Canopus ADVC-100

sqblz wrote on 10/8/2002, 3:01 AM

I am considering the aquisition of one of these babies. It will help me fulfilling my plans: migrate from Win98-2 to XP, get rid of my Analog Pinnacle MP-10 (incompatible, old), deactivate all parallel/series ports (no use anymore), change to a new motherboard with Firewire onboard, get rid of my Digital Pinnacle DV-10 (firewire card).
I will get a much more powerful system, and I will spare a lot of resources (PCI slots, IRQ's ...)
Questions are:

1 - where will I need full OHCI compliance ? in the firewire onboard ?
2 - will I be able to capture both analog and digital video via the ADVC-100 with a decent bitrate ?
3 - will this be totally compatible with Vegas ? Input and Output ?
4 - will the digital port and the analog port of the ADVC-100 be recognized by the major Capture applications (Vegas, Pinnacle Studio, Premiere, Ulead, ...) ?
5 - Canopus mentions: "ADVC-100 Known Issues: The ADVC currently has compatibility issues with certain firewire cards using the Texas Instruments chipsets. To find out more please email us..." ? Somebody knows *what* issues ?

Now stupid question:

6 - is there a variant of the ADVC-100 that uses USB 2.0 instead of IEEE 1394 to communicate with the PC ?

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Comments

prairiedogpics wrote on 10/8/2002, 7:30 AM

I use the Canopus ADVC-100 with a Pyro Basic DV firewire card (their cheapest one, which I believe has a TI chipset). I have had zero problems with this setup (WIN ME and WIN XP PRO, PIII 866 mHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 gig 7200 RPM hdd, 60 gig 7200 RPM media hdd). No frames dropped, ever. I've used it to capture from a cheapo VHS player and analog Hi-8 camcorders. I also hook it up to my Panasonic TV and use it as an external monitor from time to time. As far as A/D converters go, you won't be disappointed.

Dan

SonyDennis wrote on 10/8/2002, 12:57 PM

Great box, recommended.
1-yes, you want OHCI compliance from your on-board or add-in 1394 interface
2-analog, yes, that's half of what it does. Bitrate will be DV bitrate (25mbps). Digital captures go directly into your 1394 interface, I think there is a pass-though on the ADVC-100, though, so it kind of seems like it's capturing digital <g>.
3-yes, in and out. The other half of what it does is convert DV to analog, and you'll use with with Vegas' External Monitor feature, and print-to-tape.
4-Should be. I can only speak for SF, but the ADVC-100 is a great box, so I can't see it not working with the other apps you mentioned.
5-?
6-No. DV is only on 1394 today.
///d@

sqblz wrote on 10/9/2002, 6:25 AM

Thanks Dan and Dennis.

I read somewhere that the ADVC-100 will not let you control the DV Camera by the Capturing Software, something that I can do now with my 1394 and Vegas Capture.

Which leads me to the notion that the ADVC-100 might be overkill to me, because the only thing that I may be missing is Analog Capture.
As soon as I have a Firewire port (inboard or PCI) I have digital capture. So, I could do with just a no-frills Analog-to-Digital convertor, that uses Firewire to interface with my PC.
Digital Output, I can do to my DV Camera (I have an "engineered" Sony). And analog output I can do through my DV Camera into a VHS Recorder or a TV.

Will the ADVC-50 (costing one third of the ADVC-100) do the job ?

Or, in a more pragmatic way, what if I also use my DV Camera as passthrough to the capture of Analogic Video ???

Am I loosing something ?

Thanks for your opinions / suggestions

prairiedogpics wrote on 10/9/2002, 8:14 AM

If you are using the ADVC-100 to capture video from an analog camcorder (e.g., Hi-8), you will not have control over the camcorder. You will have to manually cue the camcorder and manually start and stop the capture process. DV control can only occur with DV cameras through a firewire port. If you have a DV camera you don't need the ADVC-100 for video capture. You just need a firewire port. ADVC stands for ANALOG to DIGITAL VIDEO CONVERTER, so it's useful for converting from a VHS tape, or Hi-8 or 8mm video for example.

I think (not sure, don't have the time to check) that the ADVC-50 only converts analog-to-digital, it won't convert digital-to-analog (so you can't use it to spit out your digital footage to a VHS recorder or use it to connect to an external monitor).

I hope this clarifies things a little,

Dan

sqblz wrote on 10/9/2002, 10:29 AM

Yes yes Dan, I got your point. Thanks.
I have an Analog Video-8 camera *and* a Digital DV camera.

kkolbo wrote on 10/9/2002, 11:35 AM

Yes you can use your DV Camera as a passthrough for converting analog sources to DV and back. I have found that even with a good camera like the Sony PD-150 I get better quality from the Canopus ADVC-100 than I do from the camera. The other issue is every time I use a camera for transfer I am putting hours on the unit that I can not afford to loose. Lastly I use the ADVC-100 to convert the Preview stream from VV to my monitor so that I have a true preview for editing. The ADVC-50 is not easy to do that with and I certianly do not want my camera burning hours all the time I am editing.

I have been very pleased with my purchase of the ADVC-100. It will also convert the 0 IRE black level of the DV to 7.5 IRE on the fly when I print to tape. That is great help and time saver when I print to VHS.

K

ralphied wrote on 10/9/2002, 11:44 AM

Unless your DV camera has an Analog IN port, you cannot use the camera to convert analog video from, say, another camcorder or VHS. Some of the higher end DV cameras have this feature.

I recently purchased the ADVC-50 to capture my old 8 mm camcorder tapes and it works great -- no more struggling to get good edits of MPEG files from my ATI All-in-Wonder card. The ADVC-50 does NOT allow analog out, but I'm not sure why you would need it anyway because you can always use the DV camcorder for that.

Ralph.

sqblz wrote on 10/10/2002, 3:28 AM

Ralph, I would risk to say that my situation is exactly like yours. My only need for analog output is creating a VHS copy of any DV finished product (for portability). I can use the passthrough of my DV camera for that.
As K rightly says, this is one or two hours more of camera use, but then again, if my DV camera lasts for 5 years instead of 6, it will be obsolete anyway ...

K, only for the benefit of my general culture: what means "convert the 0 IRE black level of the DV to 7.5 IRE" ? What is IRE ?
Thanks.

FadeToBlack wrote on 10/10/2002, 3:59 AM

sqblz wrote on 10/11/2002, 5:31 AM

Thanks GG.
We, the dumb home users, getting mixed with the Pro's. And enjoying it !!!