@Howard-Vigorita, Hi there Howard. Thanks for your response. I had a trusted source recently tell me not to get hung up on "Commercial" SVHS tape decks. He says they have more points of failure than a good quality SVHS tape deck. About 10x more in his example that he gave to me. He also says that many of them simply use a lot of the same "guts" anyways.

So, may I ask what JVC model you used to get these "terrific results"? And, does your jvc have tbc and noise filters built into it. Thank you in advance for your time and response.

Been so long and a couple of moves ago that I had to take a trip into the basement to find it. It's not a jvc... it's a Panasonic AG-7350 with a svhs output. Which is how I would connect it to the ADVC-300. I'm not familiar with the filters you mention and don't see any switch settings on the unit labeled like that.

I have successfully used JVC HR-S9600 (which has TBC and digital noise reduction) with ADVC-300 for many years.

@KenB, I REALLY appreciate your post. It gives me hope. I was afraid that "double filtering" would cause me issues if the set top unit had built in filters AND I used the ADVC-300. Thanks again.

@john_dennis, I want to thank you for your recommendation of the ADVC-300. So far, it's working very well. I do have a few questions.

Is there a suitable and, as of today's date, comparable piece of hardware to the ADVC-300? I ask because they don't make them anymore. I need a backup plan when it fails.

In the video example you post here, did you use any of the dip switch settings available on the ADVC-300? At present, I am only using the NTSC dip switch over fire wire. The rest is default.

Did you use, in your video example, the picture controller software that came with the ADVC-300 unit?

What model of tape deck / set top was used for the capture of your video example? Did it have noise filters or tbc technology built in.

And kind of an unrelated question, but, how do you feel about the use use a vhs C adapter in a VCR or svhs player / tape deck? Better to have an actual vhs / svhs player? I know at there media core, it's the same physical tape.

Thank you, in advance, for your time.

"Is there a suitable and, as of today's date, comparable piece of hardware to the ADVC-300?"

I've not looked at tape conversion hardware in a number of years.

"I need a backup plan when it fails."

Get all your tapes transferred and save the raw capture data on two hard drives that you keep in two different locations. If the ADVC-300 fails before you finish, go back to ebay.

"In the video example you post here, did you use any of the dip switch settings available on the ADVC-300?"

I don't use the ADVC-300. I use an ACEDVIO that came bundled with Vegas Pro 4.

"Did you use, in your video example, the picture controller software that came with the ADVC-300 unit?"

With the ACEDVIO, I've never used any capture software other than the Vidcap application offered with Vegas.

I had other capture cards prior the ACEDVIO, but I've attempted to forget the experience.

"What model of tape deck / set top was used for the capture of your video example?"

For that video, I used a Sony SLV778HF. I've also used a JVC HR-XVS44U SVHS HiFi deck. The original recording was done on a Mitsubishi from the late 1980s. It was not a VHS Hi-Fi machine.

"Did it have noise filters or tbc technology built in."

I really don't remember, though I don't think so.

"And kind of an unrelated question, but, how do you feel about the use use a vhs C adapter in a VCR or svhs player / tape deck? Better to have an actual vhs / svhs player? I know at there media core, it's the same physical tape."

I've used both. Based on my source, I don't think it makes much difference.

@john_dennis, Thank you for your reply. In response to my original statement:

"I need a backup plan when it fails." You replied, "Get all your tapes transferred and save the raw capture data on two hard drives that you keep in two different locations. If the ADVC-300 fails before you finish, go back to ebay."

I'm all about redundancy. However, I'm not doing these tapes for myself. I do these for customers. I just did not want to rely on a single box for months or years to come. I'm also moving to cloud storage. These advc-300's are hard to come by on ebay. That is why I was asking for similar devices I could keep on hand, as a backup, should this one fail. Any ideas? Internal or external is fine with me.

Thank you for your responses. They were helpful

 I do these for customers. I just did not want to rely on a single box for months or years to come. 

Why not? If you buy a unit that lasted this far, why would it fail? They are not mechanical devices like cameras, so they will not "wear out." I read John's statement as rhetorical.

Discovering old technology is fun, but remember it's only new to you; don't underestimate its limitations or overestimate market demand for services, which dwindled fully a decade ago. If you have a single client now, it's going to dry up rather quickly, so don't paint yourself into a corner with overly optimistic equipment purchases.

I get an occasional request or two for consumer tape transfer, but the last one was from someone who thought I would save her money because she "couldn't afford" to have it done at Costco. Just saying.

@Musicvid, Your point is well taken and understood. I am not going out for a business loan anytime soon. I just don't know the life expectancy of the ADVC-300 when used daily. I did not think having (1) spare unit would break the bank. Still, your point is well taken. Thank you.

My ADVC-300 did start becoming unstable in its capture ... losing sync, captured video "tearing". I pulled it apart and found a dry solder joint near the S-video input. Easily fixed once I found it. So, they can fail. And it took me ages to find the problem - I thought at first it might have been the VCR player.

Ken.