Hauppauge, Canopus vs. Stand-alone DVD recorder

USB is not a good way to transfer video data, takes too long and drop frame loss. I use Canopus 100 because of the clean raw data it produces. There's no capturing software with the Canopus, (it's only a capture device) so with Nero I capture the data using the custom setting capturing AVI (not MPEG) which produces huge files. I've captured a 85 min movie and it used 92 gigs of hardrive space. Then with Mainconcept I plugged in the AVI, settings I used was DVD for video and Layer 2 for audio (Not LPCM because it uses way to much space) You would need to have the software so that I can explain what to do next, but there are a few little adjustments with the bitrate to make the movie fit to a DVD. The key is to adjust the bitrate down to 4.37 gigs, and the software shows how many gigs the file is while you are adjusting... it's nice because you can tweak it by the single bit... to really maximize the quality. You hit convert, and it encodes it down to the size that you adjusted to, 4.37gig. You pre-saved the file once you plugged the AVI file in Mainconcept... you open Nero, look for "making DVD video" locate and add the file, follow the rest and you're ready to burn.

 

What are you playing your tapes on? Any TBC,NR?

 

I'm using an old 4 head mitsubishi VCR which is plugged into the Canopus. Nice thing about the Canopus... by-passes Macrovision.

 

The source gets over looked alot. People want dvd quality from a poor quality vhs. Best advice work on getting the best vhs feed first. Accept it for what it is. Optor good explanation. I've got HD space so I'll look into canopus. Thanks

 

Yeah, I agree the source has to be the best quality. Sometimes though you only have sub par tapes... can't expect miracles then. You can't make perfect DVD if your VHS sucks to begin with, that is.
I have old super 8 movies taken in the 60's reproduced to VHS... then to DVD. I guess the only way to copy super 8 to VHS is to shoot the super 8 rolling with a camcorder... seems that is what was done when I brought my super 8's to the camera store. It was disappointing quality. Then I copied it to DVD, yikes!!! I didn't have the Canopus then... I used ATI AIW 9800pro with some crappy encoding software. I'm planning on redoing it with the Canopus and Mainconcept encoding and see if I can pretty up the DVD a little more.
I was wondering if anyone out there knows the best way to transfer super 8 to VHS? This should be a new thread I guess.

 

thanks again.

thinking of buying the canopus 110. i guess you have to get an adapter if you have a 4pin firewire on your
computer. optor, was that true with the canopus 100?

thanks for the great info on settings, bitrate, etc. if i follow you with nero and mainconcept combo , can i contact you for more advice? e-mail? meanwhile am i right that you are editing the avi on nero and then encoding to mpeg-2 with mainconcept? how do you like nero?

p.s seems that file size is different for dv avi vs. avi??
moonrocks said 12-13 gb is normal for dv avi. optor, you said 2 hours of avi was 150 GB. are these different formats then??

 

A Canopus ADVC-100 or 110 transfers the video to your hard drive as DV-AVI, which is a compressed format. You'll normally get 12-14 GB per hour with DV-AVI. Uncompressed .AVi captures are very large, in the neighborhood of 1 GB per minute.

 

thank you, moonrocks.

dv avi is an accepable starting point, right??


that's what i get from my camcorder.

is it much different qualitativly from uncompressed avi?


optor, what are you importing from?

 

I think DV-AVI is fine. I use a Canopus ADVC-100 for some of my very old, poor quality VHS tapes that my Hauppauge mpeg2 capture card struggles a bit with and I get great results.

It's always a trade-off between quality and convenience. Uncompressed .AVI will give you the best quality because you're not compressing the video, but you end up with huge files. DV-AVI is a nice balance between quality and convenience. With a good analog to digital device like the Canopus you'll have no problem with quality.

 

i guess you have to get an adapter if you have a 4pin firewire on your
computer. optor, was that true with the canopus 100?

thanks for the great info on settings, bitrate, etc. if i follow you with Nero and mainconcept combo , can i contact you for more advice? e-mail? meanwhile am i right that you are editing the AVI on Nero and then encoding to mpeg-2 with mainconcept? how do you like Nero?

p.s seems that file size is different for dv AVI vs. AVI??
moonrocks said 12-13 gb is normal for dv AVI. optor, you said 2 hours of AVI was 150 GB. are these different formats then??

You'll need a firewire adapter to use any of the Canopus products
You can certainly contact me for advice on how I processed m video
(jmb1557@hotmail.com) I captured using the Canopus 100 (which bypassed Macrovision) using Nero 6 Ultra capturing software. I'm fairly certain this was uncompressed AVI, only because the file size was huge. Again, for two hours I had a 150 gig file. I then plugged it into Mainconcept and using various tweaks I got it down to 4.37 gig, just the right size to add to Nero Ultra 6 and burn a perfect copy to a Memorex DVD. I'm not up on all the media to burn. I know Memorex has been great media for VHS... so if I spend a few bucks more for media (I'm not a penny pincher, I just want good copies) it doesn't bother me. I know that many of us out there are tring to duplicate our family movies with the best quality without breaking the bank, and also without having to go to night school for video editing. Most late model computers, ones that have 2ghz of cpu and 200gig of hard drive, can handle the transfer... but to get that right combo is tricky. Believe me, I've spent many hours, weekends trying to crack this nut. I just want to relate this to anyone else who is interested so maybe they can save themselves a little time, and money, to get a great result. Some of these senior members are on high horses and get irritated when people ask simple questions. They tell them to read the 60 or so pages of forum to find what they are looking for. They shouldn't be responding if they don't want to help. Most of the time their responses are vague... Yes, there are guides, yes these questions have been answered over and over again. But, if you don't want to offer the time to give a poor sap like us a hand in transfering VHS to DVD, than save your precious little minutes of typing and don't respond at all. Anyway... I saw some of the responses out there to some of these poor people looking for help and some of them are rude.
I for one will offer anyone advice, from my experience, if they ask.
Feel free to ask for an more info. I've got the time. I'm sure the seniors do also, they are just busy riding... their high horses that is.

 

"I captured using the Canopus 100 (which bypassed Macrovision) using Nero 6 Ultra capturing software. I'm fairly certain this was uncompressed AVI, only because the file size was huge. Again, for two hours I had a 150 gig file"

A Canopus ADVC-100 doesn't capture uncompressed .AVI. When the video leaves the Canopus box and heads down that firewire cable it's already in the DV-AVI format before it ever touches your PC.

If you're getting a 150 GB file for 2 hours of video from your Canopus ADVC-100 then you aren't using the right software to receive DV-AVI.

For a Canopus device you should use software specifically designed for DV-AVI, like WinDV.

http://windv.mourek.cz/

 

ouch! glad i'm a newbie.

i really appreciate all the info. The forum seems to be a great resource, especially with folks as generous as you all have been.

 

Thanks Moonrocks... I was advised to use WinDV before, but I thought that it was for Intervideo's WinDVD... I should've read more carefully. Providing me with the link helped... since the senior member who gave me the advice didn't do as such. I'll try it. I have plenty of hard drive space, so these large files that I was making wasn't a problem. But maybe I can improve video further with this capturing program. Thanks again. Intervideo WinDVD sucks, btw... Roxio also.