will Canopus ADVC100 be useless after all Hi8's are converted?

If I go ahead and buy a Canopus converter, will there be any benefit to having it after I convert my two dozen or so Hi8's to DVD?
I have the option to use a friends Digital 8 camcorder instead (my previous post),which I think is supposed to work pretty well, but I'm still confused on what additional software/hardware I'd need.

 

Well the Canopus ADVC-100 can also be used to Capture VHS and Lazer disks and TV shows and Satalite TV or any Analogue or digital video source you have....

The Software that you will need for Putting your Hi8 or any Analogue source to DVD are first the Capture software, I would suggest something like "Scenalyzer Live" for Captureing the DV AVI format files to your Hard drive...
Hopefully you don"t have to do any editing as Most good DV Editors can cost quite a Bit..

After captureing your DV AVI files to your Hard drive you will need to use a Good Quality Mpeg encoder to encode your DV AVI files to Mpeg2 for DVD...

I suggest something like the "MainConcept Encoder" but "Tpgenc" will work just as well it just takes MUCH longer...
After you have encoded your DV AVI files to Mpeg2 for DVD you will then need to use a DVD Authoring Program so you can add the Chapters and Menu"s and to author the DVD...
I suggest something like "DVDLab" as it is very easy to use but makes very nice looking DVD"s....

I guess that"s it!!
I suppose you can use a Digital Camcorder to transfer your HI8 Tapes, the Quality will probably not be as good as the ADVC-100 would produce, I guess you should try it out and see how it looks.....

Good Luck

 

Thanks once again for your help. I can't tell you how nice it is to avoid mistakes before making them!

I didn't even think about VHS. I guess I could transfer all my daughters disney movies to DVD. Would the Canopus device bypass any security, or do old VHS tapes even have it?
Also, is there much difference between the ADVC100, and the ACEDVio?
Finally, if I DO use the camcorder method, would it take the place of the capture software AND the capture device? That might be a pretty inexpensive way to go, and probably won't require as much "computer power." I guess I would only have to buy a firewire card and an MPEG encoder?

 

Some VHS Tapes will Have Macrovision protection but you can buy a Video stabilizer for about $20-$30 that will take Care of that and there is some sort of Trick you can do with the ADVC-100 that disables the Macrovision so you can Capture Retail VHS tapes....

The differances between the ADVC-100 and the ACEDVio are the ADVC-100 is an external Device with it"s own power supply and connects through a firewire port on your PC , and The ACEDVio is an Internal PCI Card but has most of the Same Inputs and outputs as the ADVC-100 and has DV Firewire Ports also and Analogue Outputs so you can output to a VCR or TV set to preview the Captured Video on a TV set.(Monitors display Video differantly than TV sets)
They Both use the Same DV Compression Chip and have the same Audio Lock Feature so you never go out of Sync ..
So they are allmost the same in Capibilities accept that one is Internal and one is External and the ACEDVio can be found for quite a Bit Cheaper....

You would still need Capture Software to Capture the Video and a Mpeg encoder and a DVD authoring Program to put the Files on to DVD...
I think have a Free Capture Utility that I can send you if you get stuck without a Capture program..
Even if useing the Camcorder method you will still need Capture Software....

You need Quite a Bit of Computer Power for Mpeg encodeing because if your PC is too slow it can take Literally days to encode a Movie, You should also have a Pretty Fas Hard drive because DV AVI files can take up to 15gb per hour of Video ,so it is Good to have a second Drive for Captureing Video....

Cheers

 

Quick question about this process, you don't mind.

If obtaining the absolute best image quality caused you to want to avoid the DV encoding stage of this process - what hardware and software would you use?

Thanks

 

I don"t really understand your Question....
The Native format that a DV Camcorder or the ADVC-100 produces are DV AVI files so these Files are the Highest Quality files you will have....

You can Capture Directly to Mpeg2 useing certain Capture Programs but the Quality will not be Nearly as good as if you were to encode the DV AVI files to Mpeg2 useing a Good Mpeg encoder....
Mpeg capture Programs are not very efficient so you will get Huge Files with lower Quality so you might only get 60 minutes on a DVD, But if you were to Capture to the Native DV format and then used a Good Encoder to encode the Files you will get Much better quality and over 2 hours on a DVD....

So if Quality is the Most important thing then it is better to do it the Long way.....

Cheers

 

Thanks Minion,

I was just wondering if there was a good hardware/software option that allowed you to get to mpeg by using a higher quality intermediate formate that didn't have the compression and artifacts of 25Mb/s DVI...some thing that maybe used huffyuv or MJPEG?

 

Well DV is a Better and Newer compression Format than MJPEG and HuffYUV is basicly a reworked version of the Microsoft YUV Codec which is Uncompressed YUV...

You can use the ADVC-100 to capture to these Formats useing a Software codec but you would be basicly be RE/De Compression the Video signal to the other formats in real time, much the same way you would be doing if you were doing Analogue Capture with an Analogue Capture device and Probably wouldn"t produce any Better Quality...

Canopus Makes a Couple Very Good Quality Mpeg2 Hardware Capture devices like the "Canopus MpegPro EMR" which capture directly to Mpeg2 useing Hardware Mpeg compression but they are pretty expensive at about $400+ but the Quality is subperb....

You could also go Cheap and just get a Plain $50 Capture card and Capture Analogue but there are Inherant problems Like Quality Problems and Audio and Video Sync problems and all compression has to be done by software so you need a pretty Fast PC and a LOT of Disk Space.....

Cheers

 

Thanks Minion,

Very useful info. I appreciate it.

Regards

 

Here is my situation - please help. I have two software editors Adobe Premiere (no experience with this) and Pinnacle Studio. I have a Sony DV Video Camera, but the DV input has been damaged and wont download to my Firewire PCI card.

If I were to purchase the Canopus and use it for transferring my DV tapes (use my analog connection on my Sony since my DV doesnt work) , old HI 8 tapes (downloaded from my old Hi8 Camcorder), and VCR Video tapes, would I need to encode them to MPEG or would these software packages do it for me?

I dont understand the encoding part. When I previously used my DV connection to download to Pinnacle to make DVD movies, I dont remember encoding anything.

 

Yes Both Adobe Premier and Pinnacle Studio 8/9 have Mpeg2 encodeing Functions....But a standalone encoder will Produce better quality with lower File sizes so you can get more Video on a DVD....