Advanced Digital Video Convert

Other products by Canopus

Product Details

Product Manual [538kb PDF]

• Item Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007L68E
• Item model number: 770-10072-100
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #18 in	Camera & Photo > Accessories > Blank Media > VHS-C
  #38 in	Camera & Photo > Accessories > Blank Media > VHS
  #71 in	Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Internal Desktop Components > Video Capture Cards

• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 5, 2002

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
Convert your S-VHS, Hi8 and 8mm analog tapes to DV in one simple step using the ADVC-100. The converted DV streams are transferred to your PC or Mac via IEEE 1394 (i.Link, FireWire) and stored on your hard drive where they can be manipulated using your favorite photo or video editing applications. This device is ideal for all OHCI and DV-only capture cards for Macintosh or PC. Proven DV CODEC Technology At the heart of ADVC100 is Canopus's proprietary DV codec chip providing the industry's best picture quality preservation during analog-to-DV and DV-to-analog conversion. Locked Audio Support Other converters can lose audio/video sync when converting longer segments of video. The ADVC-100 is the first inexpensive DV converter that supports locked audio when converting from analog to digital, assuring perfect audio and video synchronization. Key Benefits

• High Quality
• Custom hardware Codec chip
• Locked Audio Support
• Analog output of NTSC color bars for reference signal
• 4-pin DV jack on front; 6-pin FireWire jack on back
• Analog input connector on front
• Analog output connector on back

Product Description
Convert your S-VHS, Hi8 and 8mm analog tapes to DV in one simple step using the ADVC-100. The converted DV streams are transferred to your PC or Mac via IEEE 1394 (i.Link, FireWire) and stored on your hard drive where they can be manipulated using your favorite photo or video editing applications. This device is ideal for all OHCI and DV-only capture cards for Macintosh or PC.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Digital Converter so far, May 25, 2003

By A Customer

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.'

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Foolproof, worked perfectly on first try, May 22, 2004

By	A. Benenson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Why I needed this:

I wanted to convert a bunch of my old tapes into DVDs, but when I read the reviews of those products, I was scared off by reports of myriad problems and glitches. The good reviews for the Canopus encouraged me to try it and I was not disappointed!

How it works:

The Canopus plugs into your PC's 1394 (Firewire) port (if your PC doesn't have one, you can get an add-on card for about $30).

The Canopus has no software. You just plug in a few cables and turn it on. When I did that, Windows XP saw it, offered to start Windows Movie maker to do the capture, and within about 2 minutes I had captured my first movie (with perfectly synched audio).

The only oddity I noticed was that I didn't hear audio during the capture preview, even though the audio was perfectly captured when I played back.

How it compares:

The Canopus is closer to a video capture card than a full blown 'Make your videos into DVDs' product like Dazzle or DVD Express, because the Canopus doesn't include any software.

But because the Canopus is a 1394/Firewire device, it's compatible with lots of video software. For example, on my Windows XP system, I already had 3 software packages I could use with the Canopus:
- Windows Movie Maker (came with XP)
- DV Plus 2.0 (came with my 1394 card)
- Nero (came with my DVD burner)

By the way, even though the Canopus is similar to a video capture card, it's better -- compared to my ATI TV-wonder, the Canopus has these advantages: it digitizes audio as well as video (so you don't have to hook up extra audio cables and worry about synch), it doesn't care what resolution my screen is set to, it's higher quality, and there's no fiddly driver software.

Bottom line:

If you don't mind doing a little mixing and matching of components and software, the Canopus will let you put together a reliable and flexible video editing system that will probably work better than any of the 'all-in-one' products out there so far.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent, the frustrations are over, April 5, 2004

By	Aaron Widera (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.