THE ADVC-100 HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THE NEW ADVC-110
Introduction
The Canopus ADVC-100 is an analog-to-digital converter that transforms your analog video (S-VHS, Hi8, etc.) to DV in realtime. This product is ideal for the videographer who films, or who has filmed, using an 8mm or Hi8 camera and wants to create digital footage. This is also ideal for the individual who has "mountains" of old VHS tapes (don't we all) and wants to convert them to digital.
Canopus claims you can do all this "...in one simple step". Rarely do you find a product that deliver on what it claims. In this instance, however, Canopus hits the mark. This product does exactly what it says, nothing more, nothing less. And this is achieved simply and easily. Let's take a look...
Opening the box
Once you've opened the box you'll find it contains four items: the ADVC-100 device, a IEEE 1394 DV cable (4 pin-6 pin), a AC adapter and a Video cable (S-Video/Composite). No software is included as there is nothing to load and nothing to configure. All the "smarts" are contained within the device. The ADVC-100 utilizes Canopus' s proven DV CODEC which you'll find in all of their capture cards. You simply plug it in and it works!
You'll also find included in this package a user manual containing about 20 pages of information describing setup and operation. When hooking up the converter to my computer and VCR I found this to be almost unnecessary as setup was very intuitive. Section 2 of the manual has more interesting information as it describes the various DIP switch settings and provides an explanation of the various features offered by the unit.
VHS to DV Test:
Initially, I wanted to copy some footage from my VCR to computer. Preparing the ADVC-100 to do this was a snap. I powered up the unit by plugging in the power cord to the back of the device and the other end to an electrical wall outlet. There are two indicator lights on the front panel. One indicates "Digital In" and the other "Analog In". By default, "Analog In" is selected but this can be changed by setting DIP switch setting 5 to the "On" position. For this test, the "Analog In" was lit indicating that the ADVC-100 was ready to receive analog video.
I used the included 4-pin to 6-pin 1394 DV cable to connect the ADVC-100 to the Firewire port on my computer. The manual suggests plugging the 6-pin connector into the back of the unit but since my computer also uses a 6-pin port (typical of most 1394 Firewire cards) I simply reversed the cable plugging the 6-pin connector into my computer and the 4-pin connector to the front of the ADVC-100. This was perfectly fine as the DV port on the front panel can be used for either input or output.
I then connected one end of my Analog cable (not included) to the Video and Audio In connectors located on the front of the ADVC-100 and connected the other end to the Video and Audio Out of my VCR. I then opened up my video editing software (for this test I used Pinnacle's StudioDV video editing software) and began capturing.
Except when using Canopus capture cards, the ADVC-100 does not support device control so I had to manually start and stop the capture process. For those of you who use cards such as Canopus's EZDV, DVRaptor or DVRaptorRT, this would be an excellent choice for doing analog conversion.
The capture process went smoothly. I captured 10 minutes of VHS footage (...Toy Story... See note below on Macrovision protection) that produced 2.23GB of 720x480 formated DV (.AVI ) at 29.97 fps. There were no lost frames and all footage came over as a single clip. Once captured, I was able to use my editor to create clips and apply transitions and effects. What could be easier!
The film quality good. Certainly not DV quality but not appreciably worse than the VHS footage from which it came.
DV to VCR Test:
For this test, I wanted to take some footage captured originally from a digital camera, convert it to analog and copy it to VHS tape on my VCR. I used footage originally shot at my daughter's wedding using a Canon GL1. Again, for this test I used Pinnacle's StudioDV editing software, although I could have used Adobe Premiere or any of the other leading DV editing software programs.
Before beginning the copy, I had to move the Analog cables from the front panel to the back. The front panel of the ADVC-100 handles video input while the back panel handles output. Also, I was required to depress the Input Select button located on the front panel to change from Analog In to Digital In since I was taking ditigal film "in" to the ADVC-100, converting it to analog, then outputting it to my VCR. My output device could very easily have been a monitor or 8mm/Hi8 camera as well.
Again, I was not disappointed. After initiating the output for my digital footage and pressing the Record button on my VCR the conversion took place with a hitch. And the quality was... digital!
The ADVC-100 utilized a feature called "Locked Audio" which assures perfect audio and video synchronization. I experienced no sound/picture delays or offsets.
Wrapping It Up
For easy of use, the ADVC-100 performs very well. Moving clips back and forth between analog to digital is a breeze. Picture quality and sound is more than acceptable. There is full support for S-Video, composite and DV devices. All-in-all, the ADVC-100 packs a pretty good punch for an extremely affordable product. Here is a summary of features with comparisons to leading competitors:
This product would be an excellent choice for the person with a DV only capture card wanting to convert VHS, 8mm and Hi8 video to digital. It's also a good choice for those wishing to create VHS tapes from previously created DV footage.
Canopus already has the reputation of producing quality video capture cards; the ADVC-100 is just another weapon in their arsenol of digital solutions.
Macrovison Protection:
When Macrovision copy-protection is detected by the ADVC-100, the following occurs:
• The brightness and contrast for both analog and DV output are lowered.
• The status light blinks.
If there are applications where you must capture a Macrovision copy-protection clip, we found that this can be done by doing the following:
• Press and hold the Input Select button on the front panel until you see the color bars appear.
• Keep the button pressed (about 15 seconds) until the color bars disappear. (Note: with some capture cards the color bars may not appear. In any case, keep the button pressed for the full 15 seconds.
• Macrovision copy-protection is now disabled until you switch off the ADVC-100. |
