Hi. I know this has been bantered before, but thought I would ask the question based on my needs and objectives. 1. I simply want to preserve my home movies (Hi8) to DVD before the tapes begins to degrade. I am not concerned about having fancy editing capabilities...I am looking for something rather user friendly for a non-techie type. 2. I would like to at least maintain the same quality video/audio as the original source. 3. I do not want to expend exhorbitant amounts of $$. Honestly, before I came across this site, I was about to purchase the Plextor 402U, but some comments have me questioning this choice. Although the Canopus product (AVCS-100)is not easily accessible where I am in Canada, and will cost over double the Plextor (Plextor $198 vs the Canopus at $445 Cdn$). Given my basic needs, any advice on which unit/software combo is most appropriate? Thanks in advance. Cheers. PC (custom built by brother-in-law): -AMD 1.6 ghz -upgrading to 120 gig maxtor hd -lg dvd burner -will purchase pci adapter with USB 2.0 and perhaps with firewire.
Well you are Looking at the wrong places if the ADVC-100 costs $445.. I live in Canada also and You can get one of these devices for under $300 if you look on E-bay and you can save even more money if you get something like the Canopus ACEDVio card which does the same thing as the ADVC-100 accept it is a Internal PCI Card and I have seen these for as Low as $169 US which is under $250 Canadian... the Canopus ACEDVio will produce the same quality as the ADVC-100 but it is a Lot cheaper and just as easy to use...If you want me to Post some links to these devices that you can get for much cheaper than $445 then let me know and I"ll post some Links to e-bay auctions were you can get one of these devices for much cheaper....Cheers
Minion, thanks, I would certainly appreciate the links to Cdn sites. I do not want to deal with potential customs/lack of warranty issues from products shipped from the USA. I used the Canopus website to find authorized dealers in my area and checked their websites to find the $445 going price. I do like the flexibility of having an external unit so I can lend it to family. That said, I'm not completely discounting the option of an internal unit. Also noticed this weekend that Costco has the Plextor for $189. But I keep coming back to my original dilemna: is the Plextor unit really that bad for my basic needs, or is it the software that goes with it? I have access to other software packages including Premiere (sp?)if need be, although not sure I want to learn the complexity of this software. There are other options. Thanks.
I have a Hitachi Hi8 camcorder that is on the blink. When I try to play the tapes that are up to 9 years old, I get jittering, jumpy images. I tried to play back the tapes on another hi8 camcorder, but there seems to be a timing/tracking problem. My ultimate goal is to record the tapes to DVD. Is there a hi8 player someone could suggest that would play the tapes and is able to adjust for the timing issue? I have the computer setup to record, but at this point I need something that can play these tapes. Thank you.
Minion, haven't heard from you re: the links to Cdn sites so I picked up the Plextor at Costco. Hope to have my machine reconfig this weekend with new HD, DVD burner, more memory etc. Then hope to try the Plextor in the coming weeks. Will report back on results.
Sorry But I don"t use Canadian sites for Buying Computer stuff cuz it is Far too expensive, You might not get a good warrenty buying from the US but when you get it for half the Canadian it price sort of makes up for it...Cheers
I guess I misunderstood your post. Appreciate any links that you think are a good deal for those products. Costco is easy going about returns. Thanks.
Yes Costco is great about returns, I have bought stuff there and have returned it a year later without the original Box and they still gave me a refund.... I do most of my Computer shopping on e-bay and you can find some pretty awesome deals there, Like 8x DVD burners for under $125 and Dual Layer DVD burners for under $160 and I just picked up a New "ATI Radeon 9600 128mb" for $48 ,As long as you buy from poeple who have a high possitive feedback rateing you will be safe and ebay will cover up to I think $400 if you get ripped off..... Cheers
