any experience with video converters?

[japanesebaby]

oh well, that sounds pretty boring&tiring - i hope it'll be resolved somehow...
the act of reformatting.... i still recall the times that i was forced to do it with my old pc with angst-stricken fear... :smt120

yes, the fact that no capture card is needed with mac & ACVD110 is really true! i was also a bit doubtful at first because many sites do not mention this compatibility at all (they actually state it's compatible with iLife but they really should mention iMovie too). i have been able to confirm this now from many sources. for instance:

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1370283&highlight=canopus+imovie#1370283

(+NB: this thread also mentions the possibility to use a dv camera as a converter. the more i look into this, the more it keeps popping up as an option - so i really think it can be used with mac at least. some sites i consulted said it depends on the model of the camera, not all are capable of it, but that once it does work it does the job as well qualitywise. it's an interesting option, but unfortuntely i don't happen to have such a camer a so that i could test it. but i can imagine that it would be really practical since one wouldn't have to buy a converter which of course has rather limited uses when compared to a dv camera).

i'm still not sure about ACEDVio, i haven't received any comments on that one so far so if nothing comes up i think i'll go for ACVD110 then.
(and yes i was also "marvelling" the price jump in other canopus models from 300 up... i would really like to know what justifies it because the jumps are pretty huge.)

about standalone recorders: i used to be wondering about the absence of a possibility to link it straight to a computer with firewire etc. i started to wonder about this already some years ago, because it would have sounded like a practical thing to do & have. now i've noticed that some newer models have it though, so it might be worth trying too sometime.

good luck again!  :wink:

[lostflower4]

I guess I'll have to recant my suggestion that using a video camera for conversion was "crazy talk". Seems Apple is much more universal and flexible about accepting video into the computer. Heck, you could probably connect a garden hose to it and get results!

And I think I know what you mean about standalone recorders. I just wish you could output the video as data directly to your computer rather than burning a DVD. It would save a lot of time and wasted discs. You also wouldn't have to worry about fitting the exact size. After all, you can always trim stuff down on a computer. I like a little margin for error.

I'm pretty sure I've just decided against going the standalone route. The Pioneer model we were talking about has just about every feature imaginable, but I discovered one key thing that I don't like. It will only record to uncompressed PCM audio in the "fine" 1-hour quality setting. So if I want to capture a 2 1/2 hour Cure concert using that mode, I wouldn't even be able to get that onto a dual layer disc! :x I don't have a problem with compressed audio per se, but the thing about PCM is that you can edit it without recompressing the audio ? then as a final step convert it to something smaller if you wish to. As we all know, many bootlegs are far from perfect and can often using a little touching up in the audio department.

So now I'm down to two choices I think. I can wipe out my PC and just hope that the D2200V works, or I could try something else. The ACEDVio has always been intriguing to me. I know it's the same brand, but the whole platform seems entirely different, so I don't think a conflict would arise in this case. Just like what I said above, the advantage to capturing to a lossless (or near lossless) AVI format is that you can edit the video without re-encoding anything. While the D2200V is surely "good enough" as is, you could get a bit more "professional" with an AVI and do some additional processing. However, this is probably something I should stay away from with my perfectionist attitude. I could end up spending way too much time!!!

The other advantage of the ACEDVio is that when using the right software, you can select the audio input from your sound card rather than the one built in to the unit. I've got a really nice card for recording that has digital input, and it's great for doing laserdisc transfers. The D2200V only supports the built-in analog inputs, so if I use it to transfer laserdiscs, I'm going to lose the digital sound, which is a pity. I've thought of some clever ways around this (not tested as of yet), but doing an AVI capture would be easier.

There are some advantages to the AVI method, but I still don't like the giant file sizes and the fact that I have manually convert everything to MPEG-2. It's just so much easier to have a nice MPEG file ready to go. So yeah, my mind has really been racing with these thoughts for the past day. I'm really not sure what's going to happen. Definitely some pros and cons on both sides.

Now I'm downloading a program that works with the ACEDVio. If I like it, that might have an influence on what I decide!

But enough about me for now. I think you're going to be up and running with good results much faster than I ever was. A lot of people don't even know about Canopus because it's a bit more "high end". I was trying out a lot of junk before I even heard that name! :roll:

By the way, I'm surprised no one else has jumped into our little discussion here. I know there are some other technical wizards out there...

This is getting to be one long thread!

[japanesebaby]

yes the certain flexibility that macs seem to have sometimes is really a blessing here. i've noticed that i could actually even fully edit & burn the data on dvds by using only software that comes with every mac with purchase (iMovie, iDvd). iDvd has pretty good editing possibilities, but its compression abilities aren't too versatile so i'll probably use something else. i've got the latest version of Toast which should work fine with iMovie.

anyway, i think i've made up my mind to try ADVC110 since it's a  device that almost everyone in the mac circles is recommending, i guess i cannot go terribly wrong with it - let's hope so. and let's see how i'm going to handle my patience with all those AVI & MPEG  conversions  :wink:  but yes i am happy that i stumbled on it before wasting even more money on something that would probably be not so reliable.
(however it'll take some time to receive it since it looks like it's most practical to order it - or whatever one wants to use - from germany or uk. the prices around here are just ridiculous. us stores would actually be even cheaper but i guess i won't take any chances with the customs again - they have busted me once in this sort of situation & it was a rather crappy thing. )
i'd be very interested to hear how ACEDVio works, if you decide to go for that.

the variety among standalone recorders is pretty enormous & that's what seem to make them pretty difficult to predict and to judge their performance & especially all the detailed things etc. i've especially been annoyed by the variance i've noticed in recording mode settings, so i am not surprised that you found out something like that PCM thing about that pioneer model. a shame that it seems to have such defect.

and yes i've been wondering about the same thing: where are those wizards hiding? yes i've been wondering about the same thing: where is everyone else? (or have we really been that boring? ) that's why i originally posted this one here anyway.

[lostflower4]

It looks like the ol' PC is gonna see a reformat here in the coming days... :x

I just checked out the Edius software that comes with the ACEDVio, and it's just too much for me. I'm sure I could figure it out in time, but I'm not certain it will help me. My D2200V produces an amazing picture if I can just get the darn thing to work. And I'm pretty sure I just figured out a little trick to paste in digital audio without re-encoding anything in the DVD authoring process ? and keeping it perfectly in synch! :wink:

I haven't mentioned this, but I have an ATI All-In-Wonder capture card built into my computer. I've had some "ok" results with it, but after using Canopus stuff, there's a huge difference. All my laserdisc transfers were done with the ATI. I guess they're still good, but they could be much better!

I've been toiling at this stuff for over a year and have never completely happy. I honestly didn't mind doing the AVI to MPEG thing at one time. I did it for a few DVD's I made. But after this endless frustration, I'm seriously lacking patience. It's time to get things done here!!! Going direct to MPEG with good results is something I deserve, I think.

You might as well go for the ADVC110. If others you know say it works, that's a good sign. Unfortunately, I had to figure almost all of this crap out on my own. :roll: Seems you're much newer to the whole conversion process, so you'll likely have the patience for a few extra steps.

This has really been draining me. Like you, I can't stay up every night thinking about this. It's not good for a person. And well, if for some crazy reason the reformat doesn't do the trick... I think that might be a sign to give up! :twisted:

I'm sure by now that anyone just discovering this topic would find it utterly boring unless they were having similar problems. I have to admit I'd much rather being doing the actual capturing than talking about it, but things aren't always that easy.

By the way, what happened with you and customs? I didn't think it was illegal to order products from another country. Definitely strange!

Well, I'm beat. I think I'm going to put on a little Cure and wind down for the night. The days ahead surely could be interesting...

[japanesebaby]

i hope you get that D2200V to work in the end. and good luck with that reformat :smt023

so i really made up my mind & i'll actually have my ADVC110 mailed to me soon, just have to wait some because the seller wouldn't take a credit card & foreign money transfers take a few days to clear. i'll try to be all set when it arrives...  ;-)

well yes i admit i am just a beginner on these matters, previously i've mostly aimed my energies on these sort of cure activities at some other areas. so there's a lot of learning to be done...  :roll:  

i've heard some people say good things about ATI before, but i've never known how it compares with canopus - so it's interesting to know.

ok, have to go now, unfortunately work calls... :smt086.

(about that customs incident: it's just that when one orders something outside the european union one has to pay a certain procentage of the value of the stuff both for the customs and for taxes then, and the latter one goes up to 22%. i once ordered a rather big lot of dvd-rs & cd-rs without knowing this & they gave me lots of trouble. because when the customs opened the parcel (at my presence of course) they got really suspicious because of software piracy of course (i could already picture them gringind my disc with a heavy steamroller, you know the way you see them doing it in the far east on the news :smt087). and they really gave me some hard time about it before they let me have it & i had to pay considerable penalties ). so that's why i keep away from ordering anything too expensive from the us. the value of the shipment is generally stated on the parcel so the customs can always check it and bust you.  :( )
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[lostflower4]

It sounds like you've been through a lot with the customs incident. I didn't know they took things so seriously! Seems as if they are trying to discourage you from buying overseas by throwing on a heavy tax. Also funny how they thought a bunch of blank discs were pirated stuff.

I think you made a great choice going with the ADVC110. I just got off the phone with a Canopus tech support guy in a last ditch attempt to fix my issue before reformatting. He gave me a few more ideas, but still no luck. Looks like that dreaded day is nearing... :(

But at the end of our conversation I asked him what the difference was between the ADVC110 and ACEDVio, and he said that they're both basically the same internally, using the same encoder and whatnot. He went on to say that if he had to pick, he'd choose the ADVC110 because the fact that it's an external unit makes it more portable. Moreover, he said that all the ADVC models are basically the same, suggesting that the more expensive ones didn't give much of an advantage. So looks like you're in luck.

About the ATI, I just don't think it's that good. It's ok sometimes, but it has some serious flaws. For example, it cannot handle dark scenes very well at all. It adds this extreme dark and dull tint to everything. It has nothing to do with IRE levels and it cannot simply be adjusted by using the color controls. If you try to brighten up the image, it will look washed out. I think these two pictures will prove my point. Both were using default settings to accept an IRE 7.5 input. This is from my Galore VHS tape.


ATI All-In-Wonder 9600



Canopus MVR-D2200V




You obviously don't have to be an expert to know which one of these is better. ATI can handle brighter scenes ok, but Canopus always looks better. I called ATI to ask about this problem, and they claimed that no one else had ever complained about it. But I've talked to them about lots of things, and it's no secret that they aren't the smartest people. If you ever download videos off the web, you can always spot ATI captures ? They always look too dark in low-light scenes. And just look at the difference in clarity. It's pretty big! For the record, the 9600 is one of their "high-end" cards, if you can really call it that... :roll:

So I'd assume the ADVC110 will have a very similar look to what my card produces. The only difference of course is that you will have to do the MPEG encoding as a separate process; however, it is a crucial step you must consider. Some MPEG-2 encoders are excellent, and some are not. You could have a perfectly good AVI capture and destroy it by using a substandard program. Unfortunately, I'm not really in a position to offer you advice because I can't even name a program for Mac that does this kind of thing. I'd really suggest you do some research on this...

Well, I think that's all I got for now. :-)

[japanesebaby]

yes, maybe the customs thought that they had succeeded in getting on the tracks of some major software piracy network... so i surely must have been a complete disappointment to them in the end  

hmm, one really starts to wonder that price jump (on the canopus converters from 110/300 up then) if they own tech support says the devices are basically the same?! sounds a bit puzzling.
actually the portability of ADVC110 was one reason i gave up searching for more info on ACEDVio. there's actually someone else around here who might also need it (but for other purposes than the cure... :wink: ) and i gave a little thought about the "rentability" of the device too.

thanks for the comparitive images for ATI/Canopus - there's really a huge difference, i wouldn't have thought it to be that big really! it's really worth paying attention to it.

i guess that maybe some people have praised ATI just because they've simply run no comparisons or because they don't really use for any serious archive purposes at all - i mean it's certainly 'ok' for some daily usage but... (it's a little bit same as this 'anything will do' sort of attitude that i've recently run into a lot: while i've been asking around about the converters i've been told a number of times things like 'well this one's good enough - for you'. in one store they really started to annoy me because they refused to believe that i wouldn't like to settle with just about anything & they thought i was just a bothersome customer who wants to waste their time by asking too many questions - it was a bore, i'll never buy anything from there for sure :wink: . well i can understand if they don't have all info right there when i ask about it but the reply should be more like 'ok we'll find out & be in touch' than 'now could just please take that or leave that, we don't want to bother - bye'. some good service  :smt011 . )

anyway, back to the images: about the same sort of distortions with dark/light areas and even more so with colors in general was what started really to annoy me with those standalone recorders that i tried. some models really changed the colors a lot, mostly for unnaturally brighter direction (which the manufacturers themselves of course  called 'fantastically & naturally bright colors!' - well... ). and this just couldn't really be adjusted like you said. and if or when the source tape itself had some distortion already (not uncommon with older VHS recordings as we know) then the outcome was pretty weird, i'd say almost completely ruined in some cases.

about that AVI/MPEG conversion/encoding: what has really started to puzzle me now is that none of the mac users i've consulted regarding ADVC110 have mentioned this at all(!). the instructions have simply been 'plug it in -> open iMovie for capturing & pre-editing -> take it to Toast for editing & compression & burn. and to my knowledge iMovie doesn't do any encoding itself (i know because i've used it before & it's a little bit picky on the stuff you can import), so could it be that the encoding isn't needed on mac? this would sound even too good to be true, i don't know if it's possible. i guess i'll have to try it and see, i'm certainly looking forward to it!

(this thread is really starting to gain some award-winning proportions   :smt107    )

[lostflower4]

Seems we have much in common with our video-related endeavors.

As for the price jumps, it's quite strange. There is always contradictory information floating around out there. Let me tell you a little story. The Canopus tech guy I talked to the other day about the ADVD110 and the high-priced models also told me that the MVR-D2200V is better than the MPEGPro MVR (my previous card, also called the MVR-1000). So in that case, he was recommending a higher-priced model.

A while back I asked him if I would get better results use something like the ACEDVio to capture an AVI and later convert it versus using the D2200V. He said the 2200 is a very good unit, so there is not really an advantage to going to AVI first. So it's clear that he's not make his recommendations based on profit for the company ? He's just telling what he really thinks. I mentioned this in the Canopus forums, and one of the admins (who seems to know a lot) said that the D2220V and MPEGPro use exactly the same technology and should not be any different. Well, I had already done my own comparisons, and while the MPEGPro is still certainly better than ATI, the color accuracy and clarity was noticeably better on the 2200. I'm not sure that guy knows what he's talking about! :roll:

It's really a pity that so many units offer less than desirable results. I mean, all we're really asking is for it to be the same as our input source. How hard can that really be? I find it strange that VCR's do a really good job of "capturing" accurately from the TV, but the whole analog to digital process is so different. Everything gets mangled... :x

In response to this statement:

open iMovie for capturing & pre-editing -> take it to Toast for editing & compression & burn. and to my knowledge iMovie doesn't do any encoding itself (i know because i've used it before & it's a little bit picky on the stuff you can import), so could it be that the encoding isn't needed on mac?

"Compression and burn" is the key phrase here. The compression mentioned means either going to MPEG-2 or VOB. VOB actually is just MPEG-2 in DVD structure. A little-known fact: If you copy a DVD onto your computer and change the VOB extensions to MPG, you will have MPEG-2 files. I just discovered that a few weeks ago. So it seems this program might be doing this conversion "behind the scenes" without overtly stating it. I've heard the same thing about using Nero to burn DVD's from video files. I've never used it personally, but it seems that it simply imports the file and does "processing", then your final product is ready.

I'm a little wary of this method. I think that a program specifically designed to do conversion would yield higher quality results. There are several good ones I know for PC, but as I said I'm pretty clueless about Mac. However, I did speak to my friend and he told me that QuickTime Pro does this sort of conversion. I know he's right as I now remember seeing this feature, but considering the program only costs about $30, again I have to question the quality.

It really is a pain dealing with people are are selling these devices. Some are pushy, others don't really have a clue what they're talking about, and the rest just can't wait to get rid of you. I get this feeling a lot if I call a company to ask about their products. Sometimes it seems like they can't wait to get off the phone with you. While I'm still upset with Canopus about my little issue here, I have to admit that they've been really helpful when I've talked to them. They always do a good job of answering all questions and giving good advice. And oddly enough, it seems both of us want to use their products. I guess we can safely say they must be doing something right.

You really struck a few chords with me in your last commentary. "It's good enough for your purposes." In other words, "You're just a dumb amateur, so it doesn't really matter if you get great results or not." Ah!!! It makes me so mad. I just want something good. And sorry if I want it to be correct, not all crappy like most of things out there produce. Is that too much to ask?  

And archival purposes ? That's the reason why we want our stuff to be good. ATI has some handy features like a TV tuner so I can easily record stuff. The quality isn't perfect (as I showed you an example), but for a simple TV program that I'll eventually delete, it's good enough. And for brighter stuff, it's actually not bad. But for concerts and music things, which tend to be dark, it really sucks. I feel stupid for spending so much time on all my laserdisc transfers using the ATI and now realizing that I can do much better with the Canopus. And I will end up re-doing them if I can ever get this damn thing to work! :twisted:

You obviously have a good eye for things if you've noticed all these differences. Apparently a lot of people don't, and they keep buying up all the crap that these companies are putting out, and sometimes making poor recommendations to others... :(

I think we're getting close to what we want. In your case, you just need to find the right software for MPEG conversion and DVD creation. Maybe Toast is good after all, I don't know. I guess you'll see...

For me, it looks like REFORMAT is the missing element. So much fun, I'm surprised I haven't started already! :smt120

[lostflower4]

An even more revealing comparison, I think. Bet ya can't guess which is which!

[japanesebaby]

uuh that was really hard to guess which one was which!  :wink: quite a difference once again.

oh yes, the attitude of some people selling hardware/software... it's simply amazing   . because you go in there prepared to pay considerable amounts of hard-earned cash and still they don't even seem to bother with you. one wonders how they can keep their jobs sometimes... if i did my job like that i'd be laid off in a minute! and if you start asking about things in more detail, some of them almost panic or something and start throwing some pretty weird jargon at you -  i'm sure they don't even understand themselves what they are saying sometimes... :smt101  when i was searching for a suitable standalone recorder (which didn't turn out to be a success as we know) i always asked to see the manuals for every model: now you wouldn't believe how hard even such a simple thing was! most sellers were pretty annoyed by this, and some sellers refused it completely with 'no, we don't have any copies for display'. so they were actually telling me that i have to buy the device first to be able to just go through the manual!  and at the same time they were unable to answer my questions about the device, so there was every reason for me asking to see the manual...
but your experience with Canopus' support is reassuring - it's good to know they take their job seriously & don't seem to leave people in trouble.

oh yes, what is it that can be so complicated in analog -> digital transfers? beats me. because after all these problems lately i've noticed that i've almost started to love my VCR again! i used to think it's a complete dinosaur and ready for museum, but it still beats many of it's digital counterparts, or at least isn't that far behind in every respect.

but back to the issue:
i guess i'll try first how this "behind the scenes" conversion with toast turns out. because i'm pretty sure there is such a built-in feature available. i'm not sure if it's good enough, but it might be worth checking out. i talked to this guy on our local mac forum who's done quite a lot of work with the ADVC110/iMovie/Toast combination, and he hadn't ever used anything extra for conversion. and he told me he had done some 'serious archiving' as he called it - well of course one can never be sure if that 'archiving' meant what i think it means, but if it does then it cannot be totally crap. at least i want to see the outcome first before i make any further moves.  i'm aware that Quicktime Pro does this sort of conversions, i've actually thought about that too, but if i had to guess which one's better then i'd put my money on Toast at the moment...  but well it remains to be seen.

by the way, i happen know some people who work at the national finnish broadcasting company (YLE) for the tv. now you can imagine that i have been toying with the idea that they could slip me in to the YLE studios some night with my tapes... i'd say that would produce some pretty per-fect transfers...! but unfortunately it won't happen, since they are not allowed to use studio time like that (even for their own projects) & considering the tightness of their security i would be busted in a second...

(how's the reformatting going?   :smt120 )

[lostflower4]

Well... I decided to exhaust every single option remaining before I go ahead with the reformat. I just wasted too many hours that I could have used to finish up my backups!

I updated my BIOS and some other settings as well. Some spooky stuff, I tell you. If you don't do it exactly right, you can do some severe damage to your machine. And it's not just as simple as reformatting to fix it. In that respect, I was fortunate. But as for the MVR, the problem has gotten worse. That seems to happen the more I fiddle around with it. Now I cannot even open the capture program. It simply says "Failed to initialize capture device." It's never been THAT bad!

When I reformat I'm going to go once step further and write my hard drive to zeroes using gwscan. That way there will be NOTHING on the drive when I load up Windows again. The evil little Canopus bugs won't stand a chance! And if that still doesn't work, it's either find a new unit (which I don't want to do), or give up...

Back to your point about the stupid salespeople. It's true that they often have no clue what they're talking about, and when you throw them a curveball, they'll just change the subject and start babbling some nonsense. They think they're so smart, but you just know they're full of it! :twisted: After all, it shouldn't matter for "us" because anything is suited to "our purposes". :roll:

There is something about analog to digital conversion that is very tricky. Someone tried to explain it to me once, but I don't remember very well now. It basically came down to the fact that it's a rather complicated process and that it's easy for things to get messed up along the way. I've been searching the net for more info on Apple encoders, and it's quite vague. I'd bet that Final Cut Pro's encoder is among the best, but as you've said it's not exactly cheap. But I might have a solution for you in the works! :wink:

That is quite a tease about knowing someone who works in broadcasting. I'm sure that gear could easily produce the desired results, but places tend to be fussy when it comes to using things for personal use. Some of that gear is very, very expensive. I heard that professional movie studios use capture devices worth about $50,000. Totally insane!

Actually, the Canopus rep once told me that a lot of broadcast stations use the MVR-D2200 to archive their footage. If that's true, my unit can't be all that bad. I'm really pleased with the results, but as we know all too well, the stupid thing doesn't work!!! :x

With all this effort I've been putting toward my PC all night, I really thought I might have a chance of getting the Canopus up and running, but quite the contrary.

The dreaded day is coming soon... And more surely than ever! :smt085

[lostflower4]

Happy New Year's, Marika.

Well, the verdict's been in for a couple days now. I wrote zerores to my hard drive, reformatted it, and reloaded Windows. MPEG Station (the Canopus capture program) was one of the first things I loaded up. I was so excited. Ran it for about 5 seconds... CRASH! :smt091

Also, it wouldn't allow me to select certain settings. The same problems as before. So having nothing to lose, I reformatted and reloaded again. Tried it... Nope! I noticed I made a stupid error in loading Windows (somehow H became my primary drive, haha). So I reloaded it for a third time. They say third time's a charm, right? Not this time!

What a waste of time. And a lot of unneeded stress too. I've got my PC back to my liking, but there's been no performance gain or anything positive to come out of it. Just a big waste.

I'm really about to give up on Canopus. As I've mentioned, I've been fussing around with this kind of thing too long to do AVI captures and more manual processing, conversion, etc. I'm out of patience. I suppose I could cut down on eating or something and try the MVR-D4000 model, but it seems to be more than I need. But most of all, I'm very upset with Canopus. It's simply a matter of poor programming on their behalf. I don't think I mentioned that I was able to succesfully make a capture with a different software program of theirs. The only problem is that it doesn't provide any access to the good processing features! :(

I'm really thinking about getting the Pioneer 530 standalone model, but direct to computer is something I've always wanted. Yet it seems I've had no luck with that after trying about 5 or so different things over the course of a year. I'll have to think about this one a bit. I don't think I'm ready to give up after all. :wink:

So... How is Canopus treating YOU? 8)

[japanesebaby]

happy new year to you too caley!  

i almost can't believe what you told all that trouble & still the canopus doesn't work! oh i can believe you must be really disappointed with them, i've always thought them to be a trusty brand!
so back to standalones... that pioneer model is probably a very good one, actually a couple of people in this digital video forum have recommended just it to me too, although i'm totally wrong person to recommend any standalone recorders to anyone after my experiences with them :wink: but i also really understand what you meant by wanting to stick direct to computer transfers, because that's what i too have been wanting to do - it's surely a pain sometimes (and even lots of it! :smt075   :wink: ). because doing it with computer can make it all so complicated as we have seen..., but then again IF one would get it all to work i believe it would give so much more control over things which would be just awesome...
i really hope you find a way to solve all that, since giving up shouldn't be a real option, that would be sad & bad - but to be honest i probably might have given up already at some point & settled with some possibly mediocre standalone recorder without this conversation we've been having here, so i'm really annoyed at myself that i have no concrete ideas to offer here in return since i'm simply far too inexperienced :(  
it really bothers me

and how is canopus performing here on the other side of the atlantic? i've just made the first tests with my ADVC110 today: i did have some weird trouble in capturing the audio at first (it looks like it was something that just got fixed by itself somehow simply by turning the devide on and off a couple of times, i felt so stupid because of that!). now it seems to work perfectly with iMovie. and the quality of the DV files that  they togetherproduce is really nice, much better than the quality in the corresponding clips that i've made with a standalone unit - BUT as we know the trick is how to keep that quality so there's really no room for any loud hoorays yet  
(+ it's clear that i really have to get is a program that does a proper noise reduction like you said)
and the rate that the capturing "eats" the space on my hard drive... it's really a hungry thing as we know :wink: i have a lousy 55 GB internal hard drive which is already bursting all the time so i'm a bit stuck at the moment. i ordered a new 250 GB external drive before christmas and i was expecting it to be here now when i get back from holidays: what i got was an email telling me that they have some delivery problems & it might still take 2-4 weeks to arrive!    that was surely a disappointment, and i really have to start looking for it from somewhere else, since i cannot wait that long. but of course one can get those easily from many sellers so it's just a small delay - but an annoying one still...

and last but not least, something that might be news but i'm not sure yet if it's going to be: i've managed to download a couple of versions for both Final cut pro and Dvd studio pro + even something that should be a complete(?) Final cut studio 5 package  . due to my lack of space on hard drive i haven't been able to test them yet, so i'm not yet sure if they work/how complete versions they might be (the entire Final cut studio 5 needs an impressive 29,9 GB for installation only :roll: ). i'm also a bit afraid that even if they do well i might have a graphics card problem anyway since i don't have G5 but only G4 ibook. let's see... anyway, i also downloaded a couple of older versions (3 and 4) of Dvd studio pro for testing/as backups if the Final cut studio pro lets me down as i fear it might do - i'll do some heavy cleaning on my hard drive for clearing up some space & start installing some of these after i've written this.
which reminds me that i really have to find the manuals too from somewhere... :smt087

(i really wish i would have some luck with these programs now - purely because that Final cut studio 5 package took me a mighty 14 hours to download   and it couldn't even be done by leaving the computer running overnight or something like that because it was an awfully unstable connection that had to be watched practically all the time. so i'd hate it to turn into nothing now...)

[lostflower4]

Well for one, don't feel about about not being able to give advice on my Canopus issue. Even three tech support people and the entire Canopus forum community have been unable to help me! It seems troubles like these have followed me all my life. I must be a difficult person!

I've lost some respect for Canopus, but you'll probably end up having better luck than me. I've had that feeling all along. Out of sheer curiosity, I am going to call Canopus tomorrow and ask some questions about the MVR-D4000. I think it's way overpriced, and I also suspect it may not be as high quality as the 2200. It also does on-the-fly DivX encoding, so I feel it might be a good all-in-one tool, but not particularly high quality for individual applications. Just a suspicion by reading the info on their page...

Maybe I'm wrong, but I honestly can't really afford that (and don't want to!). I think the 530 would be great if the quality is really good. I think it has all the features I want, except for PCM audio in all formats. That was a major downer for me, but I just got to realizing that although Canopus allows for PCM recording, it doesn't support digital audio input, which I would want to do for laserdisc. Therefore I would have to edit in the audio track manually afterwards. In sum, I would have to do this anyway, so I guess the Canopus never really had the advantage there.

Keeping everything on the computer would be great, but it's starting to seem unrealistic with my needs. I guess it's something I could get used to. The hunt for something new shall begin tomorrow!

I forgot to respond to your statement:

it looks like the editing process for mac can be a bit different than for pc, at least with some software combinations. if iMovie is used for capturing/editing, then everything you want to do editing-wise has to be
done before the MPEG-2 encoding, and the encoding takes place just before the burning process.

No, I think we must have been confusing each other. You are absolutely correct, and that's what I was trying to say. That's what I liked about the MVR-D2200. It did some great  pre-processing (noise reduction, IRE correction) while it was capturing, thereby eliminating the need to do it afterwards. Re-encoding MPEG video is not an ideal thing!

That's where the cheap MPEG capture cards fall short. They don't have noise reduction, etc., so the only way to clean the video up is to re-encode the video. That's not something you want to do if you're going for top quality. Well, maybe it would be ok for "our purposes". :smt042

Ah, the other thing I hate about AVI captures ? the huge file size. I have big hard drives, but I always seem to keep them filled. AVI's can really start to eat them up, espcially if you have "before" and "after" ones due to filtering. Then if you want to make permanent backups of the original, you would have to make split archive files on multiple DVD's. Too much work for me! :roll:

I think you might be better off just getting bigger internal drives. I don't know the speed requirements of the ACEDVio, but external drives are always slow by comparison. ACEDVio uses hardware encoding (meaning that the unit itself does the work), so I'm asssuming the pull on the hard drive would be minimal. In my experience, internal drives also tend to be cheaper.

If you don't mind the noise, I don't think 400 GB internals aren't very expensive anymore. But for me, too loud! I've got a couple whisper-quiet 250 GB internals, but sometimes I still wish I had more space! It's crazy, I know. :roll:

I really wish you luck with those programs. Some things on P2P networks are fake, and it's a real pain. Nearly 30 gigs? Wow! I wish you some big luck on that one. For VHS, noise reduction is a must. If you can get these "deluxe" programs going, you should have no problems there (providing you can figure them out). :wink: Find a good MPEG converter, and I think you're about set.

I'm also curious, what do you think of the color quality of the ACEDVio? Does it look natural to you? That would be a big plus for me. There are color correction filters you can apply, but of course this is more work and hassle. Best to have things right from the start!

I didn't know you had an older Mac system, so I wonder if the new Final Cut Pro will work as you mentioned. I don't know anything about Mac, so I can't say too much. But I think version 4 would be plenty good if you can't get 5 to work.

I really hope you can work things out. Back to the drawing board for me... :x

[japanesebaby]

hmm of course i know i couldn't possibly have anything to add if the whole canopus community is speechless with your problem - silly me. i guess one just sometimes hopes that one could do something else than just stand and stare, if you know what i mean  :(  :wink:
well i can say that every other minute i do feel like i should have settled with some standalone anyway, and that this is all completele madness  since i don't really know how everything is going to turn out. but i guess for me 'computer-only' has been something that i've wanted to try for some time already, so even if it fails then at least i bothered to try it. even in the worst case - which would be sticking to the iMovie/Toast combination - i still think the results would still be somewhat better in many respects than what i was able to produce with my old standalone (even with the best one i had). and i might be just a stubborn idiot but there's simply something that i like in the 'computer'only' idea/notion, so i guess i can even happily live with the huge AVI files if i just don't have to back to where i started from (you can say that i'm just saying this bbecause now i have to live with them ha ha  :smt042  )

otherwise i really don't have too much to tell yet (it looks like there's probably some portion of Final cut pro that needs to be installed for the capturing to work out, i just really don't know what it is. or then i'm just missing something else... + the noise reduction gives me hard time, since it strangely looks like the thing called 'noise reduction' is associated with sound only(?)... in any case it looks like i'll be spending another night (x100) reading the manuals then  :smt108 ). so it's a bit complicated at the moment.
i really became curious & took a quick look on MVR-D4000 on the canopus site: it looks certainly impressive, but so does the price...   it's really hard to make yourself 100% comfortable (or even 80% or so) if one hasn't got some magical unlimited funds to use... hmmm i wish the canopus guys would have some sudden brain disorder tomorrow and give it to you with half a price :wink:

about the technical specs on Final cut studio 5 (it's also here if you want to take a look:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/specs.html)
so it just was my own mistake, i looked to it a bit more carefully & actually it seems like my G4 should do well enough, it's just the graphics card that might give me hard time. my G4 is pretty new, it has a 1.42 GHz processor and the latest version of OS X Tiger operating system, so that should be fine (only PowerMacs have G5 at the moment and i would have been really surprised if that would be a minimum requirement for Final cut studio).
i was thinking about it whether i should get internal drive, like you said it might have saved some money too. but i'd really need a portable drive anyway because i'd really need a drive that could be used on both my mac & pc if i needed to so i decided to settle on external (it's a LaCie 250 GB Extreme Firewire 800/400/USB 2.0). i was worried whether it would be too slow for my purposes but got some recommendations fro that specific one from a couple of people who said they've used it a lot with video editing (together with Final cut studio) and it performs well - so i just have to hope that i wasn't fooled. that really should be the last thing to invest right now, unfortunately i'm really running out of euros/dollars/pounds/yen/you name it here...  :(

you asked about the colors of ACEDVio (i guess you meant the colors with ADVC 110 and not ACEDVio?): actually among the first things that i was happy to notice was that the ADVC110 colors seem to be very much ok - i have different sorts of test clips with four different standalone models & the canopus seems to beat the most if not all of them so far. this was really a relief for me since the color distortions was one of the major pains i use to have with standalones!  
(i know i shouldn't even think about it now because i have absolutely no more money to spend on any more hardware, but it's really tempting to think how much better a really top class vcr player would possibly still make it - my vcr isn not at all bad & it's pretty new too but still ... )

the best of luck with your search, i hope the drawing board isn't needed for long...

(+ once again thanks for that package, it was really nice to visit berlin wuhlheide today...  :smt035 )