There's a lot of hate against the DV codec, but it really can produce very decent results.  Here in the UK, the PAL DV codec has better chroma resolution too.  I use lots of AD-VC55 capture devices (a single direction version of the 110, hence half the model number!), also DVCAM decks in E-E mode, and direct firewire capture from miniDV and Digital8 players.  In all analogue cases I feed them via a TBC.  I also have a  Blackmagic Design Intensity Shuttle, a device I find utterly infuriating to use!  For professional work such as Digital Betacam, I capture via SDI.  But for domestic formats, the DV codec is essentially transparent, and hugely superior to the compressed output from cheap USB capture devices.

7:55 - the DVstorm, DigiSuite, and Targa realtime cards (by Canopus, Matrox, and Pinnacle respectively) did cost that much. I’ve had a Matrox DigiSuite since the late 90s.

If they can capture closed captions, I would be impressed.

Thank you, I suspected that DVsoft is an intelligently designed codec, and your video finally convinced me of something I knew deep down to be true. I tried recently to get lossless capture from VHS through usb converters... Even if you can see a clear solid picture on the capture preview, it still drops frames regardless if you have a core i9 with an RTX 4090 and 64 GB RAM... I can't believe we're in 2023 and these monsters can't effin handle 720*480 video capture.

I will be reverting back to DV converters as I have checked out DV conversions I made 10 and 20 years ago and they honestly hold up and can withstand intense color grading in DaVinci.

This usb capture industry is a complete sham, it's maddening that such a simple task is purposely kept underpowered.

As far as I know, the canopus ADVC-110 has no TBC, but a PHILIPS SAA 7115 (9 bit) video ADC (for televisions) that is optimized for bad video signals, in contrast to the SAA 7114 (8 bit) that is only optimized for bad color carriers, and was not good enough (for VHS without TBC) in my canopus ADVC-100. With Blackmagic Intensity, the frame rate of the video recorder (24,998-25,002 fps PAL) or DVD recorder (playback) was not forwarded to the HDD. Video compression should only be used after software denoising.

Hi, what a timely upload for me! I’ve recently returned to my decade long quest on how to best digitise my extensive VHS collection as well as MiniDV etc. I have been digging into those forums yet again and each time, my brain explodes a little more. I have sourced so many different elements of the recommended work flows but don’t have a complete one. And as a lifelong Mac user, I have recently started the seemingly impossible task of trying to source a Windows XP machine and compatible capture cards. It really shouldn’t have to be this hard.

I come from a film & TV background in the 90’s but haven’t stayed in the industry. So I have a brain that can mostly understand a lot of the references and can pick up a lot of editing software etc. But this project is just needs to be done before I die 😅

Thanks for this post. I needed to be reminded that the quality can stay almost identical using other methods. I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos on the subject & there are surprisingly few with info that can actually help the process and cross reference the Video Forum & Digitalfaq guides.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one with this situation. I’d love to see more guides like this referencing other techniques.

E.g I’m in Australia and use PAL. I have a Canopus 55 from many years ago that I still haven’t used. Can it be used to get the same results in Mac as the 110? What version of OSX will it function with? I have recently purchased IMovie HD. Should I try to install it on an old Mac Air (if so downgrade the OSX)? Will it give me better results? Or is there a better method with something newer on an M1 MacBook Pro?

I have a good Panasonic VHS with TBC (HS960) and also a Panasonic DMR ES15. And a Sony MiniDV TRVE355E. I have all the Apple FireWire converters. I have a MacBook Air 2013 & a barely functioning MacBook Pro Mid 2012 non retina, a mid-2015 MacBook Pro 15inch retina and a newish M1 MacBook Pro 2021 16inch. I’m open to purchasing a 2nd hand Windows machine if needed to get an improved capture if recommended. I plan to restore the videos. I can get access to any Adobe products if needed via my subscription. Or can try to get FCP. I know that some of these devices can be used as ‘passthrough’ for VHS as well. I am about to upgrade all my cables too.

I have already converted my Mini DV via FireWire in my M1 MacBook Pro on IMovie 10 but very confused as to whether it was captured properly on IMovie 10 as opposed to what I have read on the forums about capturing in IMovie HD being superior as it captured both fields (horizontal & diagonal) Is this correct? I had thought that all FireWire was 1:1.

Any advice as to how to achieve best noticeable quality going forward would be much appreciated.

Thank-you in advance.

Premier Pro’s last update completely got rid of video capture altogether. They aren’t optimized for video capture like virtualdub anyways and they never were.

Hi thank you for making this video, I was reading the videofaq forums and was almost convinced to get rid of my Canopus advc until I saw your great video. What is the best software to capture the dv with from the Canopus or are they all the same? I was thinking of just using QuickTime on m Mac or is there a better option? many thanks for any advice :)

I have a Panasonic NV-HS1000 S-VHS video-recorder, and I want my old videos to be transferred to my pc, and to save it on hard drive (maybe in RAW format or DV25). Which one of these would be best?:
1. Canopus ADVC 110,  2. ADVC 300,  3.Twinpact 100,  4. BM Intensity Shuttle, or 5. Canopus ADVC-1394 (U09-PC-205) Capture Card, 6. Canopus NHX-E1 HX-E1 HDMI Non-linear Video Capture Card,  7. Canopus DVStorm XA PLUS capture card?

Will the AVDC capture firewire and still record the video when the timecode on the DV tape drops? When I go directly through final cut pro with firewire converter cables the recording capture on final cut always stops and creates a bunch of 1 second or 5 second clips of the longer video I'm trying to capture because of the timecode drops. I tried so many different capture devices and all do the same stopping the recording cause of a bad old tape glitch. But when playing on the camera it's clear perfect until it goes into timecode on capture then only on the computer blue glitch but camera still image and audio.

2:56 - the video on the left seems to have better color and contrast - but I admit I have a very cheap monitor so it could be on my end.

The dazzle dvc-100 (old and equivalent to the black 48$ one in the video) is no wonder, but with an es-10, Windows 7 on an old laptop and capturing in DV with pinnacle Studio works quite good for home use.
The small USB-Stick type capture devices are crap and put out god knows what format und colors

where does the Sony DVMC-DA2 (or DA1) Media Converter compare to what you are using? i use sclive to capture from a jvc s-vhs machine (no tbc). thanks :)

[Quote]Analog video by nature has a very low chroma resolution horizontally (barely the equivalent of 40 samples), the last thing you would do to it is halve it further horizontally in case of NTSC, [/Quote]
This is misleading. NTSC DV at 4:1:1 c takes 720 luma samples per scan line, and 180 chroma samples per scan line.  The issue is lossy compression implementations and data rate limitations, especially with typical noisy consumer home video.

I've managed to capture with my Shuttle after using a DVD recorder as a TBC, but the audio is out of sync after about 3 minutes of playback.  I'm considering getting a cheap simple one now, but I dont want to sacrifice loss of quality - whilst I do need to audio to be timed accurately.  I've spoken with various people about it, but so far had no joy

Hey, I've been struggling with frame issues for a long time and decided to buy a For.A frame TBC help fix this issue. I wasn't sure what to do and asked digitalfaq and a certain person you mentioned told me to return it and buy one of his TBC-1000s. I don't have that kind of money, and it cannot be that good. I was going to record from the For.A to my DVC-100 through Virtualdub and then deinterlace with QTGMC. Then I would sync the audio in post, but I don't know if that would actually work. Should I return the For.A TBC and get a Canopus? I just want something that will be better than the terrible Easycap clone's compression I have, can  be captured without automatic deinterlacing, and doesn't drop frames like hell. If it helps, I am only really digitizing VHS-C tapes through a Panasonic camcorder and through a surface-level VCR.

Modern Windows will work with FireWire hardware if you have the right adapters (FireWire 6-pin to FireWire 800, FW 800 to ThunderBolt 2, ThunderBolt 2 to ThunderBolt 3 [or USB C]). However, those adapters will not work on Intel CPU later the Gen 11. From my experience, the DV video works great. But today, the Magewell Gen 2 USB-HDMI does support 480i digital output, so you can capture archival quality digital files from vintage analogue sources using lossless codecs - if you want. You just have to use a good analog-to-HDMI converter in front of it - the the Intensity Shuttle. The  RETROTink 5x and the RETROTink 4k have Line TBCs that work really well.

I had a svhs  deck with an internal tbc that I was using with the Intensity Shuttle on a mac.. The deck died. Will the ADVC 110 work without a tbc and will any ADVC110 work. I don't see a thunderbolt connection.from it to my mac.

I have a Sony DCR TRV480e (digital), will capture with the firewire  create the same results as Canopus DV?

You state the Canopus ADVC 110 doesn't need an additional TBC. Let me partly disagree, at least with PAL signals. (I don't have experience with NTSC.) While it will indeed avoid audio synch drifting, it WILL drop the damaged frames when it starts creating a new file so there will be some hiccups in the video. I've posted some notes on this in the description of my newly-uploaded "Frame vs. line TBC, feat. Panasonic NV-HS860 & WJ-AVE5, Canopus ADVC-110 and Sony DCR-TRV355E" if interested.

Basically, if you feed the signal of a frame TBC (for example, a Panasonic WJ-AVE5) to the Canopus, it'll do wonders and will NOT choke on the frames otherwise it'd discard (alongside with the accompanying audio). So, at least with PAL signals, you do need a frame TBC with the Canopus.