Quote:
Originally Posted by Brizio
Good morning everyone
I intend to save 5 tapes with family memories in Video8 format recorded with a Canon ES50 camcorder as master and then edit them. I have two options:
2012 iMac 27”
Connect the Canon to the Canopus ADVC-55 converter (which I already have), then with Firewire 400 to 800 adapter and then Apple Firewire 800 to Thunderbolt adapter (35+10 €) connect it to the Mac.
2015 HP spectre x360 laptop win 10
Connect the Canon to the USB port of the laptop via Hauppauge USB2 Live converter (50 €)
The cost would then be the same. What's the best choice? Which software to use for the acquisition? In which format to save the Master? Any other suggestions?
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The Mac option is messy. ADVC boxes are lossy 1990s tech, yet sadly one of the only items that Mac supports. It will bake in errors, and leave you with degrades quality video. Mac was always very anti-video (SD era), especially capturing. HD tools are miserable to work with for SD sources.
The HP laptop with Win10 can be fine. There are pathways to success. Just be sure to use a Hi8 camera with line TBC, or it gets messy again, total project failure. Hi8 is a drop-happy format, so lack of frame TBC may be an issue. But with only 5 tapes, try to skip it.
That brings us to another issue. When you skimp on TBCs, the VCR/camera and capture card get even more important. That Hauppauge card is somewhat unstable. Or rather, extremely easy to make unstable. There are other cards that are more forgiving, more stable, when fed semi-stable sources (aka, lacking frame TBC). It's not magic, and (in general) will definitely fail more than not (ie, not a TBC replacement). But to faithfully capture those 5 tapes, and not lose your sanity, you'll want to go down this better path. For example, certain versions of certain Pinnacle cards. (Much like Hauppage, Pinnacle reuses model names/numbers, production changes, so giving out exact model numbers of rendered moot.)
So you plan isn't too far off of being good, just
(1) verify the TBC in the camera -- and get another if not present
(2) get a better card
And, as always, buy it, use it, resell it, quality gear holds value. (Junk if yours forever, and ruined your conversions. Lost money, lousy quality, lose-lose.)
