Canopus ADVC50 or ADVC100?

[KuroNeko]

I keep hearing good things about the ADVC100 (even though I also recall some image quality issue with front inputs or Svideo input while composite attached or something like that). Also neat is that one can disable macrovision.

Now I'm told that the ADVC50 is in fact an ADVC100, with just the DV->analog functions not implemented.

Is that all the difference? I don't need DV->analog

Also, can anyone comment on the picture quality of the ADVC50 vs ADVC100, in analog->DV function?

Finally, can macrovision be disabled on the ADVC50 too?

TIA!
Neko

[Brian Ellis]

I'm happy with the ADVC-100 and find the pictre quality (from a good source) better than via Marvel, in most cases. As far as I'm aware, the -50 is identical to the -100, but cannot swear to the fact. I think it unlikely that Canopus would not use the same circuit diagram, processor and firmware, would you? (possibly even the same printed circuit with a few components missing!) However, I've never had a -50 in my hands, so cannot comment knowledgeably.

I believe that the Macrovision disabling was possibly an accident. I've heard that this "feature" has been removed, but, again, cannot confirm it. I know I can disable mine :-) It is certainly not documented by Canopus.

Think seriously about the -100. It is an ideal tool for previewing a DV stream on a TV, independently of the computer graphics, or even making the odd VHS tape.

[KuroNeko]

Thanks for your reply Brian.

The 50 is not the same board as the 100, it's a different circuit board altogether since it's built in such a way that it can be inserted in a PCI slot. That of course does not exclude the possibility of the same components and quality levels being used.

You say the current 100s are now no longer Macrovision disabled? This would be a deal killer for me, I have no intention of spending more cash on a TBC to remove Macrovision.

Can any recent ADVC100 buyer please comment?

Neko

[fberger]

I've had the ADVC-50 since it was launched and love it. I converted dozens of old 8mm PAL tapes to DVD so far in very little time. The quality is excellent.
I did not want to spend $300 for the 100 and did not need DV-> analog. Also I liked the fact that the 50 can be installed in a 5.25 bay and make its connections available in the front of the PC case.

As far as Macrovision protection is concerned, it it not available to my knowledge on the 50. It is probably still somewhere in the firmware but since there's no button you can press on the 50 then you can't use the trick from the ADVC-100.

The only regret I have is that Matrox' X-10 came out only a few weeks after I had already purchased my Canopus and the functionality of the ADVC-50 is included in that product. I would be interested in selling it so I can switch to the Matrox card. I can't justify having both, but if all you want is conversion from analog to DV then the ADVC-50 is ideal.

Fred

[IndyJones007]

Hi,

I purchased an ADVC-100 on ebay for $240. It came with the ADVC-100 box like a BOB, 1394 firewire cable and SVHS cable. I had to make a separate purchase of a 1394 FireWire card which I also got from ebay for $30, an ADS Pyro Platinum DV firewire card along with software. Hardware installation took about 10mins of everything. No software installation yet. WinXP detected all the devices and installed everything without any problems. I opened up Windows MovieMaker and checked to see if it works. I popped in my brother's wedding video and pressed play, nothing appeared in the preview window. The Input selection on the ADVC was set to Analog. I pressed it to switch to Digital and then back to Analog, now I saw video but was jerky. Pressed record and the movie went smooth but couldn't hear any audio at all, no frames dropped or lost. Captured about 5mins of video. Played it back in WinXP MovieMaker, played perfectly fine with audio. Saved the DV avi file. Played it with Win MediaPlayer, looked very bad and jerky, media player can't decode DV files properly. Opened up Canopus Procoder software and saw the DV avi file play again very smooth with perfect audio sync. Converted the avi file to VCD, SVCD, DVD, Quicktime, RealMedia, WMV formats. All converted without any problems and looked as good as the original DV file. Next I popped in an old video from the 80s, captured about 5mins, brought it into Procoder and enhanced it with color correction and other video effects. Converted it into MPG1 and it looked just like it was shot with a DV Cam. Next I popped in a commerical video tape, all I could see in the preview window was a really washed out very bright/dark picture because of macrovision. I wasn't aware that mv could be disabled on the ADVC-100, haven't tired it but will give it a try later on. The DV files that are produced are quite huge so you'd need a large HD. I haven't used very good video editiing software, as such I can't comment on how the DV avi would work but Procoder did an excellent job of conversions from DV avi. It's good to have a fast computer to do your video rendering and conversion expecially if you are planning to capture huge files.

The things I couldn't figure out yet is why I can't hear audio while capturing but plays perfectly while playing the recorded DV avi. And everytime I stop the capture and save the DV file and want to capture more, I have to toggle the input switch back to Digital and then to Analog for video to appear back on preview window. Maybe this could be happening because I am using WinXP MovieMaker for now, will check and see if it's the same situation with other good video editors. I was using a Marvel G-200 before and loved it but the card went dead and was planning on getting a Marvel G-400 but realised it wouldn't work with XP, so after extensive research I decided to get the ADVC-100 and so far I am a happy camper.

The ADVC-100 is like a BOB, a breakoutbox that has 2 I/O Firewire ports on back and front, RCA input in the front and output in the back, same with SVHS. It has jumper switches on the bottom to lock the audio, switch between NTSC and PAL and Analog and Digital default. Very easy to setup if you have a firewire card, up and running in 10mins. Some older firwire cards with TI(texas instruments) chipset seem to give problems with the ADVC-100. Too bad it doesn't come with any software for an excellent product. When you buy a firewire card, you should be able to get some kind of video editing software.

The other similar product ADVC-50 is a PCI card. Basically it's an ADVC-100 but inside the computer instead of outside like a BOB. You still need a 1394 firewire card or have a onboard firewire feature to bring the video into the computer. You connect the firewire card to the PCI card. Attach your analog video to the PCI ADVC-50 which has RCA jacks and that's how you bring the video in. It uses the same ADVC-100 Canopus DV codec to convert analog video to digital but doesn't output back to DV or Analog, only inputs. If you don't think you are going to be outputting back to tape or DV after you edit the video, then the ADVC-50 will work great. Not sure about if it has locked audio and mv disabling feature.

Canopus is also offering an all in one PCI card that includes the firewire and analong to digital conversion in one single card called the ADVC-1394. No need for an extra firewire card, this PCI card includes the Canopus DV codec to convert analog to digital and the firewire capability, all on one single PCI card. Has analog and digital inputs but no outputs again. Not sure on audio lock or mv either.

Best for inuput and output is the ADVC-100.
More PCI slots or already have a onboard firewire card, then get ADVC-50.
Short of PCI slots and want to get an all in one, then get ADVC-1394.
All of them use the same Canoups Analog to Digital DV codec.

Hope this helps and answers your questions. If someone knows why i can't hear audio while capturing9maybe this is normal) and also how do disable macrovision with the advc-100 please let me know.

Thanks

IndyJones

[Brian Ellis]

Indy

DV capture usually is silent. I'm not sure, but I think this is because separating the sound from the DV-1 stream uses up computer resources that are better used getting the stream onto hard disk. At least, that was what I was told. It's exactly the same with MSPro.

If your ADVC-100 is MacroVision disableable (good word ), and I understand some are and some aren't, play a protected tape into it and press that silver-coloured button with the illegible red script underneath it for about 20 seconds. When you release it, the blue lights will flash for a moment, and your image will come up in your Preview window, often literally in glorious Technicolor. It works for me.

I've no problem with the DV-analog switch: never touch it.

DV file sizes are always the same size, I believe, whatever the source, per given time. They are smaller than decent quality analogue files of similar pixel size.

[DJ]

Raw DV files are smaller than AVI DV files.

DJ

[IndyJones007]

Hi Guys,

I was able to disable the macrovision on my ADVC-100 by holding the Input Select key for about 15-20 seconds and it worked, the commercial video showed up in glorious technicolor as Brian elonquetly put it and it remained macro free until I turned the unit off. But I still had to switch between Digital and Analog everytime I recorded video, stopped it and had to record again as otherwise the picture wouldn't show up unless I switched back and forth. Not too much of a hassle as the unit does what it is supposed to do exceptionally well. Also the playback of captured DV files through XP Media Player was jerky because of my slow poke computer. I tried the whole setup on a faster machine and it played very smooth like a divx file of a dvd rip in full screen. This product is really amazing, I especially like the locked audio feature with a perfect sync of video and audio. I am not sure if it is possible to do realtime mpg1 or mpg2 captures with a third party software. All in all an excellent card. There are quite a few being sold on ebay for a really good price. Also pay a visit to the ADVC forum on Canopus website for any known problems and fixes and experiences from other users.

IndyJones

[wkulecz]

One of the switches on the bottom enables some form of device control for some capture apps. Give it a try.

Vegas Video capture has options to preview video and audio while capturing. Audio is distorted and preview video is jerky on my BX based PIII-800 but zero drops. On my Via based 1.4GHz Athelon audio and video preview is almost perfect but I get bursts of 3-9 drops about once an hour even with all previews disabled. So I capture with the "slower" machine unless I'm doing short clips.

--wally.

[moreau]

If I wished to eventually output to vhs, couldn't I conceivably use my Parhelia TV-OUT and record to tape, thus only necessitating the ADVC-50 or ADVC -1394?

Thanks,
Charles

[Fred H]

I was using a Marvel G-200 before and loved it but the card went dead and was planning on getting a Marvel G-400 but realised it wouldn't work with XP, so after extensive research I decided to get the ADVC-100 and so far I am a happy camper.

Yes, the Marvel G400 doesn’t work well in XP.
As I understand you must have a basic graphic card too, which one in combo with the ADVC-100?
Of course Parhelia? But, a cheaper one?

Fred H

[Brian Ellis]

Fred

Almost any modern graphics card, as its only function is to display the TV, which is less demanding than displaying the 'puter screen I would see no advantage in any gaming or 3-D card (unless you want to play games, as well). A simple 2-D card, preferably with overlay features, will do everything you need to do for straight video work. Ideally, you will need a min of 8 Mb of memory, but most modern cards have 32 Mb, anyway. This may be overkill unless you have a monster monitor (>21"). I find there is no advantage with multi-head (2 or more 'puter monitors) other than to give you a crick in the neck (I have dual head but I nearly always use it in single head mode, even for video editing).

[IndyJones007]

Hi Fred,

Along with the ADVC-100, I am just using a PCI 4meg Creative Labs Graphic Blaster Extreme and it works well, although I would definately go for those new 128meg video cards. I am planning on getting the ATI Raedon 9700 Pro or wait and see how the Nvidia's NV30 performs. Parhelia is not on the list, I have given up on Matrox, it's just sad cos I really like their cards up until the G400. I had their first Impression card, then I bought their Millenium card, then the G200 and was about to go for a G400 but didn't see much benefit for what I do so I stuck with the G200. Now they stopped supporting drivers for XP for the older Marvel cards and that put a bitter taste in me about them. Although I may one day buy one of their exclusive video editing cards.

Hi Charles,
If you have the TV-OUT video cards from matrox, yes you could probably output to vhs using that method and record to tape, although I am not sure if the quality of the video degrades if it's ouput that way. It also depends whether you will be outputting in DV avi or convert it to mpg format and then output. I am guessing the first thing you will do is capture the video, then edit it as you want and then output it back. If the captures are long and run in hours, you might want to get software video editing programs that render in realtime and output through the ADVC-100. Otherwise rendering will take hours and then only you can use your TV-Out with the video card and ADVC-50 as your video input.

IndyJones

[Fred H]

Thanks Brian and Indy.
It’s what I thought.
At the present I am using only analog camcorder so the Marvel G400 does the job in W2K.
But the ADVC-100 will be a very nice solution when I’ll go DV or the Macrovision thing would be a must.

Regards,
Fred H

[moreau]

Indy...


I'll give this some thought then. I guess I'm not totally put off by the rendering of an .avi file which I then pipe through the TV output of the Parhelia.

At least I'm not put out by the rendering time. If video quality is an issue, then that is more troublesome...

What I am envisioning is having a dualhead setup on moni one and two, then a tv/vcr on the tv out.

any comments on such a setup?