Customer Reviews

Canopus ADVC-100 Advanced Digital Video Converter, Analog / DV

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Following my order of the ADVC-100 I found many disturbing things on the internet. Most users had difficulties capturing analog to MPEG2 for burning onto DVD. Don't let yourself be scared off. Fear mongers stating that the converter captures DV files which then have to be converted to MPEG2 aren't using the right interface software. The ADVC-100 is a stand alone external unit without a software suite of its own and relies on whatever captures software you choose. I could just be lucky but both My WinProducer and my Nero Burning software detect the device instantly and allow choices of AVI, DV or MPEG2 format for file capture.

Granted, having an external device may not be as convenient as a VIVO internal card, but compared to other external capture boxes the ADVC-100 is tiny and unobtrusive. Better yet, it's IEEE Firewire compliant as opposed to the 1.0 and 2.0 USB connections that for the most part fall short with frame droppings and miss-synced audio during capture.

If you're looking for a straight forward plug and play unit this is it. Just make sure that you have a capture card with Firewire input capabilities such as the Sound Blaster Audigy series before purchasing this product.

This is the Canopus ADVC-100, though it's not listed in www.Amazon.com that way. (They do, however, correctly list the Canopus ADVC-50). The box converts analog signals (VCR, camcorder, etc.) into digital files that can be edited and burned onto videotape, DVD/CD, or emailed via internet. The ADVC-50 has the same digital quality, but only permits one-way routes, from camcorder to computer. In other words, you can't go back from computer to video cassette. That's my understanding, after much research. Also the Canopus has higher rating than Dazzle. No dropped video frames, or unsynced audio. At any rate, I bought it and have worked with the box for a day now. It was incredibly simple to set up. No problem joining camcorder to XP computer. Haven't yet connected the vcr to the computer. The images in AVI format were very good. No dropped frames or lagged audio. My video editing program is clunky but churned out AVI files, WMA files (for email), and Quicktime files. (The Quicktimes were excellent but too large to email). The converter box was simple to work with. My 45-minute analog camcorder tape took 45 minutes to input into the computer. But once there, the Canopus converted liquid fast. Heartily recommend it from www.Amazon.com!... Also bought an Io/gear firewire card (IEEE 1394 3-port PCI Card) GIC 1394. It fit into my XP machine without problem. No hardware wizard ever appeared!... Firewire cards go for less ... But wanted to avoid the saw, `getting what you pay for.'

I bought a new computer recently. A primary reason for doing so was because I learned that I could transfer VHS to DVD with current technology. I purchased an ADS USB Instant DVD, which had all sorts of issues and never captured a second of video. I did my homework, and read all the positive reviews here and on dvdrhelp, and decided to fork over an extra $100 for something that works. And work it does! Minutes after setting the device up, I was capturing video onto my computer. The capture quality is excellent, and usually there are no dropped frames.

I'm giving this device 5 stars for doing what it says it does, which is not a guarantee when trying out these devices. But there are some drawbacks:

1) As someone previously stated, this device captures in DV format. This is probably best if you want to edit your videos, but if you want to only transfer straight to DVD, try to find something that captures straight to MPEG. The conversion process to MPEG is very slow (usually takes longer than the running time of the movie).

2) This device advertises a video-audio lock that keeps the video and audio synched during long playbacks. Having this in the ON position with my VCR caused a distortion of the audio. The manual says when that happens, to turn this feature off. So I'm unable to make use of one of the device's selling points. But so far, the video and audio have stayed in sync anyways.

3) This item does not come with any software.

If you can live with these drawbacks, then this is the video capture device for you.

I purchased this little box, the size of a medium sized book, recently and have had a very smooth experience with it. I wanted to import a TV show (Jeopardy!) on which I appeared, so I researched various hardware solutions (almost bought the Formac offering) and decided that this box was the best regarded. I connected my TiVo to the box using the s-Video and RCA audio connectors, and I connected the Canopus to my Powerbook G4 12" via the Firewire connection. iMovie 4 saw the connection immediately and I was importing video seconds later; making clips for each of the 4 sections of the show.

Then it was a simple matter to edit my clips together, add some still frames and titles and export to iDVD 4.0.1 with which I burnt a very nice DVD. People actually complimented the quality of the video, which of course was limited by it's NTSC original source, but at least it was a accurate replica of the original with no dropped frames or loss of audio sync.

I think this is an exceptional solution to the problem many of us have with analog video tapes to convert. I originally bought this to use with my older, slower PC -- but I replaced my PC with a screamer (and USB 2.0 and Firewire) before I really got a chance to use this. So I can't tell you how well this box does in compensating for older, slower hard drives and a slower CPU.

However, with the new system, this box appears to my video editing software (Ulead VideoStudio 7) as a DV camera, so it's simple to edit.

The bad news is that all of my video cpature software ASSUMES this is a DV camera, so you get all sorts of spurious information onscreen -- like DV controls, or DV timecodes, etc.

If you are aware of the fact that those controls won't work, or that the timecode is meaningless, this unit works like a charm to capture your analog video, package it as DV and deliver it to your PC with little or no dropped frames and generally rock solid video/audio synch (BTW -- if the audio gets unsynched, the only guaranteed solution I've had is to restart the capture from a clean spot on the videotape -- no snow, no tracking errors).

This is an excellent piece of hardware for capturing video. I was previously using a Dazzle DVC-80 with extremely poor results - you get what you pay for. I mainly use the ADVC100 to capture video from VHS tapes, and am able to do so without any audio sync problems or dropped video frames. Setup was simple enough, although I needed to buy a firewire card because my computer didn't have a built in firewire port to connect to the ADVC100. Once I installed the card I was capturing and haven't looked back! Good Riddance Dazzle!

I did some research into external video capture devices, and everything seemed to point to the Canopus. I wasn't disappointed - it does an excellent job of capturing video, even on a 2-year old laptop.

I have used it to capture about 4 hours of video tapes for transfer to DVDs. The video and audio quality was true to the originals, and I never had audio/video sync problems that apparently are common with non-Canopus equipment. I captured video in MPEG-2 format using the capture feature of Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 / Video Wave. (Software side-bar: FYI, I found all Roxio's other video editing tools to be overly simplistic and not suited to my needs. But the video capture was great - it's the only capture I found that directly encodes video in real-time to the space-saving MPEG-2 format. After capturing the video, Sony Vegas and Sony DVD Architect were the best tools for my needs of editing video/audio, and burning to DVD).

All the more impressive is that the Canopus worked on my relatively old laptop system. I don't remember the recommended specs exactly, but I think I was borderline: 1.5 mhz Pentium 4 laptop with 512 mb of RAM running on Windows XP.

While the Canopus performed its core video capture function perfectly, it does have some minor issues with user-friendliness - but really, these aren't very important in the big picture. Stickers warn you to shut the Canopus and your computer down before connecting to or disconnecting it from your computer. Changing the device's settings, which I did once at set-up, involves small switches on the hardware itself. And the device is recognized by my computer as a digital video camera. But if it's the only external hardware that consistently does a great job of video capture - who cares about minor issues like these?

The wrap-up: Amazon should do us all a favor: get rid of all the other, less reliable external video capture devices and only sell the Canopus. It's tempting to get less expensive equipment, but there seems to be only a small chance it'll actually do the job. The Canopus is really the only option to consider if you are looking for an external video capture device that works reliably.

After dealing with Pinnacle's moviebox dv for the last six months, I only wish I'd have discovered this device 1st. Both devices capture digital with no problem but your firewire should do that by itself anyway. The difference is in capturing analog video. Whereas pinnacle would freeze up constantly, especially with flawed VHS tapes, the canopus box captures analog without failure. (Even old tapes) Save yourself some headaches and look no further. So impressed with canopus' technology I had to go get their software for animating still life photos, "Imaginate." Another great product.

The product has a warning sticker, "When you connect or remove the DV [Firewire] cable, please make sure the power of both PC and this product are off. This product will be damaged because of a voltage surge." I consider this unacceptable. A major feature of Firewire is its ability to connect and disconnect things without rebooting. I did in fact connect it without turning off my computer and nothing bad happened, but I suppose they could refuse to honor the warranty if it blew up.

Otherwise, it's totally simple to use and produces good DV video with good audio sync.

I must say this product is exactly as it says. I simply took it out of the package(Which I recieved in less than 24 hours with free shipping from Amazon.com) and plugged in the cables and went with it. It connected to Movie Maker 2 and I was off.
I definitely recomend this to ayone looking to put old vhs movies onto DVD's for safe storage.