Hi everyone. I have a fantastic Canopus ADVC-300 which I have used in the past to convert old 8mm film from a sony camera equipped with s-video out so that I can make DVDs using Studio 9. It's done a great job everytime.
However, I've today tried to start converting some really old home films that I still have on VHS video. I am using a standard player and a scart socket with converter for composite cables. These composites are then fed into the canopus unit. I did try using s-video (the scart socket converter has a s-video out feed) but that just gave me black and white filme (I tried changing the s-video cable but the same problem occurred).
Now, when I do capture the video, the sound and film is fairly appalling. There are breaks in the sound (similar to the old days when you had a damaged video tape which was cerated along the bottom edge leading to drop outs in sound and constant attempts at auto-tracking). I've tried changing some of the dip switches on the box but I'm not really sure what they do as I'm not too technical. Either way, it didn't make too much difference and I can't get my films to any kind of good quality. I've even tried 3 different applications (studio 9, Adobe premier and nero) to see if that helps but it doesn't.
What I'd like to know is has anyone else out there managed to get good quality vhs transfers just using the video players scart out socket and some composite cables? Would you mind sharing the settings you had?
If I need to approach this another way or use alternate equipment your comments and pointers would be most welcome. Like I say, I don't understand why I got such fantastic results from my old 8mm camera but not from a vhs player.
Thank you. Peter.
:confused:
1. vhs cannot feed a svideo signal , which is why you got b&w.
2. there is a new firmware for 300 , info here http://forum.canopus.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=207736&page=&view=&sb=5&o=&vc=1
3. set bank 1 switch 8 so that the PC can control the settings
4. status light : does it change to red when capturing the vhs tape ?
if it does , the advc300 believes it is seeing a macrovision signal.
Thanks for the information Gary. Have tried those things already (including firware upgrade) but it's still a problem. Have tried different vhs films to ensure it isn't the film and also different players.
I'm wondering now if it's the scart output that might be the problem. Has anyone come across this before? I'm hoping to borrow an older type machine from a friend which only has rca composite outputs (rather than scart) to see if that makes a difference.
As always, any further input or advice is gratefully received.
scart to composite/audio ( 3 x phono ) shouldn't be a problem.
Problem may be down to the fact that the tapes are not being replayed on the machine that created them.
A fix might be to get hold of a svhs playback deck with tbc , which can stabilise it's output.
A second trick , which may sound daft , is to have the vhs recorder connected to an aerial and tuned into a channel before you replay the vhs ..... it may use the aerial feed as a sync signal , and be better .......
keene can supply a composite->svideo converter for about £6.00 , works well , and sits inline http://www.keene.co.uk/pages/cat/12ada/12F.html