I'm interested in the above model as I think it might sort out some of the problems I've had with an ADS Instant USB box. The USB box is okay, I guess, but it does suffer from two major problems. 1 - Even at max quality setting of 5Mb it's still a pretty blocky picture, and nowhere near the quality I was hoping for. 2 - The audio and video drift on anything longer than about fifteen minutes of capture. I see that the Pyro has a setting for locking the AV together, and also I imagine that being firewire rather than USB 1.0 it will produce better, higher quality captures. Am I right? Anyone with any experience of the device that they'd like to share? Watcher
Hi, The ADS Instant USB is a Pretty Crappy Quality Hardware mpeg encoder..I have read Quite a Bit about this Device and have heard nothing But bad things about it... The Pyro Firewire Box is NOT a Mpeg Encoder Box, It is an Analoge/Digital Converter and it captures to DV AVI format, Which you would have to encode to Mpeg with a Software encoder..These Boxes would Provide MUCH better Quality than the One you have but you would need to encode the DV Files to Mpeg first...This Box is a Little Over Priced at between $200-$250 you can Get the best Analogue Digital converter for about $250 which is called the "Canopus ADVC-100" which does the Same thing But Produces Much better Quality because the Canopus Hardware DV Codec is of Much Higher Quality...You would get Much Better Quality useing one of these Devices and encodeing the DV AVI files to Mpeg2 than if you were to get a Hardware Mpeg encoder for the same Price Range....Good Luck
Cheers for that. Guess I'll have to rethink my strategy as I could get the ADS stuff cheap. I think I'll just buy a stand alone DVD recorder instead. I've been thinking about getting one for awhile now anyway, this will just add more impetus. So, changing subject, how easy is it to read a DVD-RW disc created with a stand alone recorder into a PC and edit it, before writing it back to another RW or R disc? What software would do it? I rather like ULead's DVD 7 software as being nice and easy to edit MPEGs with. All I really want to do is remove the adverts, nothing really fancy. Watcher
With thise Standalone Recorders they record to a Mpeg2 format with I think a ".vro" extention, All you need to do is Copy the Files off of the DVD+RW to your Hard drive and then use a Real Mpeg editor to edit the files...Ulead Software editors Like "Ulead Video Studio 7" and "Ulead Media Studio 7 pro" are not meant to edit Mpeg files because to edit the file it needs to re-encode the File before outputting it to you, and This Will greatly reduce the Quality...What you need is a Real Mpeg editor Like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" it has all of the editing Features you will need to cut out comercials and to re-arange scenes and you can even insert BMP,JPG,Tiff Images into the Mpeg file without re-encodeing the Whole file, This editor also supports AC3 audio streams which a Lot of Standalone recorders record to..This editor is Frame accurate and it will only take a Few Minutes to render the New edited File because there is no re-encodeing...If you PM Me with your e-mail I"ll see if I can find it for you...Cheers
> What you need is a Real Mpeg editor > Like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" Yes, that looks excellent, though I've also been pointed to "TMPGEnc DVD Author" which also does just what I'm looking for. Any opinion on which is best? Watcher
> What you need is a Real Mpeg editor > Like "Womble Mpeg2VCR" Yes, that looks excellent, though I've also been pointed to "TMPGEnc DVD Author" which also does just what I'm looking for. Any opinion on which is best? Watcher
Well DVD Author will Do simple Trimming and Splitting But it is Not Frame accurate which means that if you want to cut at a certain Fame it will not cut on that Frame unless it is an I Frame and if it isn"t an I Frame it will Jump to the Next I Frame...But you can Use DVD Author to Author the Edited Mpeg files to a DVD but I would still sugest something better for authoring Like DVD-Lab...Mpeg2VCR is Probably the Best Frame Accurate Mpeg editor out there Pluss it has a Bunch of other tools and Features that are Very Usefull..Becides being able to Edit Mpeg files to the exact Frame and do Great Cut and Paste editing It can allso Insert BMP,JPG,Tiff ect Pictures into your Mpeg file like as a Transition between clips without re-encodeing the whole file so there is Never any quality Loss when useing it to Edit..It can also Convert Mpeg2 to Mpeg1 and it can change the GOP pattern in your Mpeg files and even change the Bitrate and resolution but to do this Mpeg2VCR has to re-encode the File but it is Very Fast at it and the Quality is Quite good but it is better used as just an editor unless you really need to convert Mpeg1 to Mpeg2 or Visa versa..While I was writeing this I took a 352+240 Mpv file and Loaded it into Mpeg2VCR and I changed the Bitrate from 3500kbs to 1500kbs and I could hardly tell the Differance...Well anyways This can be a Hard program to find so if you have Problems then PM me with your E-mail and I"ll try to find it for you...Cheers
Hello Minion and others. I have been recently looking at this specific option. The Canopus ADVC-100 looks good but I have a Texas Insturments OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 Host controller on my system. I am not too sure if this will work with the ADVC-100, as they and others say it has issues with Texas Intruments. However on the site for ADS, this Texas Instruments card is recommend as to work the best. So wonder a couple things, does ADVC-100 come with software? Has anyone tried the ADVC-100 with the same card I have or similar? Has anyone tried the Pyro A/V Link with and without a Texas Instruements card?
Well there are Problems with the ADVC-100 and texas Instruments Firewire Cards so if you were to get an ADVC-100 you should also get a different Firewire Card but they are pretty Cheap, You can Get one on e-bay for about $10...If you get the Base Modell of the ADVC-100 it doesn"t Come with any software But it is Compatible with most any Video Capture/Editing Software and it Produces better Quality than the ADS/Pyro AV Link as the Canopus DV Encoder Chip is Probably the Highest quality DV Encoder chip in it"s Class pluss the ADVC-100 has a way to disable the Macrovision Copy protection were the ADS/Pyro doesn"t so you would also need to get a Video Stabilizer if you were going to back up Retail VHS Tapes useing the ADS/Pyro...Another device that does the same things as the ADVC-100 or the ADS/Pyro but is an Internal PCI card that doesn"t need an extra Firewire Card is the "Canopus ACEDVio" which produces the Same Quality as the ADVC-100 but has the Convienience of being an Internal PCI card, It run"s about the Same Price as the ADVC-100 ,sometimes a Little More expensive and sometimes cheaper as I have seen them on e-bay in Auction for Under $200 US...I personally would get this device over the ADVC-100 Just because it is easier to use and it also has an S-Video Output so you can hook up a External TV so you can see when the Video will look like when on TV before you create your Project...The Canopus ACEDVio has a couple different Packages, You can get Just the Card for the Cheapest Price or you can get it Bundles with either Adobe Premier pro 7 and Encore DVD or with Vegas Video 4...You can check it out here : http://www.canopus.us/US/products/ACEDVio/pt_ACEDVio.asp#acedvio_ultra Cheers
Thanks Minion, but my notebook is limited to Firewire, PC cards, USB2. I do like the reviews about the ADVC-100. Do you have any comments on the Twin Pack 100, its more expensive but seems to have everything on it including D-sub in and out. More ports then the ADVC-300, which is weird as they are the same price.
