Does Canopus ADVC-300 work with Premiere Creative Cloud?

[Oliver Elmes]

Hi,

I've trying to get my Canopus ADVC 300 to work with my windows 10 machine.

Device manager tells me I have the right drivers. I turn on the Canopus and hear a reassuring noise from Windows 10 to tell me something has been turned on and recognised but when I run the latest Premiere (CC) I can't get anything from it. I've changed the settings to 'Canopus' in the capture settings.

I've tried other software such as Virtual Dub, but still nothing.

Fire wire port is made by Syba.

Any help, much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Ollie

[lordsmurf]

Try WinDV.

Do note that the ADVC DV boxes are low quality, and some people online make false claims about its abilities. The ADVC-300 is actually the worst model of the units, with 50, 55, 100, and 110 being better. The 300 has a very weak line TBC that actually often makes quality worse, as well as filters that are never truly "off". The 50/100 lines do not make quality worse internally, like the 300 does.

There are better cards, that will work better for you.

[Oliver Elmes]

Thanks, yeah I've noticed ADVC 300 is not popular on this forum.

I've actually just fixed the problem by following this advice on the drivers
https://forum.grassvalley.com/forum/...and-windows-10

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, it's about as popular as any other 1990s tech. Dial-up modems, anybody?

Adobe probably makes the best NLE out there, and I've used Premiere since version 5. Not CS5, but 5, from the early 90s. It simply has too much bloat for quality capture, with no dropped frames. You've vastly better off "capturing"/transferring DV in WinDV, Scenalyzer, etc, then simply importing the clip to Premiere.

[Oliver Elmes]

Ok, thanks.

I've got another machine that I run a Matrox RTX100 with windows 98 and Premiere CS2 so I'll try WinDV on that and see how it goes.

I spoke too soon with the other setup... stopped working already!

[lordsmurf]

RTX100 was a nice card for the day.
Win98 = yikes, I'd only use XP.
CS2 was pretty decent, I used it for years, still loaded onto my oldest system.

What exactly are you trying to do? There may be far better and easier methods.

[Oliver Elmes]

My mistake, it's Windows XP! My new machine is Windows 10.

I have a digitising business and I'm just trying to get 2 machines up and running and as I type, they are both running. Woo hoo!

I've been doing this for since 2012 now (mainly with the Matrox) but as I'm looking at the ADVC 300 capture, I really can't notice anything bad about the quality. If I have time, I'm going to capture the same tape with the Matrox and upload a side by side comparison.

Watch this space!

[lordsmurf]

That Matrox is also DV (or MPEG). So it won't look different. A better non-DV card (ie, not old 90s tech) will look better. There have been many quality lossless capable cards in the past 20 years, especially in the mid/late 2000s. The best cards are from the 2000s.

[Oliver Elmes]

Could you recommend any?

[lordsmurf]

Tell me more about your typical sources (and details therein).

What OS?
Noting that XP/7 best, 8/10/11 has issues with narrow paths to success.

[Oliver Elmes]

So a mixture of VHS (composite), mini DV and hi8 (both mini DV and Hi8 deck with firewire)

I do have a video player with an HDMI output actually.

Running windows 10.

[dpalomaki]

Quote:

I spoke too soon with the other setup... stopped working already!

A couple notes that may or may not apply:
- some NLEs have dropped IEEE1394/firewire/iLink support in their recent versionsin
- some NLEs require a precise preset profile to capture from a source
- system updates may have restored the newer drivers
- cards based on the TI chip set were usually the most reliable for firewire capture.

in general For consumer analog video sources such as Video8 and VHS capturing from s-video outputs will provide better results than capturing from composite. SVHS and Hi8 players usually have s-video outputs. Firewire is most appropriate for MiniDV and DV sources.

The BMD DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K provides a reasonably product for capture from HDMI and SDI sources on a Win10 machine. I've use BMD's Analog-to-SDI converter for capturing from good SD sources.

[Hushpower]

Quote:

cards based on the TI chip set were usually the most reliable for firewire capture.

I have my doubts about this now. My very recent experience with Win 11 is that my Startech FW card (TI-based) was as dead as a maggot on install, even with the legacy driver. My elcheapo FW card from Amazon (VIA-based, has worked like a charm since install).

More info preferencing VIA cards from David Knarr's site:

https://www.studio1productions.com/A...Firewire-1.htm

[dpalomaki]

Quote:

I have my doubts about this now.

My experience during the hay day of firewire-supporting MiniDV camcorder file transfer (15+ years ago) was that TI chip sets worked reliably, older VIA chip sets (especially on MBs) were more problematic. Later VIA chips sets worked. All that dates to WIN 7 and before. MS has tried to kill off Firewire, as have many PC makers, so it is not surprising that new issues have arisen if TI did not keep up with new generation BIOS and OS.

Interesting that MS finally fixed the issue for Win11. (I've not tried it beyond Win10 yet.)

Related I ran into an interesting issue with security camera switching ~20 years ago. The test system and software work well with a "XYZ" board. Then the live system was built using the same model number camera control board it didn't work right. Turns out the board maker substituted a new version of the UART chip, the next generation model (same pin out, same functions, same commands, just that chip's internal processing was much faster). The net result is the hand shaking timing was off and the system went into an error mode. Something similar may be happening with the TI chip sets.

[Oliver Elmes]

Yes, I've seen David Knarr's page before, very in depth and in fact, it was installing the legacy drivers for my firewire card that solved the issue.