[MacDV] Commercial VHS copying

[Rauno Teravainen]

I needed an A/D converter for some of my old VHS tapes and, since I 
didn't want to invest too much for the low quality videos, I ended up 
buying a Miglia Alchemy TV DVR for $149.95.  It has composite and 
S-Video inputs and also a TV tuner build in.  For the purpose of 
digitizing VHS it has all the quality I needed.  Just as a test I ran a 
commercial DVD through the S-video to my old Mac and it happily 
converted it to a Quicktime file  (8.6 GB for an hour and 55 minutes 
with the setting I had there at the time) and the quality is pretty OK 
considering the very reasonable price of the unit.  I have not tried to 
digitize a commercial VHS tape, but my feeling is that it would do that 
as well.
I was running the DVD on my old 400 Sawtooth and it was working all the 
way on the max, processor running between 92 to 97%, occasionally maxing 
at 100 (no easily detectable drop-out though).  The unit is compatible 
also with G5, but I haven't tried that yet, because I have other things 
I want to do on my G5 and seldom would have time to tie it for long 
digitizing runs.  It says in the package that "Full screen MPEG-4 
requires G4/1GHz".
For the purpose I acquired the unit, it performs in a satisfactory way 
and also gives me an opportunity to record TV programs, should I need 
that function.  It also has iCal scheduling and TitanTV support (haven't 
tried either one yet).

Rauno.




Nick Scalise wrote:

> On May 28, 2005, at 2:09 PM, tmeyer at lps.org wrote:
>
>
>> I have been reading with interest some of the discourse dealing  with 
>> transfering analog VHS and the sort digitally to the Mac. As  there 
>> have been a number of different units said to be quite  acceptable, I 
>> am wondering about a certain aspect. I will be  transfering some of 
>> my VHS tapes that I have recorded but I also  have a large number of 
>> tapes legally purchased for my use that are  surely in the stages of 
>> deterioration that will inevitably be final  in years to come. Can 
>> any of the units mentioned previously copy my  commercial VHS tapes 
>> that were purchased and might have a copy  protection built in?
>>
>
> The Canopus ADVC-100 will defeat Macrovision.  I don't think any of  
> the others do, that was one other reason I got the Canopus unit over  
> others.
>
> However, I do not know if the ADVC-110 will or not. It seems that  
> Canopus has discontinued the 100 and is now only selling the 110.
>
> If you are looking for the specific capability of defeating  
> Macrovision, you either need to ask Canopus about their 110 or find a  
> 100 from resellers that still have them in stock. I'm betting that  
> Canopus probably does not want to advertise that their unit defeats  
> Macrovision, so they may not be willing to say. Yet, I bet most all  
> Pro equipment defeats Macrovision.