Video capture nerding to follow...

See updated notes on the Canopus ADVC55 and the requirement for a Time Based Corrector (TBC).

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I've spent the last two years playing with a internal (PCI) Winfast TV2000 XP video capture card (+ TV + FM card).

Here are my notes:

• I never really figured out the proper settings for video capture. The quality of video from it was fairly good, if a little blured and washed out.
• I used iuVCR for video capture, capturing to Huffy (lossless) compression and audio capture via my soundcard.
• Aspect ratio of captures never seemed right. Video was always stretched using the default output video, even if captured to the correct video size (720x576 for PAL DVD). Squeezing was required during compression (thus quality loss) to set it right again.
• Often had problems with dropped frames. Some videos would capture direct to 720x576 without problems, others had to capture at 768x576. I could never get it to directly capture at 702x576.
• Audio sync was a problem, but the correct settings in iuVCR fixed this.
• FM fairly useless. Very (computer) hissy output. Won't record directly, need to connection cable from card to your soundcard. Eventually bought a cheap stereo component FM tuner secondhand and used that.
• TV capture OK, software fairly bad but other software is available (freeware etc.). Good for basic PVR. Need a very good TV aerial, reception very bad internally. Never ended up using it. Much better off getting a new Digital Tuner.

I've had the Canopus ADVC55 for the past few weeks and these are my notes on it:

• Audio locked with video, never have sync problems
• Captures to 720x576 DV. Use the same settings for compression to DVD every time, no issues with aspect ratio anymore.
• Is external (firewire) and so I do not have any issues with IRQ sharing.
• Captures direct to a compressed format (same as DV video cameras). As a result captures are technically worse quality than my old Winfast. However the Canopus captures richer and less watched out colours, and sharper images.
• I am seeing a little bit of "double compression" from capturing to a compressed format, then recompressing to MPEG2 DVD, however these effects aren't too visible when watching on a TV. The sharpness of the image more than makes up for the problem.
• Possibly suffers more from the "crap in, crap out" issue you get when capturing VHS. If the input video is particularly noisy, the captured video can suffer a little more from compression artifacts. The Winfast, because it captured a softer and blurred capture, suffered less from this.
• I use WinDV for capture. It's as simple as typing a filename and clicking "capture".
• Audio captures at 48hz 16bit stereo. Perfect for DVD. Uncertain if it's a compressed format but doesn't look like it (looking at spectral analysis).

Overall I'm very happy with the Canopus ADVC55 and highly recommend it if only due to it's ease. I hear the ADVC300 is much better, however it costs three times as much. The ADC300 includes some "video cleaning" chips which improve many common problems with VHS. Much of these problems can be fixed with software after capture (such as with Virtualdub or TMPGEnc filters) with the ADVC55.

If you have questions on how to get the Winfast to capture and convert to DVD properly, don't ask, I'll tell you to buy a Canopus.

Settings and software I use for creating DVDs with the Canopus:

• WinDV for capturing firewire signal from Canopus
• VirtualDub or TMPGEnc for saving WAV file audio
• TMPGEnc for MPEG2 (DVD) compression.
  Source settings:
  • Interlaced
  • Field Order: "B first"
  • Source aspect ratio: "4:3 625 Line (PAL, 704x576)"
  • Arange method: "Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio)"
• TMPGEnc DVD with AC3 Plugin used for DVD creation (with basic menus, usually with no menu and basic track marks).

See this and this for an explaination of why I use the arange method and source aspect ratio that I do. I've tested these settings by comparing the input (VHS) with the output (DVD) on the TV and they're correct.

For those in the know, using the firewire Canopus capture boxes is very similar to using the "pass-through" option on some higher end DV cameras. I'm told that the Canopus typically does a slightly better job than a DV camera.

Others have recommended buying a stand alone DVD recorder. The quality of such recorders has increased massively in the last year or so and I've been very happy with the output I've seen from them. However a good quality one (with hard disk) will set you back around $700. I believe the DV capturing (higher quality than DVD) of the Canopus future proofs it a little for the coming Blue-Ray and HD-DVD and also for dual-layer DVDs.

Hope this was useful. I've spent years trying to get the Winfast right and have never been happier with the ten minutes it took to get the Canopus right.

I'm sicker today than I was the last two days. And yet I'm at work. That's the world we live in. 8 sick days a year. 3 used already, I didn't have much of a choice.

Our local chemist informed us that we cannot get cold tablets without a prescription after 1st March.

I went to the chemist an hour ago (in the city) and they gave me cold tablets no questions asked.

I suspect my local chemist is confused. Anyone seen anything about this particular rule?

Rats. In the roof.

Pest inspector, bait.

Rats had a party last night going after it. Dancing around, munching away. I expect some nasty smells in the next few days. Hopefully the dog won't go after one of the poisoned rats. We're fairly sure they'll go next door to die.

Pest inspector is a builder. Suggested our garage (an extention on the house) looked pretty dodgy and we should have it looked at. I confirmed with some measurements of cracks I took when we moved in and I agree. The main crack has doubled in size in the last year.

Had it looked at this morning. Lots of sad looks from the builder, very similar to those of the pest inspector, and "there is no easy fix for this" comments.

We're getting an engineer in to have a look.

Confident we'll be able to fix it one way or another, but expect it will be very expensive.

So it's moved to the top of the list before new hot water system, painting windows and fences, fixing water preasure and airconditioning.

The wedding is in there somewhere...