I am considering buying this unit. I would like to record tv programs and burn it to dvd. 1) Can I record and burn to a dvd on my pc at the same time? 2) Can I play movies previously recorded from the pc to TV using advc 100. How does this work? 3) Can the dv format be converted to mpeg2 or mpeg 4. What s/w. Can this be done while the advc is capturing the video into dv format to save time? Thanks
#1)Yes I suppose it is Possible to Capture and Burn at the Same time but It wouldn"t be a Good Idea as you would be Risking BufferUnder runs on the Burnt DVD and be risking Dropping Frames in the Captured File... #2) I don"t really understand this Question but maybe it will be Cleared up by the end of this Post... #3)Yes the DV Format can be converted to other Formats..You would Have to convert the DV AVI files to Mpeg2 if you wanted to put them on a DVD anyways... Mpeg Encodeing Takes up 100% of your CPU"s resourses so you should not do other things when Encodeing... The Canopus ADVC-100 does not Have a TV Tuner Built into it so if you wanted to record TV shows you would have to use a Seperate Cable Box or some other TV Tuner like the ones Built into VCR"s to tune in the Tv Chanells and then output the signal to the ADVC-100 to be Captured to your Hard drive... You should also have a Seperate Big Fast Hard drive to Record the Captured files too because DV AVI files can take up to 15 GB per hour of Video and generally your PC can not record these files to it useing the same drive your Operateing System is Installed on because it wouldn"t be fast enough to Read and Write all that Data at the same Time.... You can use Software to Capture the Video Directly to Mpeg2 format in real time but the quality isn"t as good doing it this way and you would not get as Much Video on a DVD... Also if you are going to record TV Shows you will most likely have to do quite a Bit of Editing because of the Comercials so it would be a Good Idea to get a Good Editing Package that can Capture the Video and Edit it and Encode it to Mpeg2 all in the Same Program and then you would just need a DVD Authoring Program so you can add your Menu"s and Chapters and burn the DVD.... The Problem with that is that Good editing Packages will cost you as much as the ADVC-100 would... I recomend something like Vegas Video 5 or Ulead Media Studio Pro 7 as they can do pretty much everything you need done and More.... If you want to same a Little Money and do not need an External Device then I would recomend something like the "Canopus ACEDVio" as it has the Same Capture Features and Produces the Same Quality as the ADVC-100 but it is an Internal PCI card and costs up to $100 cheaper than the ADVC-100.... You should also have yourself a Pretty Fast PC for Doing Video Capture and editing and encodeing ECT... I recomend at the Very least a 2.0ghz PC with 512mb Ram or faster because Mpeg encodeing can take a Very Long time if you have a Slow PC... well good Luck
Thank you very much for the detailed response. On the question (2) that was not clear to you, let me clarify. If I have a DV movie or say if I have converted it to an mpeg4 format. Can I now play it using canopus to render it on the TV i.e. as a source much like VCR is a source for the TV? Thanks Mohan
Well the ADVC-100 does have analogue outputs that you can use to Preview files that are on your PC on a TV set but if you really want to watch the files that are on your PC on a TV set you should just Make DVD"s out of them...If they are Mpeg4 you can encode them to Mpeg2 and then author them to DVD or if you have a DVD Player that Supports Mpeg-4 files then you can Burn the Mpeg-4 files to CD-R and play them on the DVD Player....Cheers
