Canopus ADVC-100 as TV card?

[Fluff]

Could I use an item like this to be like a TV tuner card? I.e just view the DV stream coming in on screen?

As i will only be using the Svideo / Composite connectors.

Will this give me better quality than a cheap tv card?

Peter

I plan on using it to archive old family movies (for parents) old tapes off Betamax and Hi-8 tapes to DVD. Would you guys reccomend this? Might also use it to put the finished movies out to VHS too.

Any other product reccomendations welcome i have a budget of about 200GBP for the hardware.

[smitty]

The ADVC100 is an excellent choice! you would connect it firewire to your computer so you need a IEEE1394 port on the computer
this would let you capture analog (composite or svideo) to DV, edit and output either firewire,composite or svideo. best budget solution I have seen.I'm sure others will attest to this as Doc suggested this a long time ago and I for one tried it and am very happy
smitty

[Brian Ellis]

I think I was one of the first on this forum to obtain an ADVC-100 and I believe it's the best thing since God made little green apples. However, it does not have a built in tuner, so you would have take a signal from the Scart plug of a VHS box or similar if you wish to capture broadcast TV.

It is MUCH simpler to use than an analogue TV card with at least equal quality.

[Fluff]

Thanks, i'm gonna save up for it, along with a Panasonic DV in enabler (my DV camcorder is DV out only). As long as it has a TV Tuner Style application i'll be happy. I am planning on getting an external digital teresterial / digital cable box With a SCART. Which has RGB output. And buying a RGB to SVIDEO converter box.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/module.asp?CartID=040701092432554&moduleno=30782&Products=1

Hopefully this will give me decent quality.

On a side note i swear that the Analog audio (Nicam) is much better than digital audio.

I'll be using the firewire on my soundblaster. Is this ok?

[smitty]

Brian yes you were one of first and others followed and I would like to say thanks to you and all the others that bought and recommended the ADVC100.
smitty

[Brian Ellis]

You can get a Scart to s-video cable or Scart to composite cable without a converter. Remember that s-video needs a separate audio connection.

[Fluff]

The converter box is going to be have to be used i think unfortunately. As far as i know there is no macrovision on RGB signals.

In UK Most Digital Cable boxes, and Digital Sky Boxes. Do not output Svideo, They only output Composite, and RGB through scart. Svideo is not on the pins so an adapter cable wouldnt have worked.

[landrover]

Doesn't Aopen have a solution on the market which covers DV-bridge functions as well as TV tuner capabilities?

[Fluff]

The problem in the UK, is Sky digital , and NTL, dont allow you to use a DVB-S or a DVB-C card to get television. Their set top boxes are needed.

Which is why i am thinking of going this route.