Comments

laz wrote on 10/28/2006, 12:23 AM
Some camcords convert analogue into dv (passthrough) so you just fit it up to vhs recorder, capture and transfer to pc; or you'll need a good analogue converter. If you do a search here you'll come up with some choices.
Elmo27376 wrote on 10/30/2006, 6:24 AM
My DV camcorder does not pass through as was mentioned so I just copied the VHS tapes to DV tape then captured the video in the normal way. I found no loss in quality and the process worked fine, Hope this helps.
Ken
IanG wrote on 10/30/2006, 8:32 AM
>I just copied the VHS tapes to DV tape

How did you do that?

Ian G.
Elmo27376 wrote on 10/31/2006, 6:38 AM
How did you do that?

Connect the A/V from a VCR out to the DV camcorder in (with a tape in it)
. Put the VCR on playback and the Camcorder to record and let them do their thing
IanG wrote on 10/31/2006, 7:21 AM
Ah, no A/V In on my camcorder :-(

Ian G.
tocsese wrote on 10/31/2006, 5:18 PM
Buy the Canopus ADVC 110, it is rock solid for converting analog to digital, zero dropped frames. Read the reviews on Videohelp.Com. I bought it and I am extremely pleased. No software, analog inputs in the front and Firewire out the back.
billynmi wrote on 11/1/2006, 9:59 AM
I bought the Canopus 55 to use in my video processing class and it works great. I have the Canopus 1394 installed in my computer at home and it performs well also. It incudes a firewire port.

Billy
Jim Y wrote on 11/12/2006, 5:15 AM
Hi all, my first post here...

I also got the Canopus 55. It doesn't I find report that it's dropped frames! I get occassional jerky motion and accompanying stuttering sound from VHS input (PAL) - surely these effectively are dropped frames? - If I record the audio seperately, the audio track is much longer than the video, which I'd suggest shows quite a lot of it has gone missing! I don't think this is a Macrovision thing, since it's so random, but I have very little experience of video capture. I think my basic system is ok, my Sony DV camcorder transfers perfectly using the same Firewire port.

However, the cause I think is loss of sync signal (I'm using s-vid 4 pin) - as the 55's status indicator blinks to red at the same time as the capture stutters in the preview.

Now, the video seems fine monitored directly on a TV, but I suppose the video signals could occasionally be too weak for the 55's liking?

Is it worth getting a video signal conditioner? Are the ones apparently built into Scart leads and not requiring an extra power supply any good? Or should I get a unit in a seperate box ?
I'm loath to put something else in the signal path, but if needs must !

Thanks
Jim
Jim Y wrote on 11/17/2006, 2:30 AM
Oh, well. Apparently it works fine with some tapes so there must be something like macrovision or maybe closed caption/teletext stuff that the Canopus converter doesn't like in the bad ones. I found it easy to check the tape in FF or RW as the stuff in the top of the frame is more obvious than normal speed before wasting time capturing them.
Must get a synch corrector I think.
Has anyone used this?
http://www.lektropacks.com/view_item.php?product=4&&category=6
All my tapes are PAL format.