Pinnacle DV500 DVD w/o Adobe Premiere question

mjneime wrote on 8/10/2003, 9:52 PM
I am a newbie attempting to transfer some old analog VHS tapes to DVD using Vegas 4.0 and DVD Architect 1.0, eventually using digital video as well. Realizing I would need a video capture card I visited various websites to determine a good candidate. After checking a number of reviews on the web I decided to go with the Pinnacle DV500 DVD (mainly because I had difficulty finding someone selling the Canopus card). My big mistake was that I didn’t search this forum as well.

After looking through Pinnacle’s manual I read that I must install Adobe Premiere 6.0 or 6.5 before I could even install the card and drivers. That’s when I started worrying.

By perusing this forum I read that with Pinnacle’s DV500 4.5 patch I can do direct video capture from Sonic Foundry’s Video Capture 4.0. Can I run with this configuration without having to purchase Adobe Premiere 6.5? I realize I would not be able to use Premiere’s Run-Time functions but that’s ok with me.

The computer I have is configured as follows:

Processor: Pentium 4 3.06 GHZ
Motherboard: ASUS P4PE/L (533 MHZ Front Side Bus)
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 128MB AGP 8X (not a All-in-Wonder)
Memory: 1 Gig
Media Drive: 120 GB 7200rpm ATA133

I am putting off installing this card so I can still sell it as virtually new if it’s not the right card for me. Can I use this as is without Premiere? Should I resell the Pinnacle and buy something else? Any opinions or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks all!

Comments

donp wrote on 8/10/2003, 10:05 PM
I bought my Canopus ADVC-1394 directly from Canopus because no one within 100 miles is a reseller of any of Canopus's hardware. I don't know about the Pinnacle DV500 but as you said Vegas 4c can capture using that patch to the DV500 driver I do not see why you should need Premiere. Sounds like Pinnacle is trying to push Premier on the DV500 users when Vegas 4c can do it for a lot less of the cost.
kentwolf wrote on 8/10/2003, 10:39 PM
>>Should I resell the Pinnacle and buy something else?

I would strongly recommend staying away from all things Pinnacle. They seem to be bent on proprietary solutions which does not seem wise in the long run. I invested a lot of money in a nice Studio 8 setup and wished I never had. Vegas + DVD was the best decision I ever made.

>>Any opinions or guidance would be appreciated. Thanks all!

If you want to purchase Canopus items, here in the Chicago area, I also had trouble finding Canopus products. I do not know where you are located, but I found CDW (near Chicago) to carry them. I had to wait for the ADVC-100 to get back in stock because it seems to be a big seller here in Chicago.

See http://www.cdw.com

I would recommend the Canopus ADVC-100. It has performed flawlessly for me from day one and is NOT proprietary. I have had very good service experience (returns) from CDW in the past. Incidentally, I know a number of people will suggest the Canopus 1394 capture card, but I know of many people who had trouble with it losing connectivity in Windows XP. You had to frequently reboot to get the card to be recignized by the system. I understand this to have been a rather long-term problem. The ADVC-100 exhibited no problems whatsoever at any time.

Also, you can order directly from Canopus, they will ship same day, but it's a little more expensive.

...and there ya' go.
donp wrote on 8/10/2003, 11:09 PM
The connectivity problem was with XP SP1 not pre SP1-XP. I use the ADVC-1394 with no issues using XP Pro w/o SP1. However Canopus now has a fix that apparently works for those folkes who couldn't live without SP1. It was cheaper to me at the time , since I didn't have a 1394 card to get the ADVC-1394 in leiu of the ADVC-100 which I would gladly suggest if one already has a firewire capture card.

Kentwolf I agree with you about Pennacle, I began with Studio 7 and was contimplating Studio 8 and began checking the studio 8 forum and brother did it ever talk me out of it. Vegas Video 4c was then my choice. You can't beat it.
mfranco wrote on 8/11/2003, 3:57 AM
I have a DV500 and with the latest drivers it doesn't need premiere to function, it just won't install (it's very dumb). I don't have premiere installed at all but I do have a phony premiere installation I use if I have to install the dv500 drivers. I create the premiere folder tree and add a registry entry that can be found on the Doom 9 forum download page. It doesn't affect anything on the machine, it's a pointer to the premiere plugin folder.

I would recommend Scenalyzer Live though. It's a capture utilitiy that can access all the ports on the dv500 and it works great. The dv500 is a great tool it's too bad pinnacle can't untie it from premeire.

Let me know if you need more info, franco
thrillcat wrote on 8/11/2003, 9:40 AM
The DV500 comes packaged with Premiere, so it sounds like the original owner:

A: doesn't capture analog anymore
B: got a different analog capture card
C: is a sucker who actually edits with Premiere

mjneime wrote on 8/11/2003, 3:03 PM
It looks like the best thing to do is try to resell the Pinnacle and buy one of the Canopus ADVC cards from CDW. If I can’t get a fair price for the Pinnacle I will take franco’s advice and try the Doom9 fake install solution. (Franco, could you point me to the Doom9 download page you mentioned – I could only find their forum area).

Thanks again everybody, I appreciate all your help!
mfranco wrote on 8/11/2003, 3:35 PM
http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/SupportUtils/plugin-reg.zip

here it is. I don't know why it works but it works for me.

Good luck,

Franco
Erni wrote on 8/11/2003, 3:39 PM
1. Premiere can coexist with Vegas 4 in the same partition.

2. The 4.5 driver of the DV500 transforms the firewire port of DV500 in OHCI compatible.

3. With Premiere (and ScenalyzerLive) you can capture via analog with DV500, and not with Vegas 4.

4. With Premiere you can export via analog with DV500 and not with Vegas 4.

If you have an camcorder with in/out analog and digital, the DV500 is a very expensive firewire card. I sell it, and replace with the firewire on board of Asus A7N8X deluxe. And enjoy Vegas 4. I love Vegas 4.
mjneime wrote on 8/11/2003, 4:13 PM
Thanks Franco!