Customer Reviews

Canopus 77010138100 ADVC-55 A/d Converter External

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I originally purchased ADSTech DVD Xpress to transfer some old VHS tapes to DVD. Well, it was a piece of [...] that never worked. I decided to suck it up and purchase this substantially more expensive converter.

I'm glad I did. It has worked flawlessly, and the output looks great. I have had no problems whatsoever, and have already transferred 10 2-hour videos. Some outside reviews have complained about this converter not including a separate power supply, even though it does have that capacity. Instead, it gets its power from the firewire connection. I have experienced no issues resulting from this.

All in all, a great little piece of equipment!

This device is a very good non-professional capture device. It seems a bit pricey but it is definately worth it. There are several reasons to like it. It is compatable with whatever operating system you have. This is because it does not require you to use their software and drivers. None are included, but don't worry. All operating systems have some kind of capture software bundled with them. I use cyberlink Power Director. Another reason to like it is you do not need a external power device. THIS ONLY APPLIES IF YOU HAVE A 6 PIN FIREWIRE (1394) PORT ON YOUR COMPUTER. If you have a 4 pin firewire port, you will need a 4 pin to 6 pin cable. If you have no port firewire port whatsoever, you cannot use this device. Also, it is a high quality device. The quality hardware is the reason this device is so expensive. Don't waste any money with cheaper devices. If you do, you will end up throwing the cheap one away. The cheap ones rarely work right. Three cheers for Canopus!!!

I bought this product so that I could convert my analog video collection of VHS tapes and other sources to digital format. I have found this to be a very straightforward and easy to use device that works exactly as advertised. I hooked up the video source to the ADVC-55, plugged in the firewire to my iMac, started iMovie, pushed import on the Mac and play on the VHS unit and voila, it perfectly captured all of the video and audio without any further instruction from me. Rarely have I had a product work as well as this without having to even read the instruction manual.

Prior to buying this unit I had gotten the Elgato video capture USB device. That did the job, but I had a problem with some dropped frames. For me, this is a much better product and was worth the extra money. So far my results with the ADVC-55 have been flawless.

I had previously purchased a KWORLD A/D convrerter from a local computer store to download our (13) 2Hr 8mm analog video tapes to the computer. The quality of the video was darker and the sound was distorted with this KWORLD device. After that bad experience I looked for rewiews on the internet and came across the Canopus ADVC-55 converter. The price was three times more than I paid for the KWORLD but the reviews were positive so I purchased one in February.
After downloading all (13) tapes I found the quality to be a true duplicate of the orignal tapes. This converter truly does the job with flying colors. It's so nice to find products perform so well.

I bought this with the intent to use it to encode old VHS so I could render them to DVDs and thus preserve old home movies. It does so with great ease - no power required if you use a six pin USB cable, and there is absolutely no user input required. Just plug your VCR or camcorder in on one side, and the firewire out the other side into the Mac, and off you go.

Being a hardware encoder, I simultaneously ingested video while watching a DVD that I had just burned on the Mac, and the Mac didn't even twitch.

The quality is fantastic - looks better than the original VHS. Also, with iMovie you can edit out all the nonsense that you would end up with if you took an old VHS to a photo or video store to render it. They're not doing any editing for you for the $30 or so most of them charge.

The ADVC-55 is as good as many said it was. I have churned through an old archive of vhs, 90 or more tapes, plus video camera tapes from several years. It's a work horse. Excellent quality! I thought it would emit some heat, but it's room temperature. I'm using a new iMac... I did have to get an adaptor for the firewire because the cable that comes with it, is a 400 and the iMac is ready for the faster 800... no problem, I got the best priced adaptor from Amazon and it's been great.

The ADVC55 was easy to use and did exactly what I expected it to. I was able to transfer VHS tapes to a Digital format on my Mac. I was surprised how much memory was required for the analog to digital transfer process, though that was alleviated with the purchase of a new external storage drive.

I needed to set up a podcasting room, which really isn't as simple as I thought it would be! I learned a lot through the process, can summarize it as "there's no good turn-key solution...good luck throwing random stuff together". This works WAY better than the El Gato unit that's laying like a dead fish on my desk right now.


The Canopus box let me do just that. Video from one camera source and audio from another source...both feeding my Powermac through a firewire cable. I like the fact it gets power from the firewire cable, too...don't need to use the (optional) external power supply I bought. Gave it only 4 stars because I think they should include the adapter with the unit...it;s way too expensive for something that anybody not using firewire will need (IMHO).

It works, and I'm using it. Enough said.

The Canopus ADVC-55 A/d Converter is an awesome small and simple electronic devise that will convert anything analog to digital as long as you got correct cables to hook it to your computer to push through. Highly recommend it for all your audio/video conversion to digital. It is so simple to use all you have to know is how to hook up cables to it and your computer and push the play button along with import mode on your software, I used Mac and iMovie for every thing I've done so for. It does every thing they say it will, I did have to get 6 to 9 pin firewire cable for my computer.

The product is excellent and the supplier delivered it in a very timely manner. There is nothing to setting it up...easy as pie. However, Windows 7 compatible capture software leaves a lot to be desired. I would not recommend this method of DV capture with Windows 7.