Well as some of you know I have been thinking about getting the ADVC 300. My question is ...is there any thing I should know about before I buy it? Whats the chance I will get dropped frames or where it makes it look digitized? I just want to make sure Im not wasting my money. Right now i have a dazzle 150c and Im not too pleased with it. Computer specs.. gateway laptop 2.4ghz 256ram 30gigHD Sony DVD burner 710
It won't drop frames, it won't get "pixellized", or have macroblocks. You can't even put the 300 in the same category as the dazzle. The dazzle is a hobby toy, the ADVC300 is a professional piece of video equipment.
I've got an ADVC300 but if anyone could point me towards a website with a user friendly explanation of all the features, I'd appreciate it. Cheers Scott
Well there is a Small Chance you could Drop frames when captureing on a LapTop as most Laptop Hard Drives are only 4200rpm and if captureing to the same drive as your OS Is Installed on you could drop Frames...Pluss your 30gb Hard Drive is Not Big enough to Capture very Much Video as DV AVI sucks up about 4gb per 15 minutes of Video so with 30 GB you will only be able to store 1.5-2.0 hours of Video that is if the Drive is Empty.... I would suggest you get another Large Fast Drive strictly for Video capture because I believe you will run into problems with disk Space and Possibly dropped Frames useing your Current Setup..... Cheers PS:"Beammeup" the Manual for the ADVC-300 should tell you everything about the device you need to know..If you need firster explanation contact canopus or post a specific question here in the Forum...
I, too, am considering the Canopus ADVC 300. However, after hours of searching I am still unclear as to wether or not the ADVC 300 can defeat Macorvision protected VHS tapes. I've seen a "trick" posted here at afterdawn for the ADVC 100, but not sure if it works with the ADVC 300 as well. If it won't automatically defeat Macrovision, can anybody give me any "tricks", tips, suggestions and links for a piece of hardware or software to use in conjunction with the ADVC 300 to defeat the Macrovision. BTW, at others' suggestions on afterdawn, I've checked the Canopus forums, and they've seemed to have had a backlash against sharing this kind of information. Anyway, if anybody can please offer and help I'd be deeply grateful. Thanks! Scott
Hi, I am Uncertain if the ADVC-300 has the "Trick" to defeat macrovision but there are Devices you can buy that will do it.... What you would need would be a "Video Stabilizer" which is a Device that would Connect between the VCR and the ADVC-300... There are a Few Different types of Video Stabilizer, Some will only remove Macrovision on VHS Tapes and some will remove on Both VHS Tapes and DVD"s...Most of the Cheaper ones are only for VHS tapes and usually only have Composite/RCA Inputs/Outputs .... The Higher end ones have Composite/RCA and S-Video so if you have a good VCR with S-Video Outputs then you can get a better Capture quality as compared to useing the Composite/RCA inputs/Outputs.... Here"s a Couple Links to some Devices for Defeating Macrovision... Sima CT-1 http://ecoustics.pricegrabber.com/search_techspecs_full.php/masterid=2406623 Sima CT-2 http://www.videoguys.com/sima.htm DVD Red Pro http://www.dimax.com.ua/English/dvd_recorder.htm Video Magic/DVD(This ones is supposed to be the Best for DVD Players) http://www.stardevelopment.com/ Facet Video Clarifier SX http://www.facetvideo.com/xcart/customer/home.php Cheers
Thanks, Minion! Thank you for the expertise. I'll let you know what I come up with. I was still hoping the ADVC 300 had the same undocumented ability to defeat Macrovision on its own, but I'll do it no matter what it takes. One question: do these (or, rather, do one of these) devices go between the VCR and the ADVC 100/300? A few of them seemed like lower-cost alternatives to the ADVC units. Rebootjim- what is a "macroblock"? Does that have anything to do with Macrovision at all? Again, thanks! Scott
None of the devices that I listed are anything like the ADVC-300...They are Only for Removeing the Macrovision and do nothing else, but since the ADVC-300 has the "Trick" to remove Copy protection you will not need one....Cheers
My Canopous ADVC 300 showed up and I have yet to get it set up and running, but just in case anybody is interested, the CHEAPEST place I could get it anywhere was: http://www.keenzo.com They have it listed twice, and the second and cheaper price is for "educational" discounts. All you need is a student ID number. No questions asked. You can also use "courtesy5" for an extra $5 off at checkout. I got mine for $401 plus change and that included UPS ground shipping. Just an FYI.
Is there a "real world" practical difference between the 300 and the 110? The 300 looks better, but if the additional functions are not of much real use...why? My purpose is to convert a LOT of my and my wifes VHS tapes to DVD. Thanks Gary
garyac12... Why purchase the expensive model when you can purchase the ADVC-100 for less than $100 on e-Bay. Used in conjunction with WinDV you will not get a dropped frame. Do what minion said... put a video stabilizer between the VCR and ADVC-100. To RebootJim... the Canopus Procoder Express does a fine job for large bucks less. Don't forget to tell the newbies about setting the bit/rates for each movie transferred. I personally believe this is one of the most important steps to transfer to a DVD. It also allows one to put any movie above 120-minutes on the same disk.... granting you will lose only a small amount of clarity on the final product if the movie is longer than 120-minutes..... Texas Outlaw
T_Outlaw- Can you elaborate about "setting the bit/rates for each movie transferred. I personally believe this is one of the most important steps to transfer to a DVD. It also allows one to put any movie above 120-minutes on the same disk...."? Mind giving a quick primer? I want to do this stuff right and if you know some tricks to the trade, please share! Thanks! Sbuel
sbuel... Google bitrate calc. There are numerous primers and directions to whatever you need to do. Basically... if you are going to transfer VHS/Beta movies over to DVD's most of the ADVC use is to make an AVI transfer to a HD. Then to change the AVI file to the MPEG2 file. Using one of the programs that was suggested is fine, however, I prefer using Canopus Procoder Express since the quality is next to impossible to match by any other program. It is in this program that the bitrate is used depending on the time element of your original movie. This is put in on the last menu prior to the MPEG2 conversion i.e. a 120 Minute movie is approximately a 4853 bitrate. You put this in watching the dvd figure so that it reads 1-dvd. If it states 2-dvd then decrease it by 5 or 10 until it reads 1. There is a slider control to help if needed. A 120-minute movie will take approximately 2-hours to process. Follow this with DVD-lab program. It takes approximately another hour or hour and a half to have the finished dvd. The quality will be superb matching the starting VHS/Beta, camcorder, DV, and 3/4" Beta. One more suggestion, Google macrovision and you can probably get an answer to that question as well. .... Texas Outlaw
Bitrate Calculator @ T_Outlaw: Nice to see you've come a LONG ways in a short time. Indeed, Procoder Express is faster, and produces better quality mpegs from DV-AVI than any other encoder.
rebootJim.... Thank you. I will say again... if wasn't for you pointing me in the right direction I would have been lost for quite awhile.... like a young bear cub! My end product has been a thing of beauty... Hard to tell which is the copy and which is the original. Going to start playing around using some of the freeware and free programs. Just to see what is out there that can help the newbies who must use a lower cost to achieve a good final product. The one factor that is missed by the newbies is use a high quality dvd, and burn at a lower rate. Quality over speed. Even though I can burn at 16X, I still do the movie burns at 2.4 to 4X. Depends on the type of fodder used -R or +R. Again many thanks Reboot...... Texas Outlaw.
It doesn't have all the bells and whistles but the DataVideo DAC-100 convertor is also a good option - Only $150 from BuyERetail.com and I find it retains the original quality. I'm glad you're happy with what you bought though!
