Have new ADVC100 - what software do I need?

No, not that long, about in the neighbourhood of 3 to 4 hours, if you use CCE basic, in the 2 pass VBR "mode" (at most)
I guess it is a "balance" the longer the time it takes
to encode, the better the quality gets, you encode fast, quality is poorer, when you encode at CBR, single pass your encoding time is faster, but quality
is less, you must decide, what you think is important.... check out the guides for CCE Basic, TMPGEnc Plus, on the different websites, use google or www.videohelp.com to find them.

 

Thanks - I briefly checked out the sites you suggested and see I have a lot of reading (and learning) to do. Thanks for the pointers.

Joe

 

The "handy" thing is, by these guides you can decide what's "understandable" is for yourself, i, most of the time choose guides, that need few tools, and
if possible, the ones that are free of pay, but for a good encoder (CCE basic) you have to pay
It's also good, to start simple, you can over see better, (when) something goes wrong. Later you can expand to any extra features.

 

I don't have much new to add, but I can confirm some things. I have a ADVC100 as well. I have used it to record both home recorded and commercial VHS tapes. I use Pinnacle Studio 8. I did not encounter any problems with the quality of my captured video. I haven't burned any of this to DVD, but I have made VCD and SVCD discs, both of which played and looked fine on a JVC DVD player.
One thing I will add, is that the Canopus box has a (undocumented) feature to remove Macrovision copy protection form the incoming signal. This is accomplished by holding down the button to generate the test color bars (see your documentaion) until the colorbars have disappeared. The macrovision will be stripped off the incoming signal until the unit is powered down. Then you'll have to repeat the process. Since macrovision does reduce the quality of the video signal, you may want to try this.

 

Yes, most of the time, when MacroV. is used on a pre recorded tape, there's almost no contrast in the picture anymore, holding down the silver button for approx. 16 seconds, and then selecting the analog mode again, with this same button, removes MacroV.
provided, that all dip switches are off, on the bottom of the ADVC100, or only number 1 "on" if you
have PAL for tv system, in your area. also using the mini din s-video connection, should improve picture quality some more, (bleeding colors will be less)

 

Update - 2 steps forward, one back.

First the ADVC100 works & captures fine, Canopus tech support said take the ADVC100 with the video camera still plugged into it and plug the ADVC output directly into my TV and see if there was any loss of brightness. I did, there wasn't. Downloaded the latest Nvidea Geforce2 drivers and they new drivers allowed me to tweak just about everything and that solved that issue.

Meanwhile, still trying editing and encoding software. Found out my Plextor 708A DVD burner is allergic to Memorex DVD disks - it chokes on them. Plextor tech support was great - they pointed me to the recommended DVD's for their burner. Also seems some DVD writing software doesn't recognize the Plextor.

Still haven't decided on a very basic video editing package. Quite honestly, MS Movie Maker does everything I need in terms of capturing, editing, adding titles, etc. and I can use save everything as avi files. Plus it's free but sooo sloooow. Tried Ulead Studio 8 and found its editing was far from intuitive for this newbie.

I liked TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 for encoding to MPEG files. Seemed solid and was easy to use. Haven't tried CCE basic yet. I assume TMPGEnc DVD 1.5 or 2.5 will work OK with my Plextor drive (my 14 day trial expired before I replaced the Memorex DVD disks).

Some folks have said good things about Pinnacle 8 but they don't have a trial download period. Ditto for Canopus LetsEdit

Still learning, reading, trying and looking for the right combination. I just want to thank you all for your suggestions. I wouldn't have gotten this far without them.

JoeP

 

Hi - need advice again. In my last post I said I heard some good things about Pinnacle 8 but after seeing and reading many of the over 200 negative reviews on Amazon, I definatley was turned off on Pinnacle.

I did read some much better reviews on Sony's Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0. and the price fits in my budget. However the trial version is crippled.

Anyone have any experience with Screenblaster? Remember, I want quality capturing and rendering to DVD but my editing needs are basic for my home VHS videos.

Many thanks in advance.
Joe

 

Hi, Joep42, so you still want a one application solution i guess ? this will be difficult, because
there will always be a area, where it "lacks"...
you may pm me, with the details you want to do for your "project" and i'll make you a guide.
Did you allready make some DVD video's ?
(maybe study some existing dvd menu's and guess how
they did it..)

The thing is, if you want "it" to be perfect, you
select different applications for capture, edit,
encode, author, (nobody said it would be easy, that's only in the advertizing of crap software)

If you can keep it simple, you should, because it's nice to see some results..fast ! so... a fast encoder like CCE Basic comes in handy, and perfect edits... you don't notice them ! effects.... must fit your "feature film" so they "blend" in..

You can start with making a "still" from your feature,
and make it the background of your menu's you can place menu button's on strategic places, or make a button of that part or text, i guess this is where
your creative skills kick in...
So.... one application does limit you being creative,
Check out (on www.dvdhelp.com) the features of:
CCE Basic, DVDLab, maybe ScenalizerLive for capture,
but WinDV will also do.