[John Romein]

Here is a screen grab of the same image from different capture file setups.

DSR-11 -> Composite -> Canopus ADVC300 -> firewire -> Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:
DSR-11 -> S-Video -> Canopus ADVC300 -> firewire -> Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:
DSR-11 -> firewire -> Canopus ADVC300 -> firewire -> Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:
DSR-11 -> firewire -> Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:
Canon HV30 camcorder -> firewire -> Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Here’s a slightly different test using an 8mm video and the same screen grab using different setups…this still shows the firewire looking not a good as s-video. And the Canopus 100 or 300 look the same for firewire:

Sony GV-D200 -> composite -> Canopus ADVC 100 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Sony GV-D200 -> composite -> Canopus ADVC 300 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Sony GV-D200 -> firewire -> Canopus ADVC 100 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Sony GV-D200 -> firewire -> Canopus ADVC 300 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Sony GV-D200 -> s-video -> Canopus ADVC 100 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

Sony GV-D200 -> s-video -> Canopus ADVC 300 -> firewire -> Sony Vegas Pro 12 DV capture:

My observations are that:
– the Canopus boxes when inputting via firewire seem to do nothing to the single…pass thru?
– the S-video seems more crisp and better colour than firewire
– firewire, whether direct, thru the Canopus, or from different player always appears “milky” and not as clear
– to compare these I took the screen shots into ACDSee Pro and did a side by side compare of 2/3/4 images and then zoomed into them to compare details

Your thoughts or observations….I always thought firewire should be better?

[John Romein]

Thanks Steve.

The Canopus is in the chain because I’m trying to set up a general video to PC path and the Canopus handles the composite and s-video and firewire connections.

I’ve tested the path using the Canopus ADVC 100 and ADVC 300. I have a ADVC 110 but I have not used it in the testing. What I did observe is that the firewire thru the Canopus (either 100 or 300) to the PC or the firewire from the Canon HV30 direct to the PC does NOT show any difference in image. I suspect that the Canopus does nothing for firewire…just a pass through? I could connect the DSR-11 directly to the PC but I suspect that it would be identical to the HV30 to PC…especially since DSR-11 -> Canopus -> PC currently equals the footage of HV30 -> PC.

I’m puzzled as I always thought that firewire was better (over composite, s-video).

I realized also that going from DSR-11 via s-video or composite would be converting to analogue and then the Canopus back to digital. So, in reality I would never have connected the DSR-11 to the Canopus…but I just wanted to test the different paths and now I’m puzzled with the results. The pathway originated because the Canopus is also being used for VHS, S-VHS, Betamax, and Hi8 vcrs…and that is the path used for these VCR’s.

Still puzzled!
John

[John Romein]

Thanks John. Sorry for the delay in responding. Things just got real busy and…..

I still cannot “see” the Blackmagic codecs in Vegas. I’ve installed the current version of 64 bit Vegas (build 563) on 3 PC’s all running Win7.

On 2 PC’s the BM codecs show in Vegas (render as / video for windows / HD 1080-60i YUV / Video Format – shows in drop down list) and they also show if I go to Windows Media Player / About / Technical Support Information.

On the 3rd PC I have a AJA Kona card installed and Machina software and the AJA codecs show in both Vegas and WMPLayer but the BM codecs do not show. The codec dll’s seem to be installed in the same Program Files x86 folders on all 3 PC’s. I’m wondering if somehow the AJA codecs are overriding the BM ones? Any thoughts as to where to look?

[John Romein]

Here’s what I found with trial and error….

I use Sony Vegas Pro 12 and that it only captures video…the audio is missing no matter which codec and wrapper I use. I logged a report with Sony and they basically told me that it is a bug that will be fix in some future build.

Machina is the only way I found to capture the footage. Several codec’s work for the PC environment, however only one seems to work if you are subsequently moving the file from a PC to a Mac environment.

Here’s the codecs that work for:
PC environment: 2Vuy, 2vuy, 8bit RBG apple, 8bit RBGA 444, 10bit RGB full B, 10bit RGB log, 10bit RGB smpte A or B, V210, v210
Mac environment: 2vuy

Its too bad that only one codec works for both environments.

I know there are lots of people out there with more knowledge on this topic than I. Please let me know if there is a better way to capture files from Betacam SP or U-matic through the PC installed LHe card.

[John Romein]

After some more digging….I answered my own question. Found a document on the Sonycreativesoftware website entitled: https://dspcdn.sonycreativesoftware.com/whitepapers/vegas9_compressed_capture.pdf That walks one through setting up the different capture cards. My issue was that I had simply select the device when entering the Capture window….what I should have done when entering the capture window is to click on preferences and setup the General and Device info first.

[John Romein]

Hi Fabio,

Sounds like you’ve gotten the Kona LHe card working with Vegas 10. I just picked up the card and cannot get Vegas 10e to capture with it. I can see the capture with AJA’s Machina, but in the Vegas capture (SDI selected and AJA video card) I only get “loading device” and eventually the capture window says “not responding”. So it looks like it sees the card but it cannot connect.

Is there special setting that need to be adjusted in the AJA Codex or Machina programs?

Cheers, John

[John Romein]

Found the solution thanks to a very quick response from AJA support. Updating my Nivdia video driver to the most current turned Machina’s fonts into English.

[John Romein]

Interesting option. Is this the setup without the breakout box? It looks like the only thing missing is a RS422 connection. I believe I may need this if I wrote back to Betacam, correct? Will this work in Win7 64bit?

[John Romein]

Thanks Grazie and Aleksey.

I played with Neat Video’s plug-in and it seems to do only de-noise the picture and didn’t really take care of the scratches (there may be 1 to 3 in a frame).

I looked at the vegasaur site and it does not seem to do what I want.

As for Avisynth ad Descratch….haven’t really had a chance to get into it…looks like a big learning curve….I need more time to deal with this and I’m not sure if it will do the trick.

Does anyone out there have experience removing film scratches and therefore a good proven tool?

Cheers, John