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From the camera it looks good. The tapes are about 15 years old so they have lost some quality. If I compare (direct to TV from the camcorder) in comparison to (camcorder to DV tape to DVD), the direct from TV  is somewhat better.
Mostly a little grainier/noisier and lighter especially in the lighter areas somewhat blown out. Maybe some kind of hardware that I would plug the camcorder into and have it digitize it in less steps?

The camcorder is not a Firewire one it is 15 yrs old. It just has a box that it plugs into that has a yellow and white jack for video in/out and yellow and white jack for audio in/out. So into the ones labeled video out I used some RCA cable that plugs into each of those yellow jacks and the other single lead from the RCA jacks goes into my newer DV camcorder. I just play the tape from the old camcorder onto the DV tape. Finally I hook up my Firewire cable up to the DV newer camcorder and run it into the computer for digitizing. Hopefully this better explains my problem.

Would that make for a better copy than the way I am doing it now? I only have about 12 tapes so time is not an issue. It is really more about quality of the transfer from the old 8 camcorder tapes. It looks like about a $279 investment so I would hope for better quality than my current method.

Thanks and please let me know!

avkills wrote:

My guess is that your Firewire camcorder does not have time base correction applied on the video inputs, which if you are talking VHS tapes; a TBC can really help out.

I would suggest the most in-expensive route is going to be a Canopus Firewire bridge, which has the appropriate digital filtering technology to make VHS tapes look as good as they can.

If your old canon has Y/C output (s-video) that would be better.

patart wrote:

The camcorder is not a Firewire one it is 15 yrs old. It just has a box that it plugs into that has a yellow and white jack for video in/out and yellow and white jack for audio in/out. So into the ones labeled video out I used some RCA cable that plugs into each of those yellow jacks and the other single lead from the RCA jacks goes into my newer DV camcorder. I just play the tape from the old camcorder onto the DV tape. Finally I hook up my Firewire cable up to the DV newer camcorder and run it into the computer for digitizing. Hopefully this better explains my problem.

I think you miss read something
avkills is taking about your newer camcorder. and is recommending you use a "Canopus Firewire bridge" in place of the newer camcorder.

patart wrote:

I assume that with my newer DV cam with the Firewire connection I really won't see any better quality by running that video through the Canopus Firewire bridge?

avkills wrote:

My guess is that your Firewire camcorder does not have time base correction applied on the video inputs, which if you are talking VHS tapes; a TBC can really help out.

Not my field of expertise, but avkills is saying that you likely WILL see better quality with the bridge.

Pick one up on eBay and then just resell it when you're done. It'll probably come out pretty even in the end.

Great ! I am onto it! My videos will thank you! 

Pat

Quick note on the ADS Tech PYRO A/V Link: I bought one a while back to transfer old home movies from VHS and stuff to a new iMac (at the time). Turns out it drops frames and audio from sources like home-recorded VHS and cable TV. I've read a similar reviews that support this. I essentially wasted my money but I'm looking into getting a TBC to hopefully solve the problem. The ADS seemed to be good for commercial VHS though.

Last edited by dugost (2008-10-22 12:56 pm)

I am researching both the ADVC 55 and 110 models. Not sure of the difference between the two.

I know that the Canopus ADVC 110 was originally recommended. I saw some Elgato Turbo.264 HD - USB 2.0 H.264 Encoder/Accelerator for less money at OWC. Would this work just as well or do you still like the Canopus better?

This is the one I saw:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/ElGato/10020196/

They also have the  Eye TV hybrid but I am pretty sure that is not what I need.

Thanks for the follow up Mark! Just thought I would ask. My goal is to get the video of my kids off of my old Olympus 8 camcorder and onto the computer and then to DVD.

Got one on the way! Thanks for the recommendation!

Pat