DV Capture card?

[paulw]

Have you considered buying a DV Camcorder with analog - DV conversion?? Does the same as the ADVC-100 but also records video. That's the way I went..

[cuddles]

Not all, still in perfectly good operating condition DV cams have a AV in function .
@$NZ530, for one of these is a lot but still a lot cheaper than a new cam.
Conversion of old and hard to process VHS material is the problem.

[Brambus]

Here's my experience with Dazzle DV-Bridge (same device type as Canopus ADVC-100 but not so good).
These devices are seen by the computer as they were a DV camcorder.
When You get a DV stream on the computer from an analog source, the coding is done by the converter (Dazzle or Canopus).
Once on your PC the stream is compressed/decompressed (when needed) by the MS codec (or a commercial one if you buy and install it).
If using Premiere, finally you can choose two different types of project (DV or AVI) for outputting your stuff.
Choosing DV will result in a DV stream, usually coded with MS DV codec, that you can send to a DV camera via 1394; choosing AVI will result in the old analog way of life. In this case you can send the analog out to the Canopus box that will re-convert in DV with his codec, and from there to your DV camera.
As converter I now use my Sony TRV80 camera DV-Analog passthru with excellent results.

Brambus

[Brian Ellis]

Morgoth

Yes

Yes

Yes

The quality, with critical comparisons and DV-out in analogue from a semi-pro camera (direct, not via DV tape) is superb and is as good as or better than my old Marvel in 99% of situations. It is also a lot easier to use than an analogue-in card using RGB, MJPEG, HuffYUV etc.

The MS DV-1 codec, from DX9 onwards, is practically as good as the MC one. Most critical persons would find little difference.

I'm not certain that cheap cameras have the same quality of DV<>analogue conversion as a custom box, such as the ADVC-100 but I cannot justify this assertion. Perhaps others have made direct comparisons.

[Morgoth]

Well, it looks like and advc-100 is what I am after. Thank you everyone for your input, and Brian, thanks also for answering some things that have been bugging me for a while!

Morgoth