Someone asked in another thread what I thought of this hardware and I myself had some confussion on the input/output features so here goes.
Q. What is the Canopus ADVC300?
A. Its a A/D converter. That's a HARDWARE device that's capable of converting analog signals (like from a VHS player) to digital and the other way around as well as simply providing 'pass-through'.
Q. Why would you want one?
A. to "capture" analog material and/or connect your PC via a firewire card to a external monitor so you can do proper color/level adjustment.
Q Why the ADVC300 and not the 100 or some other model or make?
A. the ADVC300 is a newer model and what makes it stand out from the rest is its ability to to do filtering, ie adjust levels, remove video noise. Cheaper models are only capable of converting, not enhancing the video siginal.
Q. How big is it, how well built, etc?
A. Its a little under six inches wide, about 7 inches deep and one inch tall. It weights very little, just under a pound. So I would stick it in a safe place, not on your desktop since a good swipe with your arm could knock it off your desk. Its appears to be well made, however the design could have been better and the photos you see on various web pages rarely shows ALL the controls. In additon to the typical input/output connections on the front and back there are three buttons and 14 LED's on the top plus two 8 position tiny dip switches on the botton. So lots of things that can be changed manually.
I don't know about anyone else, I found the ads and information on the Canopus site confusing, even misleading. For example they state it has two firewire connectors. It does, a 4 pin and a six pin, but the manual clearly states you can't use both at once. The somewhat mysterious D1 output on the back is labeled component out and it did come with a RCA red, blue, green adaptor and apparently does for units sold in the states regardless who you buy it from.
I asked directly in the Canopus forum and the best answer I got which was no answer at all, ie was the "office" puts these cables in the box for product to be sold in the states. Apparently not elsewhere, but they claim you can get them from your local Canopus office. Lots of luck. The other confusion on this output is what exactly is it? It is NOT a digital siginal! Its a interlaced ANALOG component that supports 525 lines of resolution according to one thread I found in the Canopus forum.
Q. What software does it comes with?
A. Comes with two CD's. One a very brief install disk, the other called "Lets Convert" which is a very basic capture/burn utility. I didn't try it out. While the ADVC300 can do its thing via hardware, it also comes with Picture Controller which allows adjustment of color, brightness, hue, sharpness, etc.. The goodie part is you can also control 3D noise reduction, 2D Noise reduction and 3D Y/C seperation. Again, Haven't tried it enough to say how I like it.
Q. Does it work with Vegas?
A. Yes, no problems. Vegas sees it as and thinks its just another digital device, so if connected via firewire it treats it like a digital camera, so for example you can stick in a noisy VHS tape in your VHS player to a input and have the Canopus output it via firewire and capture with the Vegas capture utility and without changing anything the default "improvements" are applied on the fly. The real power of this unit seems to be the fine adjustments you can make as far as changing the strength of the filters, correction, which I haven't done enough of yet.
One thing to remember, this unit will process the WHOLE frame, so you likely will see the junk that's normally hidden because of overscan when viewed on a consumer TV. So you're seeing a captured underscan image. This can easily be masked in Vegas if it bugs you, but not probably necessary since it falls in the overscan region.
Q. Sounds good, how about some screen shots videos?
A. Haven't done any of my own yet, but someone over in the Canopus forum has. Here's a link to get a idea of what improvement is possible with the noise reduction.
http://forum.canopus.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=214429&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#Post214658
Q. What is necessary to get the ADVC300 to remove noise, improve/change signal strength etc.?
A. It MUST have a analog siginal! Remember the ADVC300 primary purpose is as a A/D converter. While it can 'pass through' a digital signal from one device to another, this defeats the processing mode. So for the unit to do it magic as far as filtering it has to be fed a analog signal, then on the fly it processes it depeding on how the dip switches are set, THEN converts it to digital. Again, remember what's meant in the context. It creates a COMPRESSED digital siginal, like most devices do, which is suitable for MPEG-2 useage to make DVD's, etc..
Q. Should analog input be component, composite or S video?
A. Good question. I don't know. Reading some posts in the Canopus forum and elsewhere there seems to be lots of opinion, confussion on this issue.
Haven't tested, so don't know. In a nutshell it seems that for the Canopus ADVC300 to do its thing as far as cleaning up a nosiy siginal or applying any filtering, IT, (the ADVC300) not the incoming siginal must do the spliting of the signal. Maybe someone else can clean this up.
There is no component in. There is a composite and S video input. If you use the S video then the siginal is ALREADY split. However using the composite in (the standard yellow RCA plug) then the ADVC300 will split out the siginal and then do its thing, otherwise, apparently nothing happends improvement wise. Can anyone confirm this?
Q. What is the Canopus ADVC300?
A. Its a A/D converter. That's a HARDWARE device that's capable of converting analog signals (like from a VHS player) to digital and the other way around as well as simply providing 'pass-through'.
Q. Why would you want one?
A. to "capture" analog material and/or connect your PC via a firewire card to a external monitor so you can do proper color/level adjustment.
Q Why the ADVC300 and not the 100 or some other model or make?
A. the ADVC300 is a newer model and what makes it stand out from the rest is its ability to to do filtering, ie adjust levels, remove video noise. Cheaper models are only capable of converting, not enhancing the video siginal.
Q. How big is it, how well built, etc?
A. Its a little under six inches wide, about 7 inches deep and one inch tall. It weights very little, just under a pound. So I would stick it in a safe place, not on your desktop since a good swipe with your arm could knock it off your desk. Its appears to be well made, however the design could have been better and the photos you see on various web pages rarely shows ALL the controls. In additon to the typical input/output connections on the front and back there are three buttons and 14 LED's on the top plus two 8 position tiny dip switches on the botton. So lots of things that can be changed manually.
I don't know about anyone else, I found the ads and information on the Canopus site confusing, even misleading. For example they state it has two firewire connectors. It does, a 4 pin and a six pin, but the manual clearly states you can't use both at once. The somewhat mysterious D1 output on the back is labeled component out and it did come with a RCA red, blue, green adaptor and apparently does for units sold in the states regardless who you buy it from.
I asked directly in the Canopus forum and the best answer I got which was no answer at all, ie was the "office" puts these cables in the box for product to be sold in the states. Apparently not elsewhere, but they claim you can get them from your local Canopus office. Lots of luck. The other confusion on this output is what exactly is it? It is NOT a digital siginal! Its a interlaced ANALOG component that supports 525 lines of resolution according to one thread I found in the Canopus forum.
Q. What software does it comes with?
A. Comes with two CD's. One a very brief install disk, the other called "Lets Convert" which is a very basic capture/burn utility. I didn't try it out. While the ADVC300 can do its thing via hardware, it also comes with Picture Controller which allows adjustment of color, brightness, hue, sharpness, etc.. The goodie part is you can also control 3D noise reduction, 2D Noise reduction and 3D Y/C seperation. Again, Haven't tried it enough to say how I like it.
Q. Does it work with Vegas?
A. Yes, no problems. Vegas sees it as and thinks its just another digital device, so if connected via firewire it treats it like a digital camera, so for example you can stick in a noisy VHS tape in your VHS player to a input and have the Canopus output it via firewire and capture with the Vegas capture utility and without changing anything the default "improvements" are applied on the fly. The real power of this unit seems to be the fine adjustments you can make as far as changing the strength of the filters, correction, which I haven't done enough of yet.
One thing to remember, this unit will process the WHOLE frame, so you likely will see the junk that's normally hidden because of overscan when viewed on a consumer TV. So you're seeing a captured underscan image. This can easily be masked in Vegas if it bugs you, but not probably necessary since it falls in the overscan region.
Q. Sounds good, how about some screen shots videos?
A. Haven't done any of my own yet, but someone over in the Canopus forum has. Here's a link to get a idea of what improvement is possible with the noise reduction.
http://forum.canopus.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=214429&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1#Post214658
Q. What is necessary to get the ADVC300 to remove noise, improve/change signal strength etc.?
A. It MUST have a analog siginal! Remember the ADVC300 primary purpose is as a A/D converter. While it can 'pass through' a digital signal from one device to another, this defeats the processing mode. So for the unit to do it magic as far as filtering it has to be fed a analog signal, then on the fly it processes it depeding on how the dip switches are set, THEN converts it to digital. Again, remember what's meant in the context. It creates a COMPRESSED digital siginal, like most devices do, which is suitable for MPEG-2 useage to make DVD's, etc..
Q. Should analog input be component, composite or S video?
A. Good question. I don't know. Reading some posts in the Canopus forum and elsewhere there seems to be lots of opinion, confussion on this issue.
Haven't tested, so don't know. In a nutshell it seems that for the Canopus ADVC300 to do its thing as far as cleaning up a nosiy siginal or applying any filtering, IT, (the ADVC300) not the incoming siginal must do the spliting of the signal. Maybe someone else can clean this up.
There is no component in. There is a composite and S video input. If you use the S video then the siginal is ALREADY split. However using the composite in (the standard yellow RCA plug) then the ADVC300 will split out the siginal and then do its thing, otherwise, apparently nothing happends improvement wise. Can anyone confirm this?