Anyone here use the ADVC-100?

organism_seven wrote on 3/10/2004, 1:08 PM
Hi,

I was hoping someone may be able to help with a problem I am having with the Canopus ADVC-100.
I am capturing analog footage on to my computer with this device, but when I playback the captured footage in Windows Media Player or PowerDVD ,or any other players, the image flickers badly when any fast motion occurs. I thought this was the type of thing that only happens when there is a field order problem.
Can the ADVC-100 capture footage using the wrong field order from an analog source?

I am UK based capturing in PAL.
The strange thing is how Vegas deals with this footage.
If I place the captured footage on the timeline in Vegas and preview it on my external monitor, it plays perfectly. No jitters!

But.........

1. the original captured footage flickers when any fast motion occurs.
2. I have tried re-rendering the original footage out to AVI again using both field orders, and the flickering still occurs.
3. When converted to MPEG2 the flickering still occurs.

Can anyone explain what the problem could be?

Any help appreciated.

Regards
Organism Seven



Comments

Jsnkc wrote on 3/10/2004, 1:19 PM
I believe there is a switch somewhere on the unit to swtich between NTSC and PAL, might want to check that first.
vonhosen wrote on 3/10/2004, 1:29 PM
I'm using one in PAL land without any problems.

As suggested check all the switch settings. I think mine came set to NTSC by default.
farss wrote on 3/10/2004, 1:50 PM
You might also checkout the Canopus User Forum. Links to it from the main Canopus web site. I have the 300, purchased locally but came to changed to PAL. It will plain not work if you feed it a NTSC signal when it's in PAL so I doubt that's your issue.
Jsnkc wrote on 3/10/2004, 1:52 PM
Do you have any problems playing other AVI DV files that you have on your computer...if you have any. I know some slower computers can have problems with large files like that.
taliesin wrote on 3/10/2004, 3:32 PM
I had a very similar problem using DV-AVI files coming from a Canopus RexRTPro. Used them in Vegas then. Same problem with files rendered in Canopus Lets Edit and used in Vegas later on.
I could fix it. If your problem is same like mine then it is something which only happens to PAL DV coming from Canopus systems.

Please, could you analyse your clips coming through the ADVC-100 inside Vegas by right-clicking them and taking a look onto the properties. In the "Media" tab" - what is the displayed field order there. Is it Lower Field First or Upper Field First?

Marco
organism_seven wrote on 3/11/2004, 1:18 PM
Hi,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I've been tied up with a big project at work.

Anyhow.........

I checked the dip switches and it is set to PAL.
Footage captured from my digital video camera via firewire works fine.
Other AVI files on my system work fine.
It only seems to be analog footage captured with the ADVC-100 that displays this problem.
And capturing analog footage was why I bought this unit!

Hope you can fix this problem for me "taliesin".

The info provided by Vegas on this footage is:

Attributes: 720x576x24

Format: DV

Frame Rate: 25.000 (PAL)

Field order: Lower field first

Pixel aspect ration: 1.0926 (PAL DV)

Does this information help?

Regards
Organism Seven

organism_seven@blueyonder.co.uk

taliesin wrote on 3/11/2004, 3:14 PM
Mmh, sorry. I expected you would have Upper Field First then displayed in the properties. This happend to me with all sort of PAL Canopus files.
But in your case the problem must be related to something rather different.

Marco
JJKizak wrote on 3/11/2004, 4:38 PM
I thought PAL was supposed to be upper field first and NTSC lower field first.


JJK
taliesin wrote on 3/11/2004, 6:16 PM
Nope. Field order of DV is defined as Lower Field First for both PAL and NTSC.

Marco
coffeebean wrote on 3/11/2004, 8:16 PM
I have used an ADVC-100 for 2 years and had the same issue you have back when. I simply shut the computer down, set the underside switches to the PAL settings, plugged in, turned everything on and it all worked fine from then on. I use a Mac which should not make any difference. The unit has worked well, I use it for output to monitor now as I capture through firewire from a JVC-DECK direct.

Hope this helps
- Coffeebean
organism_seven wrote on 3/13/2004, 1:55 AM
Hi,

I found the problem with my system.
I have a Matrox G400 Max graphics card installed in my machine.
Yes, its an old card, but I have tried other newer cards by ATI and Nvidia and none of them match its ability to output to a second monitor. The newer ones can do this, but they all seem to have various glitches or restrictions that annoyed me.

Anyway, there is an option within the properties settings for the Matrox DVD Max output option which says: "Use field based scaling"
I ticked this option, and everything now works fine.

Just thought i would let people know in case you experience the same problems I did.

Thanks to everybody who replied and offered help.

Regards
Organism Seven.