Product Description

Use ADVC110 to connect all analog and digital video cameras, decks and editing systems. ADVC110 is a portable and easy-to-use digital video converter compatible with Windows and Mac OS computers.

Product Details

• Brand: Canopus
• Model: 77010150100
• Dimensions: 1.65 pounds

Features

• Connects to all widely used DV and analog video equipment
• Compatible with Windows and Mac OS DV editing systems
• Compatible with leading editing and DVD authoring applications includingÊCanopus EDIUS, Canopus Let's EDIT, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Vegas
• Audio-only conversion
• No need to install drivers or any software applications

From the Manufacturer
ADVC110 is the ideal device for capturing and outputting analog video from any FireWire-equipped notebook and desktop computer. There are no drivers to install and ADVC110 does not require a power supply when used with a 6-pin FireWire cable

Intelligent Input/Output
ADVC110's intelligent usability allows for easy setup and connection in any video environment. Front and rear connectors provide analog and DV signal pass-through and ensure that connecting cables is neat and simple.

ADVC110 also features a color bar reference signal generator to further enhance its integration into any video production environment.

Proven DV Codec Technology
At the heart of ADVC110 is Canopus's proprietary DV codec chip, providing the industry's best picture quality preservation during analog-to-DV and DV-to-analog conversion.

Locked/Unlocked Audio Support
Other converters can lose audio/video sync when converting longer segments of video. ADVC110 supports locked audio when converting from analog to digital, assuring perfect audio and video synchronization. ADVC110 also allows conversion of analog audio signals only, when needed.

Long product life
The broadest video equipment and editing software compatibility ensures ADVC110 provides a long product life and a high return on investment.

Customer Reviews

Once you get it going, it works very well
Being a very energenic home movie maker, I have a lot of VCR tapes that I want to transfer to my editing computer. I was looking for a analog to digital converter, and eventually bought the Canopus 110, judging by the excellent user reviews.

The canopus 110 is very simple to use. If you have a firewire port in your computer, then you have all the equipment you need to use Canopus (Well, an editing system helps too!). The canopus has ports on the front and the back, where you plug in the cables from the VCR (or DVD), and then put the firewire cable into the canopus and your computer.

When I got the canopus, it took me about fifteen minutes to get it up and running. I connected the VCR cables in the front, connected the firewire in the back, and presto! Instant power. Canopus was ready to go. I went into my editing system (I use Avid DV express by the way), clicked "auto-configure" for the capture settings, and I was all set to go. That was all I had to do!

From the projects that i've copied onto my system, There is no degeneration or quality loss from the origional product. Canopus transferrs the tape material exactly as it is. If the quality is great, then it will be great on the system. If the quality of the tape is bad, then it will be bad on the system.

So far, all's good and wonderful right? Well, Canopus has a dark little secret that the manufacturer doesn't tell you. Canopus 110 has a small chip built in that detects when you're trying to transfer copyrighted material (such as a tape of a movie). If it detects it, a small red light comes on, and the footage you copy is black (As one review site said (in a very annoying way), "That'll teach you!"). If you have old movies that you want to copy to a DVD for personal use, this is bad news.

However, there is a way past this security feature, and it's built into the system. When you first turn Canopus on, simply press the select button down for roughly twenty seconds. Now the system will ignore copyright concerns, and you can copy all the movies you want, until you turn Canopus off. However, I don't recommend using this feature for illegal means.

All in all, Canopus is a very usefull gadget. I highly recomend it.

Flawed
I found the Canopus ADVC110 to be unusable on older (c. 10 years) Hi8 tapes. Symptomatically, there would be times where the frames would jump around, or black out entirely for parts of a second in the ADVC110 digital output stream. What seems to be happening is that the sync signal on the edge of older Hi8 tapes may be degraded, and the codec of the ADVC110 is not robust against such degradation; it loses sync on the frame, or gives up entirely and blacks out the output. Changing the fixed sync dip switch on the ADVC110 did not help it. (The same problem also occurred digitizing an old VHS tape). I put the same Hi8 tapes through the pass-through digitizer on a Sony DCR-HC32, and it had no problems whatsoever. The ADVC110 codec also produces more contrasty images than the Sony DCR-HC32; details in shadow are lost; frames are grainier; noise in the tape signals are amplified into subtle rainbow waves on the ADVC110, not so noticeable on the Sony, which seems to have a more linear codec. So, for a little more money you can buy a camcorder with more robust A to D conversion and better image than the ADVC110.

Canopus ADVC110 and iMovie
I've been using the Canopus ADVC110 with an Intel iMac using iMovie to edit a wedding video from a rather poor VHS recording. The 110 did a great, hassle free job of cleaning up the video. I hooked it up right out of the box using the supplied cables with no external drivers or software and in 10 minuets or less I was converting the video to a digital recording. When I opened iMovie it immediately recognized the Canopus with no problems. I ordered the power supply with mine, but if you use the supplied 6 pin Firewire cable you shouldn't need the power supply. I'm using component connection between the Canopus and the VCR and you do have another choice of using S-video connectivity. My only complaint about this product is that it doesn't have a power on/off switch so the unit is always on unless you pull the plug. I highly recommend this product especially if you use an Apple computer.