Got a lot of papers blowing around on your desk, have you?

I'm going to Best Buy today to buy one and return it if I don't like it. I have had a very hard time finding a negative review on the Canopus ADVC-1000 while I have heard mixed reviews on the Hollywood. However, at least three places around here sell the Hollywood product while only one small specialty shop sells the Canopus (and they don't have any in stock). I'm sure the more products you sell, the more complaints you are likely to get.

I'd be very pleased if the video and audio syncronization is better than my ATI All-In-Wonder and there aren't problems with dropped frames.

I'll cast a vote later this weekend after I have had a chance to try it out.

For what its worth.... I have one sitting in a drawer doing nothing and it seems to do that ok.
If you have a perfect, continuous analog signal it will work fine; but throw a glitch at it and you will loose a/v sync. This is to be expected as i has no TBC.
I wanted to use it to copy VHS / Hi8 tapes onto HD to save and clean them up.
My tapes are not perfect and not only did this experiment cost me money but also day of time working out what was wrong.
I then bought a Sony DHR1000 recorder and completed the job without any problems.
I can not even use it to drive a preview monitor from a firewire output as the autoswitching of the input cannot be locked - you stop playback, you loose the input connection; starting play again does not return the input to firewire.

Maybe somebody else thinks more highly of it?

I returned my bridge for a better card and a Sony Data Converter.

I had a TERRIBLE time with the Fizzle Hollywood Bridge!

Jackie

I just bought one a month ago. No problems so far. I wanted
the Sony but couln't find one. I tried to do a lot of capturing
and stuff within the first 30 days for stress testing.
I did see a problem when I left the unit on overnight. But
power cycling cleared it up right away.
I also talked to PowerR about directors cut. Their FAQ said it
didn't work with the ADS pyro card. The PowerR person said that
was a year ago with the earlier ADS Pyro cards.

PeterMac:
Yea, lots of papers ...and CD's too!

This poll is coming along nicely- Keep 'em coming!

I tried to find the Sony DVMC DA-1 or -2 but seems like they're gone. Any Sony votes/suggestions? They seem to know something about video..

Doesn't look like Matrox has anything under $1K :-(

The first versions were rubbish, but handy as a paper-weight ;-)
Once they were presented with a lot of movement in the analogue source, they just threw in the towel and delivered a load of pixelated junk.

I'm told that the newer revisions are better. The only gripe I've heard is that Macrovision is no longer ignored when you're making all those illegal DVD copies to tape. (Of course they didn't need to worry about Macrovision before, since their own results were unintelligible anyway).

If I were looking again, I'd get the Canopus, which is about the same price. This too pays lip service to Macrovision, but I understand it can be overridden by holding the On button in for 20-30 seconds when you switch it on. And even if your spiritual home is not the high seas under the skull and crossbones, I'd say the chances of the Canopus gizmo doing its job are considerably better.

-Pete

Doc,

I have the Sony DVMC DA2 and it works for me. I've had great success capturing and printing to a VHS deck over the past few months. I heard that Sony is no longer making this unit ... or at least, someone in this forum mentioned that a few weeks back. Good luck.

Dean

I have had the Bridge now for 4 months and have no complaints. I can control my camcorder and capture video. I have not had and AV syc issues. I have noticed during preview the color flashes on and off I have not tried a different TV, but I do not have this during print to tape from timeline.

I don't own any of these devices. My vote would be to spend your money on something else (put it towards a new camera or additional storage, perhaps). Of course, my vote is the result of my perspective. I dub my Hi8, regular8, and VHS tapes to Digital8 tape before capturing them through the firewire. This method works for me, and I don't have to fuss around with converters. With the new 90-minute DV tapes, this is not as much hassle as it was with 60-minute tapes (though not as convenient, perhpas, as being able to record 8-hours of vhs through a bridge non-stop . . . does anyone actually have a need to do that?).

Although my Digi8 camcorder will play analog tapes and output through the firewire, I find that the dubbing process actually adds some vitality to the video (better saturation . . . is that possible?). I can't explain why, but my video looks better when dubbed to Digi8 then captured than it does when I capture directly from analog tapes played through my Digi8.

Additionally, this dubbing process is unaffected by the excessive speed of the action or the quality of the recording or blank spots, all of which may be present on my analog tapes. These issues (especially blank spots) definitely cause problems when I capture directly from the analog tapes (I'm guessing the same issues would cause problems with a stand-alone converter as well).

Finally, considering that my goal is only to capture a workable copy of the analog tape in DV form, I know that, except as an archive source, I will never have need of the analog copy again, so, for me to invest in the Bridge or some other converter only saves a bit of time (generally, I treat dubbing just like rendering, get it going and hit the sack, come back when it's finished).

For me, neither the Dazzle nor the Canopus are worth the investment, but I've enjoyed reading this thread.

Caruso

Had a chance to check one out. I decided to take it back. The picture quality was okay and I was able to capture video much easier than I currently do with my ATI All in Wonder. I captured about three hours of 8 and Hi-8 home video to test it out.

The Dazzle inserted a pixlated hiccup at most of the scene transitions. I read about this issue and thought this might be an issue if you leave some blank tape between scenes, but I was surprised when this happend at almost every scene change, even if there was no blank tape between the scenes . It would be a lot of extra work to edit out all the hiccups. There were also a few points where the sound became distorted. However, I didn't notice where the sound became out of sync as some have reported. The VV capture utility reported a high number of dropped frames, but this might have been erroneous information. It appeared that the Dazzle dropped about one frame every minute or so.

I'm going to try the Canopus ADVC-100. I could probably live with the Dazzle if it cost $150 or less. However, at its current price, I would expect it to perform better.

I'm really happy with my Director's Cut from PowerR. It saves me lots of time and I've never had a single glitch.

Tom

Looks like there are some changes in the company and some new look and feel in the box as well...

www.powerr.com

Why spend $300 on a single purpose device, when for $300 more you can buy a wonderfully versatile sony digital 8 camcorder that'll transcode analog video to dv thru the firewire into your computer. It's like getting a $300 discount on a sony camcorder, if you need an a/d converter. No qualitative differences whatsoever. Check out the trv 530, a/d conversion, 3 1/2 inch LCD, manual control of all important functions, etc. They're a bargain. (Stay away from the intro model trv130,it doesn't convert and wont even play old hi-8 and 8mm tapes thru itself. sony removed these features from the earlier model trv120, cuz people were getting too much for their money)