Video capture/editing hardware

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Tue Dec 16, 2003 3:00 am

Newegg's really on the ball: the thing shipped this morning. I should have it working this weekend barring interruptions from the holiday season...or LotR3.

Lonley Driver · Post by **Lonley Driver** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:39 am

I have an ADVC 100 and DV Storm 2 at the moment. I've really got to say that I don't use them really at all for AMV editing.

The ADVC 100 is really just an anaolog<>digital converter, and I find it extremely useful for taking shows off my TIVO or VCR/LD but for AMVs it's easier to just rip the DVDs.

The DV Storm is nice and it comes with a good effects package where you can do certain things a lot easier and a lot better than you can with the Premiere effects package. However, a lot of the effects are similar to the effects already in Premiere, so in many cases you can achieve the same results in Premiere without the Storm. The main attraction to this card is that it does all its effects, and some of Premiere's in real time, so if you're on a tight deadline, you won't need to sit there forever to wait for things to render.

The DV Storm also comes with a hardware MPEG encoder which once again is quicker than software encoding, but you can produce the same, if not better quality with software encoding if you just want to wait longer.

Don't get me wrong, the DV Storm is a great card, but it's probably not going to help you make better AMVs. However, it might help you complete them faster and give you a FEW more effects/filters to play around with.

-David

Lonley Driver · Post by **Lonley Driver** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 11:52 am

Just one quick note. I'm not sure why anyone would really WANT to edit in MPEG2. I can understand merging or cutting MPEG2, but actually editing with MPEG2 is not a good idea and will probably just leave you with a headache. Just my 2...

-David

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 1:20 pm

Lonley Driver wrote:Just one quick note. I'm not sure why anyone would really WANT to edit in MPEG2. I can understand merging or cutting MPEG2, but actually editing with MPEG2 is not a good idea and will probably just leave you with a headache. Just my 2...

I recall that Quu was looking at that M2-Edit software just for the purpose of removing or adding black space to the start and end points of the MPEG2 files that he receives as submissions. Some of us (like, uhh...yours truly

) don't follow the rules to the letter.

I brought it up as a possible dream solution: for cutting clips directly off the DVD (i.e. no ripping needed). Then transcoding those for use in a project. However, I think it's highly unlikely that this package can do that.

I suppose M2-Edit could be used to cut clips after ripping - it does claim to be frame accurate - but we already have no-cost solutions for that.

ErMaC · Post by **ErMaC** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 1:48 pm

You wouldn't be "editing" in MPEG2 per se. Your preview codec is MPEG2, but when you render out the final output you'd do it in Huffyuv, so the only MPEG2 you're dealing with is the source.
The benefit of doing it that way is that you get Realtime response with MPEG2 files, so you can read, preview, scrub, etc all in realtime.

klinky · Post by **klinky** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 1:52 pm

How does this hardware handle IVTC? Can it do IVTC? How would one go about IVTC with a hardware card while maintaining quality?

BogoSort · Post by **BogoSort** » Thu Dec 18, 2003 4:43 pm

Thanks for your input Lonely Driver, and everyone else. I definately agree that the cards themselves don't actually help one make better amvs. The key is that the cards save time during editing, and allow one to have a much better editing flow where their visions of the video flow into the computer with less muss and fuss.

I think my currently decision will be to acquire one of these ADVC100s, since I do actually have need to capture from an analog source, and just buy faster processors and hard drives when I decide that I want faster and better editing capibilities.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 4:27 am

klinky wrote:How does this hardware handle IVTC? Can it do IVTC? How would one go about IVTC with a hardware card while maintaining quality?

If you're referring to the ADVC-100, I don't think it does IVTC. All it does is conversions - either direction - between 29.97 FPS NTSC and 29.97 FPS DV (or the equivalent PAL conversion). There might be an internal IVTC in the prcoess of converting, but it's not something we could access.

I can't say anything about the RT cards; never used one.

TaranT · Post by **TaranT** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 4:30 am

I got this ADVC-100 box working today and it's just like all the reviews have said: just plug it in and go. No software to load other than normal Windows drivers; all options are set by DIP switches on the bottom of the box. The construction quality is excellent and the connectors feel sturdy (although I can't speak to long-term durability).

You'll need an RCA-to-1/8 phono plug adaptor (y-cable) if you want to plug audio into the back rather than the front. Likewise, you'll need your own 6-to-6 1394 cable if you want to plug that into the back. The unit comes with a nice 6-to-4 cable, but the 4-pin jack is on the front. Using that might be awkward depending on your setup.

The quality of the captured video looked very good with deep, rich colors compared to just playing the source on another monitor. Take this comment lightly, though, since I'm not a video expert and these monitors are not calibrated. There is some crackling in the previewed audio that does not show up when the footage is actually captured. It's not really a problem, but it never happened when I captured from the camcorder.

I also tried sending output to a VCR using the print-to-tape feature of Vegas. No problems here, either.

The long-term test will come when I start capturing for my next project. The only issue that concerns me is a possible conflict between the Canopus DV codec embedded in the hardware and the proprietary codec that Vegas uses. Shouldn't be a problem, but there's been some discussion about it on another forum.