Hi, all - I have finally save up enough to get my video capture device for capturing analong video (VHS tapes). Someone kindly suggested that I try the Canopus ADVC-100. I have also found the Canopus ADVC-1394 - is this simply a PCI card version of the ADVC-100? Is there any difference in quality or usefulness between the two? Checking the list of features, they both seem identical, except that one is internal and one is external. Also, does it make any difference if your connection is PCI or firewire?
To answer that you need to understand a little about what PCI is. PCI is just an internal bus (shared data lines) in your computer. Most devices use this bus to exchange data with each other, the CPU, and the memory. In the case of the external ADVC-100 you are still using the PCI bus because you are plugging it into a firewire port which will use the PCI bus inside the computer. The video saved on your computer will be the generic DV (digital video) format used by digital camcorders.
The ADVC-1394 has analog inputs on the same PCI card as a firewire port allowing you to plug either an analog or digital video source into the card, but it also apparently gives you the choice of saving it as DV, MPEG1, or MPEG2.
Keep in mind that the other difference is that the external device is doing the analog to digital conversion with hardware or firmware, while the PCI card is probably using your computer to do the conversion. That means that if you want to use your computer while you convert you will probably be better off with the ADVC-100, but I can make an educated guess that the ADVC-1394 will be less expensive (but don't take my opinion as fact). Also, unless you can find someone who has used both you will have a hard time determining if there is a difference in quality (although from their web page it would appear that there shouldn't be), but since one is designed for professional use and the others for consumers it's always something to consider.
I got the specific information on each device from the manufacturer's website.
