thing to work reliably. Only possibility I can see is that something got screwed up when they changed the design from the 500 to the 550.

What issue is with the Canopus and TI chips? (Sorry - about to head out and don't have time to search forums). I'm going to order mine this afternoon and my firewire is a TI.

Cheers

Actually the Bridgeview is a little closer, ah yes, no its the TCN 9 tramsitter.

Farss,
Just to be certain, I went to Fry's and bought one, using it right now in my hotel room, and I'm having no problems with the D/V link I've got in my hands right now. It's an API 550, version a, just bought it off the shelf at the Fry's near my hotel. Now that I know it's working, I'll return it. But, it's hooked via Firewire to my Sony Laptop, then to the television in the hotel room.
No, I didn't review the ADS for PAL, because I don't have a PAL deck or PAL monitor. That may be your problem, I don't know. On this one, it shipped with all DIP's in the up position. Switching them as per the manual,
1-up
2-down
3-up
4-down
It's working just fine. No blue, green, or grey. I've hooked my GL2 into it via analog, it's working fine for capture as well.
Wish I had a better idea of your deal, but in any event, it's working fine here from my laptop, color is good, no flashes, and external reading is just fine. Capture is OK too. I'm sorry you felt mislead, I'm sorry you've made it campaign to see the world hate this box, but I've now worked with 5 different units from them, and only the Beta sent me about 2 years ago was ever a problem. This one, not from ADS's shelves, but from a retailer, works just the same and as good as the other 3 I've been happy with. ADS tech support will also work with you very well. Ivan is a totally straight up guy there, and he'll make sure you are happy. But, it's the weekend, so you won't get any response. Maybe it's a PAL think maybe it's a cable thing, maybe you have a defuctive unit, maybe the stars aren't in the right alignment, all I can say is this one that I bought to check out, is working great.

Farss: yeah - I figured it might be TCN, I used to work there. Lived in Chatswood late 80s.

Kev,
oops just replied to your other post. Don't know just what the issue is with the TI chips as my mobo has VIA chips onit and never had a problem.

Then again you can buy firewore cards very cheaply at the moment so I wouldn't see needing a different one as a major speed hump. Unless of course you've got a laptop in which case the PCMCIA ones a re a bit more expensive.

Spot,
that is a much bigger effort than I expected of you, hope you didn't feel obliged to go to all that trouble just on my behalf. If you're in Singapore just going to a shop must have been a bit of an effort given the heat there!

I think you are right, I certainly cannot believe anyone would let something with as poor a performance as I'm seeing out into the real world. And yes I'm very impressed with the support that ADS have given so far, as you say its the weekend so I'll give them a few days to see what they have to say. Their rep from Wales replied to my post at Cow within minutes, more than I can even say for SoFo. I've emailed him some screenshots of what's happening on capture.

I'm certainly not trying to run a vendetta against them, hope I haven't given that impression, even if it does turn out to be a design problem having worked in electronics design myself I know how damn hard it can be to check every eventuality.

I've since tried this box with both the ULead software and VV on one machine and with VV on my laptop all with very much the same results.

This and your test pretty much narrows it down to four possibilities:

1) I have a defective unit.
2) The power supply I'm using is casuing it problems
3) The problem is unique to PAL.
4) My unit is 550-Rev B, they fixed one thing on the Rev A and broke something esle.

Now that I have my D8 camera back and am able to keep working and try to catch up for lost time I'll do some more tests in a relaxed environemnt to eliminate possibilites 2) and 3).

Once again my deepst thanks for your hurculean effort at helping me with this problem. If nothing else please take comfort in the knowledge that you've convinced me to hold off buying an ADCV-100, if the problem is elsewhere I could have blown even more money and still got nowhere.

I'm not in Singapore until Tuesday. In LA for the night before flying home, then back to LA on my way to Singapore! Crazy flights, isn't it?
I picked one up, because I'm very sensitive about my reviews, I never want anyone feeling like I mislead them...Email me privately, I'll provide you with a direct email address to someone at ADS.

Dear Spot,

Both Farss and I have the version B. Perhaps there is a glitch with this version? Farss, is it possible for you to send me the e-mail address you get from Spot for the connection at ADS? I am at jcgoodpasture@aol.com. Thanks a million.

JCG

jcg, do yourself a favour and change your "@" to "at" . I've heard that SpamBots cruise the internet "digging-out" peoples email addresses - yeah?

Best regards,

Grazie