VHS Tapes to DVD

I don"t Know Much about the "Snazzy" but it doesn"t sound very Promising....The only Snazzy products that I have heard of were quite Old and from what I heard about them they were not very good at all...I"m sure they aren"t even in the same League as Canopus Products....

Cheers

 

Snazzi distributor's homepage: http://micronica.com.au/catalog/snazzi/
PCI card $286 AU
USB dev $336 AU
For those prices, you could get three PVR-150's, or a Canopus ADVC-110.

 

Taking a look at the specs-
Usb bus powered- hmmmmmm, not sure how good that is.
Audio spec is pcm wave- hmmmm, where is ac3 dolby support?
No details on the chip inside- I'd try to find out the chip maker and dig into some details about it.
Intervideo Windvd creator- hmmmm, not the best just ok. There are better encoders, editors, and authoring solutions.
Muuvee software- hmmm, why do they insist on goofy naming conventions?
Price- way overpriced! There are the Hauupauge or Plextor devices priced at more reasonble levels.

ok, sorry, looked at wrong one.
At any rate a good idea is to dig into the chip(s) that are in these products and find some technical info.

 

Thanx a lot for your replies. I'm better with motherboard chipsets than with capture cards chipsets, but i'm slowly learning. I do not consider Canopus ADVC 100 such a great product, after having used it. I think it has problems with saturated images (like the ones i get on cable over here).
I haven't had the chance to test the ADVC 300 yet. Is it significantly better?
Anyway, what i'd be more interested in is a device to transfer my VHS tapes to my hard drive in UNCOMPRESSED format, not DV (which has a little bit of compression). Ordinary TV tuner can do uncompressed avi, but they have 10-bit converters, while the ADVC 100 has a 24bit converter (much higher quality picture).
What device is suited for uncompressed (raw avi, pcm sound) capture(transfer) of VHS to AVI?

 

None. Your hard drive probalby won't be able to sustain the datarate needed for uncompressed avi, especially at larger aspects.
Use Huffyuv, or the native DV to capture/transfer.
Software controls audio, so use PCM if you must.

 

I'm pretty sure it will sustain (2xHDD in RAID mode for speed).

Are you saying there are no 24-bit capture cards that will capture uncompressed?

 

I don't understand what all the hoopla is about. This is what I do. I have my vcr connected via rca jacks to Dazzle to the computer via usb. I use Pinnacle v.9 and play the vcr tape and record on Pinnacle. Then I can edit and play with the recording as much as I want. Then I can write it all to DVD.

 

what about the ad on the message page for Video Advantage cards? 169.00 for stand alone like Canopus and others go in DT ports.
Anyone tried them?

 

@ pinkish. Sure there are 24 bit cards. Nobody said you HAD to use compression, but if you're using a DV cam, then you SHOULD be transferring the video directly to the hard drive, not capturing.
If you want 24 bit, professional quality, get this: http://www.detools.com/shop/PSY/index.html#DC30 pro
Make sure you're sitting down when you get to the price.

 

I'm not even going to look at the price. I know it is out of my class. But just what I thought...You gotta pay if you want quality. Thanks

 

rebootjim, i see what you mean, but i've read a lot about capture cards (tests from different places) and it looks like ALL Pinnacle cards have a problem with sound sync when you record more than 60-70 minutes.

I saw a card (i don't remember the name and i'm not home right now to see the link) that had SDTV-resolution capture and another one (from the same family) that could do SDTV and HDTV-resolution video capture. The SDTV one looked pretty tempting...

What i am looking for is a card that was out in 2004 or so (new model, not old ones), because Pinnacle cards are more likely to fit the 90's... I don't mind paying a higher price if i pay for quality, not marketing. In the end, i only want to make an EXACT copy of a VHS to my hard drive, but in sync even if i have 4-hour long VHS tapes with bad frames and over saturated images (i exagerated for the sake of the discussion).
----

LATER EDIT:

I saw some SD cards but they only have SDI connectors, no RCA or anything like that to connect to a VCR.

bluefish444.com - SD Envy card — $3199
digitalvoodoo.net - SD Flex - $2399
More here: http://www.sharbor.com/catalog/digitalvideo.html

From what i've heard, leave out the Matrox and Pinnacle cards, they are trouble.

 

You can do this a LOT cheaper than those cards then.
Get a Datavideo DTV-1000. Hook it between the VCR and your computer.
Go to it.
For added quality, put a Canopus ADVC-110 (or 300) inline as well.
A TBC and a video processor will do magical things with crappy VHS

 

Thank you for your quick reply.

I dislike the Canopus products - i've had the ADVC 100 and sold it after a month of pain and changing the settings and setup. It has a lot of issues that i've mentioned on this thread mid-2004.

I've not found the Datavideo DTV-1000, what is it? A TBC? Or is it an external capture card?
Anyway, do you have any other ideas besides the Canopus, Matrox, Pinnacle, Dazzle, Snazzi and Plextor products? I'm running out of ideas myself

 

The Datavideo is a hardware video processor amp.
Look here: http://www.datavideo.us/products/tbc_1000_main_page.htm

 

Yep, that's what i've thought. It enhances the image and keep everything in sync, but i still have to use another DEVICE to send data to the computer (like the advc110 you mentioned). What device should i get that is not from any of the mentioned companies in my other post?

 

Huh?
From the site:

 

What i meant is - the datavideo is only a TBC... i need to connect it to something like the ADVC 100 THEN to my computer. I can't connect it directly to a computer.

Your help is much appreciated. My (virtual) setup now looks like:

VHS VCR -> Datavideo TBC 1000 -> some analogue to digital converter -> PC (uncompressed YUV) avi file

What can i use in the 3rd position of my chain? I don't want the ADVC 100 or 300.

 

I don't know why you're so down on the Canopus products. They're some of the best in the world, especially for the price, the ADVC-110 is ideal. Sorry, I can't honestly recommend anything else.

 

Canopus products have a lot of issues, that's why i dislike them. I've tried the ADVC 100 in my computer and other setups as well, it has a lot of problems.
Thank you for your time and your willing to help me. I appreciate that

 

Why don't you tell us what those "issues" are that make you dislike the Canopus products.