[BadAss]

When looking on the Canopus site I came across the ADVC1394 capture card and it got me thinking. What difference would there be capturing on this instead of straight through the built in FireWire port on my motherboard?

Has anyone had any experience with these boards?

[vonhosen]

I use the ADVC-100 (now called the 110) which is a breakout box not a PCI card for analogue capture.

The 1394 isn't just a firewire card , it is also an analogue to digital converter (takes S-video or composite in & transfers to DV using the Canopus codec which is very good)

If it's just DV you want to capture though, you won't see any benefit from using your motherboard firewire input.

The benefit of the 100 (110) over the ADVC-50 or ADVC-1394 is that it is bi-directional.

[MarkE19]

Originally Posted by vonhosen

The benefit of the 100 (110) over the ADVC-50 or ADVC-1394 is that it is bi-directional.

Also, for those that don't know their way around the inside of a PC case, you don't need to open the case up and install anything onto the mother board as long as you already have a firewire port installed. Even if you do know your way around the insides you may be short of spare PCI slots, so the external boxes win again. Also the external boxes can be plugged in to different PC's (or Mac's) as required.
The bi-directional function of the ADVC-110 etc is very handy if you need to make a VHS etc copy of your footage (for granny who does not have a DVD player) but don't have a TV-out on your graphics card.

Then again, if you have a camcorder that has AV-in that can do analogue passthrough you wont need either version of the Canopus ADVC's.

Mark.

[Gromit]

I`m very keen on getting the Canopus 100/110 as I would like to preview my work on my telly among other things (mentioned this in another thread).

However, as the Canpous is expensive I then thought of getting a Matrox Parhelia 128Mb Triplehead graphic card instead (or something similar). What are you guys thought of this idea. I´ve heard Matrox cards offers some of the best TV-out images.

Note, I don´t play games on my PC at all.

[MarkE19]

Well I've got a Matrox Millenium G450 dual head graphics card (and an option for connecting a 3rd monitor to my RT2500 capture card) and they are IMO excellent for editing and general PC use.
They do offer good TV out, but the graphics cards are not good for analogue video capture. If you don't want analogue capture then this would be a good route to go IMO, but if you do need analogue capture then a dedicated i/o card would be a better bet.

Mark.