Transfer vs. Capture with Canopus ADVC 110 - Final Cut is re-encoding?
 

Hi,

I am currently transferring old home videos to digital. I am wanting to archive them on my hard drive. I am using a Panasonic AG-1980 deck and a Canopus advc110 capture card. My source materials are on VHS-C tapes. I have been messing with Final Cut Express to capture the footage. I have just been experimenting so far. From my understanding, there is a difference between capturing and transferring the DV data from the Canopus. The way I understand it is when I use final cut express to capture the DV from the Canopus, FCE is actually re-encoding the DV signal from the Canopus. Thus, it is encoded twice. How do I transfer the raw DV data from the Canopus to my hard drive? What software should I use? I have seen suggestions for Windows but not for mac. Also, since my source is pretty low quality, would there be any benefit to switching to a lossless format capture (I am not concerned about storage space. It is not a problem.). These tapes are from around 1989-1992 so the video quality is pretty low anyway. Thanks!!!!

John

you are losing quality both by using a Canopus device and using a Mac.
DV is 4:1:1 which is awful
use a Windows PC and capture lossless with Virtualdub
also you should get a external TBC like the datavideo TBC-1000

Thank you! As of right now, mac may be my only option unfortunately. Is there any software that can be used to transfer the raw DV data from the Canopus?