Canopus / Grass Valley Bidirectional Analog/Digital Video Conversion ADVC110

Pros: - Works as designed. - Connecting via Firewire with an Apple makes operation simple and effective. - Video and audio results are excellent. - Can be powered via Firewire bus (great for portability).

Cons: - Can get rather "warm" if used for long periods of time. - AC Power adapter must be purchased separately.

Overall Review: - Would purchase this unit again, without question.

Pros: Had it working as soon as I had the cables connected. Transferred video from on air broadcast(from TV) and from VCR tape on the first try. No software to install. Video capture worked with every video software I tried. With the VCR tapes a nice feature was unattended capture that turned off the ADVC and closed the file when the video ended even though the VCR tape kept running. This unit just does what it should without having to spend more than a few minutes on setting it up.

Cons: NONE! Newegg also came through again with no hassles on this and my other orders.

Overall Review: Just read the endless problems with the other types of capture cards and you'll appreciate this unit even more. Spend your time and efforts on the video editing and DVD creation, not just trying to get the content onto your computer. I wish all products worked this easily.

Pros: Quality. Taking footage off VCR or DVR is very easy. Using s-video, and RCA cables for audio, hooked up to dvr, and the results were very good. Works perfect with Mac OSX. I have yet to try it on XP.

Cons: Instruction booklet could have more to it.

Overall Review: Great deal, and good shipping from Newegg. One other note. While researching this product I came across some people who damaged their unit via static electricity. In other words, be careful.

Pros: UNBELIEVABLE video quality. Audio stayed perfectly synchronized all the way through a two-hour capture. Zero frames dropped, perfect color matching, looks FAR better than playing back on equipment through a TV set. If you want to transfer your VHS, Hi-8, any analog source, look no further. Don't waste you time on cheaper products. The ADVC110 requires no drivers. Just plug it in and IT WORKS!!!

Cons: None. Those complaining about the lack of included software aren't the targeted audience for this device.

Overall Review: Just buy it already...you won't be disappointed.

Pros: Short and Sweet- Great piece of hardware. I have converted over 20 old VHS tapes using this Analog-to-Digital converter. I have yet to be let down. Currently, I'm running Component In from the VCR through the device and out to 6-pin 1394 (Firewire) directly into my computer. I use Sony Vegas Pro 8 to capture and edit videos. The quality is absolutely superb. It actually improved the appearance of some old VHS tapes. No set up involved. Completely plug and play for me.

Cons: You can't eat it.

Overall Review: You will not be let down.

Pros: The unit does exactly what it says it will do.

Cons: Switches between digital and analog between captures, not a big deal to hit the button and reset. My PC did require me to use the smaller connector on the PC end of the firewire cable, 4-pin, which means the unit must be powered externally - had to purchase an external power supply (not included) - found the right power supply at Radio Shack for a fraction of what Canopus wants for theirs, been working for months.

Overall Review: Works perfectly with Adobe Premiere Elements. Capture computer specs: Compaq laptop, model V2321US, capture DV to external USB 2.0 hard disk, absolutely no problems.

Pros: Easy to setup up converter device, Worked fine even with windows movie maker. Fast and reliable. high quality codecs. Very satisfied.I mainly use for convert vhs tapes to digital.

Cons: Expensive, it was, when I bought it 6 months ago.

Overall Review: Good support under linux.

Pros: Seems to just work - worked on XP, Vista, and Windows 7 builds. Decent build quality, looks good, packaged well, lots of features. Seems easy to use - will post back any issues found, but so far so good. Plugging into a Windows 7 laptop it immediately recognized the device, added drivers, and I got a prompt to import - nice! I will (probably) be using Pinnacle for import / editing my projects but the ADVC110 worked perfect with even Windows Movie Maker with default configuration. (all I did was set the dip switch to analog since my main jump point will be to convert a LOT of old analog VHS tapes) Note: I found an old 9vdc 900mA power supply and simply spliced on the proper connector (off of another power supply). Just get polarity right, and you will be fine. (positiv tip / neg sleeve) Reading other VERY helpful posts gave me confidence to do this. If I find a 15vdc supply I will probably use that instead. See FW notes below - you probably WILL need a power supply at some point

Cons: 4/5 stars only because no power supply is included for a kind of $$$ unit... For the $$$ this unit should ship with a silly power supply! Do NOT buy the rip-off $40.00 ps either... build your own like I did. A 12vdc 1A or so seems to work perfectly. This is the only reason I gave 4/5 stars... come on... chunk in the #&*@*! power supply - jeesh. Who the hell designed the dip-switch and switch setting silk screening LMBO... you need perfect lighting and microscope to read / check the settings! The manual could use a re-write in some areas, but it's not the worst I've had to look at. I still do not quite understand wth the red "status" led is used for... I'd like to hear (if desired) audio as I am importing but this may be a setting I am not using correctly in the sw I have tried so far. The audio is there after capture - but not during capture...

Overall Review: FWIW - There are 3 Firewire connectors that I am aware of: 1) The std FW 400 connector is a 6 pin. 4 pins used for data, and other 2 provide power. (FW spec provides up to 45w of power) 2) Another variant of the FW 400 is the smaller one with 4 pins found on camcorders, Windows PCs, etc it's 4 pins provide path but NO POWER. This is what I have on all my machines. Some of my desktops ALSO have a 6 pin FW 400 connector on back, but the easy-to-get-to 4 pin ports are almost always up front. You must get an external power supply to use this type of port!!! When I plugged the unit into a six pin Firewire 400 port it powered up just fine. Also, the supplied cable is a six pin to six pin Firewire, so you need to get your self a 4 pin to 6 pin cable. 3) There is also a 9-pin FW 800 connector. This one uses 3 pins for power and the other six provide data channels for external devices. Don't know much about this type.