Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 4/13/2006, 10:51 AM
You really don't want to be dealing with MPEG in Vegas. You really want to be working with AVI.
The ADS product is not designed for creating editable videos, it's designed for making DVDs of existing video tape. If you want to edit, get their DV Bridge product instead.
Paul Mead wrote on 4/13/2006, 11:03 AM
And also consider Canopus products, which are highly respected.
rogotoo wrote on 4/14/2006, 9:47 AM
I'm also interested in doing some VHS converting. I was checking the ADS site and was wondering about the Video Xpress instead of the DVDXpress. According to their site it says "Video can be directly captured as .AVI, compressed .AVI, MPEG-1 or Windows Media Video". Any thougts on if it would work? I might be missing something but I searched their site for the DV Bridge and didn't see it listed.

Thanks for any input. It is amazing how much this forum has cut down my learning curve in using Movie Studio.
mschal wrote on 4/15/2006, 9:29 AM
I'm checking out the ADS Video Xpress too, I could not find the DV Bridge either on the ADS website. I'm curious if the Video Express has Time Base Correction built into it, I doubt it for the price. Its available on Amazon for $38.00.
ADinelt wrote on 4/15/2006, 6:56 PM
To capture analog video to my computer, I use my JVC Mini-DV Camcorder. It takes analog (RCA) audio and video input and converts it to digital via the firewire connection to my computer. The Sony Movie Studio capture program saves it as .avi and works like a charm.

Al
DavidEBSmith wrote on 4/17/2006, 10:30 PM
Well . . . I've got a DVDExpress DX2, and while capturing video in AVI would be better, if your goal is just to transfer old VHS onto DVD, the ADS box isn't all that bad an option.

For one thing, it's cheaper than the DV capture boxes - $99 US as compared to $150 or more for a DV capture box. Second, because it does hardware capture, it's easy on system resources. I use it with an Averatec 3270 laptop that's running all out to keep up with Firewire capture from a DV camcorder, but loafs along with the DX2. Also, capturing in MPEG-2 format, you use up about 2 GB or disk space per hour of video, as compared to 13 GB in DV format. If you have limited disk space, want to capture 2 to 4 hours of video at a crack, or might want to transfer the video from the portable capture laptop to the fast video editing PC, it's something to think about.

The DX2 captures MPEG-2 at an average somewhere around 3-5 Mb/s, so the bitrate is in the ballpark for fitting on a single-layer DVD without too much crunching and munching. I've done some VHS-to-DVD with the DX2 and VMS, and the result is pretty decent. Not HDTV, not Hollywood, but decent. If you really want to compress your video, it'll do DivX (MP4) capture in hardware, too, although you can't edit that with VMS. The DX2 does come with pretty annoying Ulead software (that apparently has to be installed to get the DX2 working right) that you can use to edit the MP4 video, if you want.

Yes, if you capture in AVI you'll have better video to work with, and the ideal would be to do DV-AVI capture, but if you're starting with VHS, practically speaking, are you losing all that much by capturing in MPEG-2? THe answer to that question is what will drive your decision.

BTW, the DX2 uses the same chip as the Plextor PX-M402U, which you can get with a big rebate from a big online vendor until the end of the month. The Plextor needs external power, which the DX2 doesn't, and comes with an older version of the mediocre Ulead software, BUT the Plextor is supported by some PVR software, which the DX2 isn't yet.