Canopus / Grass Valley High-quality Analog-to-Digital Video Conversion ADVC55

Pros: It worked well with my MAC Mini while importing both HI-8 video tapes and VHS. Decent video quality from HI-8 to digital. Nothing you can really do with VHS quality though which is understandable.

Cons: The price is a little too much. But so far, its the only device that works well with both PC and Mac.

Pros: The picture quality is very good and provides better saturation and less video noise than I was getting doing a DV passthrough on my Panasonic GS400 (both using SVHS cable). Setup is very simple. Works seemlessly with my Magix Movie Edit Pro software. Picture quality was much better than the USB analogue capture device that I tried.

Cons: Much more expensive than USB solutions.

Other Thoughts: Device had problems with a VHS tape that is in fair condtion. As another reviewer pointed out, if you're capturing a number of old/worn tapes then look at a unit that includes the Time Based Correction (TBC).

Pros: I received this unit last night and used for 5 straight hours without any problems. It has only been one day but I was very pleased on how this device works. I use Adobe Premiere Pro CS2 for video capture and edit and this device works perfect with it. The clairity and color looks fantastic. I'll be using this every day for the next couple of months so I will leave an updated review later on.

Cons: none yet.

Other Thoughts: I used to use my Panasonic GS400 as my analog to digital converter, not anymore. I do conversions all the time and have use the Canopus RexRT just for the analog to digital conversion, what a wast.

Pros: The picture quality of the videos it captures is excellent and virtually indistinguishable from the source. It's easy to hook up and use and as long as you have a six-pin firewire port on your computer you don't need an external AC adapter.

Cons: It is very sensitive to any drop outs in the video signal and will drop frames if the source isn't perfect. Whenever it drops a frame it also drops the audio that goes with that frame (to keep everything in sync) and it causes a slight "popping" sound. If enough frames are dropped consecutively there will be a noticeable skip in the video. A time base corrector can take care of this but they can introduce their own set of problems.

Other Thoughts: If you already have a good time base corrector (or a VCR with a TBC built-in) then the ADVC55 will do an excellent job at capturing video. However I can't really recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have the proper equipment.

Pros: IEEE 1394 interface (USB doesn't cut if for video), ease of use, small in size, uses native drivers, uses IEEE 1394 as the power source as long you're using the 6 pin connection.

Cons: Price.

Other Thoughts: There's no TBC so it only does a good job on clean video. I put AV Tool’s AVT-8710 in line with the ADVC55 (e.g. VCR--> AVT-8710--> ADVC55--> PC) and for the most part it corrected my problems converting older video. The biggest problem I had was jitter and/or audio/video out of sync. I found B&H Photo to be the cheapest as Newegg doesn’t sell it. I believe you’ll be as happy as I am with this solution but please do your own research before buying it. I use Vegas Pro 9 as my editor. An excerpt of AV Tool’s product description: AVT-8710 TBC is a Multi-system Time Base Corrector/Frame Synchronizer. It eliminates picture jitter and time base errors from videotape playback and insures a stable on-screen image through the use of dual-field full-frame reconstruction. It restores distorted or misshapen vertical and horizontal sync and color burst signals. An integral Processing Amplifier allows the adjustment of Brightness, Contrast, Color Saturation, Hue and Sharpness.

Pros: When I hooked it up, it worked perfectly - in fact, better than I expected. Very easy to use.

As expected, received great service from Newegg.

Cons: After I had it over a week, I noticed that the video quality quivers and jumps, and the light on the side of the unit alternates from green to red, and sometimes stays red.

It appears as if the unit is overheating, but it does not feel excessively warm.

I plan on sending it back but I am worried that if I get it replaced the second unit will do the same thing. Not sure what I will do.

Pros: This device is simplicity by itself. A small, cigarette sized box where you plug-in analog inputs on one side and out comes digitized video on the other. No need for a separate power brick.

Cons: More expensive than the competition, doesn't come with bundled software for video capture (came with edius trial version but it expires in 30 days and costs another 200 bucks to purchase).

Other Thoughts: This was one of two recommended cards for use with adobe premier elements. The main requirement was a firewire interface and ability to output uncompressed avi files (for lossless editing). An additional requirement I wanted was to use an external converter versus an internal card. I went with this solution instead of the pyro capture box because this did not require an external power supply while the pyro capture box did (though the pyro box is cheaper). The first solution I went for was actually yet a different vendor but that was quickly returned when I found out I could not capture directly from adobe premier and it only generated compressed video which mean lossy editing.
Canopus usually creates their own converter chips, I don't know though if this is the case for this one.

Pros: Easy set up

Cons: Poor video quality - unit may have been defective, with random "flashes" and weird "quivering" of picture. No advantage versus a simple pass-through a camcorder.

Pros: Does what it should

Cons: None

Pros: Ultra-simple set up, clean and clear video transfer from standard def sources over IEEE 1394, tight construction and good documentation. Perfect for Flash-based or QTSS web-casting and DV conversion on any platform without drivers. I have also used this products larger sibling (ADVC110) and it produces the same quality image stream, just without the bi-directional conversion to standard def.

Cons: None that I can think of.

Other Thoughts: Have been using products from Canopus for the last 2 years, and could not be more pleased. If you do not need to go from D>A on top of A>D, this box is hard to beat.