Problem: You've got a fairly good digital camera. Your PC seems pretty peppy. You've got a nice editor. Everything is great in the world, right? Wrong. While you have no problem capturing digital footage, you've still got mountains of old VHS tapes and no way to capture them onto your computer. What do you do?
Solution: Enter the Canopus ADVC-50. The "little brother" to the ADVC-100, this device is an analog-to-digital converter that transforms analog video (S-VHS, Hi8, etc.) to DV in realtime.
And like its "big brother", the ADVC-50 is well suited for the videographer who has only a 1394 Firewire capture card but wishes to convert existing VHS tapes or footage from an analog camcorder to digital video.
Opening the box
Simplicity is the name of the game here. No complicated device drivers, no messy cables to deal with, no software of any kind. Just Canopus's proprietary ADVC-50 converter card, 5-1/4" mounting bay, PCI back panel, IEEE 1394 DV cable (6-pin to 4-pin), and ADVC-50 users manual.
The folks at Canopus have made it possible use the ADVC-50 internally in an available PCI slot or, as I prefer, attaching the card to the included mounting bay ("break out box") which then fits conveniently into one of your free 5-1/4" drive bays for easy access to all video cabling. In my view, this is a great feature!
Looking at the front panel of the "break out box" you'll notice inputs for S-Video and composite as well as RCA audio. No analog outputs here... only inputs. In addition, you'll notice a 4-pin DV I/O port that acts as a "pass through" to your IEEE 1394 capture card. This is a very nice touch because now all inputs, whether digital or analog, can be made through this front panel.
However, if you're looking for device control through this DV port -- forget about it. While it is possible to stream digital footage through the port, all cueing and capturing must be done manually. This was a bit of disappointment to us.
The reference guide indicates that device control is possible when using either the Canopus Raptor and EZDV cards but in our testing we were unsuccessful. After speaking with the technical staff at Canopus, they confirmed that device control is currently unavailable but should be possible at some future date.
Putting it through the test:
Set up was straightforward and easier. Installing the ADVC-50 into one of our open 5-1/4" drive bays took no time at all. However, I was unable to use the included 6-pin to 4-pin connector when making the "pass through" between my ADVC-50 and Firewire card because both connections require a 6-pin connector. A minor distraction. After closing up my computer I was ready to begin capturing footage.
For this evaluation, I connected a standard VCR to the ADVC-50 using composite and RCA (yellow, red, white) cables. I wanted to copy some footage from a VHS tape to computer. There was no need to power up the unit as it receives all power from the computer. I simply made the connections.
I opened up my video editing program (for this test I used Pinnacle's Studio 7), set it to capture mode, pushed the "play" button on my VCR, the Capture button within Studio and began capturing footage! Noting magical, nothing mysterious, it just started capturing and converting my anolog source material to digital video!
Wrapping It Up
For easy of use, the ADVC-50 couldn't be better. Simply attach your analog device and begin streaming. Picture quality and sound is more than acceptable. There is full support for S-Video, composite and even DV devices (minus the device control, of course). Here is a summary of features with comparisons to leading competitors:
Like its big brother, The ADVC-50 utilizes a feature called "Locked Audio" which assures perfect audio and video synchronization. During my test, I experienced no sound/picture delays or offsets.
In summary, this product does exactly what it claims to do -- convert analog footage to digital video -- nothing more, nothing less. I believe this product would be an excellent compliment to any person who has a DV only capture card and who wants to convert VHS, 8mm and Hi8 video to digital. |
