The video flashes at about 1.5 Hz getting bright and dark, with color unsync'd. Then after a few seconds, or sometimes more, it will just play black & white video with no flashing.
-Robert

I would recheck all your dip switch settings and cabling and also if you
have anything else hooked on the firewire turn it off or disconnect it.

JJK

Hi.

I have same unit wired up for monitor preview. I too get this now and again. Not found a solution as yet. Tried some dipswitch settings - no luck.
It seems to be the monitor looses sync on the picture from Vegas - not sure why.
I have not worked out a fullproof fix yet - but did notice this problem in the Vegas beta version. I have full retail and latest updates now - and still get it now and again. Try going into the properties/settings for your external device in Vegas - and set it to NTSC then back to pal again - works sometimes for me! Anyone else get this? I don't think its a hardware fault as such.....

Already changed cables, flipped dips back and forth, nothing connected to firewire.

I checked on Canopus's site and there are several references to Windows XP SP1, and Windows 2000, and some work being done with microsoft to resolve it.
I did my own detective work today and came up with different results:
This is with XP SP1 installed,
If 3 onditions were met, it didn't go to black and white,
1-The Canopus ADVC-100 was not cold
2-DirectX 9 was NOT installed. Works with 8.1
3-The converter was turned on before the computer

If the converter was turned on after the computer booted, or after the program was opened, it always would flip to B&W.

Confusion came when it was in B&W, turned off the computer, turned it on, opened vegas, and the timeline still played in B&W.

I will be getting a replacement for the converter, but until then I'm leaving the 'upgrades' off my system.

-Robert

Always best to check the simple things first. My unit is always turned on
first and if room temp is 75 the unit starts to get pretty hot and sometimes
will loose program, then have to unplug unit for a minute then plug back in
and everything is cool.

JJK

IF it helps, seem to recall some firewire issues with this convertor that might be relevant if you want to search the forum archives.

FYI, my Canopus ADVC-100 works fine with DirectX 9.1a installed on an XP Pro machine (XP SP1a). (thru Pyro Basic firewire card - their cheapest one).

Dan

I get a similar experience with a Dazzle Hollywood-DV convertor. Only switches between color and B&W under two conditions: (1) If I fail to power up the Dazzle before booting up the computer, and (2) After working heavily with DV for over an hour--possibly related to filling up RAM memory...?

Temperature seemed to be the most overriding issue. Safe Harbor is sending me a new one with an RMA.
I'll post what happens, probably Friday or Monday.
Thanks
Robert

The Canopus ADVC-100 is known to have issues with heat. Try directing a spare fan at it when you work with it. Check the website to find out about this.

It also seems to be a problem with cold. My office is about 68 degrees, it takes about 10 minutes for the unit to become stable, and lasts for about an hour or so, and the unit feels barely warm in one spot on top, maybe 85-90 degrees at the most
There are no heat sources under or even near the unit.
It may have temperature issues, but a 30 degree operating range in my book, is defective.
-Robert

ive had all these problems with my ADVC-100 also. Drove me nuts for ages.

I have mine plugged into a Soundblaster Audigy firewire port...probably the cheapest and nastiest option available.

My unit would work for about an hour or so, then when it got hot (and the case would get very warm on the top and bottom) it would simply freeze...ie stop sending a signal down the firewire. I would just get a black screen in Vegas Capture until i turned off the ADVC-100 and back on again. Very frustrating when it was set to capture a TV show in 2 hours time.

For ages i thought it was Vegas, or loss of the firewire port (ive heard that Via motherboards can have this problem) or a heat issue (i had it sitting on its side with a fan pointing at it).

In the end i rang up the local Canopus distributor, spoke to a tech and took the unit down to them with the symptoms. He came back in 2 mins with a brand new unit in bubble wrap, explaining that all the early units with my serial number had "firmware issues" and happily swapped it over, no questions asked. With the new unit, i havent had a single problem, and its been on for 2 weeks now straight. :)

Canopus are really cool ppl...they know ppl who are into video are not dummies and respect their customers...at least thats my experience.

Sounds like you ppl have the same firmware problem...get them swapped over.

Blackout

Thanks for the vote of confidence Blackout.
My serial# is 751800. What's yours?
-Robert

Mine is barely a week old and has already been driving me crazy with this on print to tape. Serial# is in the 756XXX range. Weird thing is, I have color when I am monitoring the signal passing through the VHS deck and recording, but when I play back it is in black and white for several seconds then kind of pops (with a thin line through the video) then the color appears. This doesn't appear to be a heat issue, because it does it right after power on. I thought it was my cheap Sony VHS deck so I bought a cheap JVC S-VHS deck today to get some dubs out for a client. It seemed to work OK. Just made 3 dubs. Only other problem is my 6 month old Toshiba laptop died this afternoon (think the internal hard drive croaked). At least everything was on an external firewire drive. Just hasn't been my week.

Yeah, last week my DVD-RAM was giving me problems, and one of my monitors smoked.
Your serial# is quite a bit farther on than mine was.
It looks like my replacement converter will be in Monday. I'll check it out and post the results with the serial# probably by Tuesday night.
Think positively,
NEXT WEEK WILL BE BETTER!
NEXT WEEK WILL BE BETTER!
NEXT WEEK WILL BE BETTER!
-Robert