Rating: 
Summary: Works well, but not hot-pluggable.
Review: The product has a warning sticker, "When you connect or remove the DV [Firewire] cable, please make sure the power of both PC and this product are off. This product will be damaged because of a voltage surge." I consider this unacceptable. A major feature of Firewire is its ability to connect and disconnect things without rebooting. I did in fact connect it without turning off my computer and nothing bad happened, but I suppose they could refuse to honor the warranty if it blew up.
Otherwise, it's totally simple to use and produces good DV video with good audio sync.
Rating: 
Summary: The best converter on the planet - 4VideoEquipment.com
Review: This device is ideal for all OHCI and DV-only capture cards for Macintosh or PC. The ADVC-100 Is the best converter out there, you won't find anything more compatiable with your system than this device. It may be a little more out of your pocket to purchase this converter, but it's well worth it because there is no known limitation. For example, the DAC-100 currently cannot be used with a external firewire drive, but the ADVC-100 can, so i'd recommend it if you have a external firewire drive. Also, i'd recommend the ADVC-100 over a competitor if your using it on a MAC. Currently the DAC-100 and others do not work with iMovie 3. The Canopus ADVC-100 has been shown to work fine in iMovie 3 workspace.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent product.
Review: This is an excellent piece of hardware for capturing video. I was previously using a Dazzle DVC-80 with extremely poor results - you get what you pay for. I mainly use the ADVC100 to capture video from VHS tapes, and am able to do so without any audio sync problems or dropped video frames. Setup was simple enough, although I needed to buy a firewire card because my computer didn't have a built in firewire port to connect to the ADVC100. Once I installed the card I was capturing and haven't looked back! Good Riddance Dazzle!
Rating:
Summary: Great Digital Converter so far
Review: This is the Canopus ADVC-100, though it's not listed in www.Amazon.com that way. (They do, however, correctly list the Canopus ADVC-50). The box converts analog signals (VCR, camcorder, etc.) into digital files that can be edited and burned onto videotape, DVD/CD, or emailed via internet. The ADVC-50 has the same digital quality, but only permits one-way routes, from camcorder to computer. In other words, you can't go back from computer to video cassette. That's my understanding, after much research. Also the Canopus has higher rating than Dazzle. No dropped video frames, or unsynced audio. At any rate, I bought it and have worked with the box for a day now. It was incredibly simple to set up. No problem joining camcorder to XP computer. Haven't yet connected the vcr to the computer. The images in AVI format were very good. No dropped frames or lagged audio. My video editing program is clunky but churned out AVI files, WMA files (for email), and Quicktime files. (The Quicktimes were excellent but too large to email). The converter box was simple to work with. My 45-minute analog camcorder tape took 45 minutes to input into the computer. But once there, the Canopus converted liquid fast. Heartily recommend it from www.Amazon.com!... Also bought an Io/gear firewire card (IEEE 1394 3-port PCI Card) GIC 1394. It fit into my XP machine without problem. No hardware wizard ever appeared!... Firewire cards go for less ... But wanted to avoid the saw, `getting what you pay for.'
Rating:
Summary: Foolproof, worked perfectly on first try
Review: Why I needed this:I wanted to convert a bunch of my old tapes into DVDs, but when I read the reviews of those products, I was scared off by reports of myriad problems and glitches. The good reviews for the Canopus encouraged me to try it and I was not disappointed! How it works: The Canopus plugs into your PC's 1394 (Firewire) port (if your PC doesn't have one, you can get an add-on card for about $30). The Canopus has no software. You just plug in a few cables and turn it on. When I did that, Windows XP saw it, offered to start Windows Movie maker to do the capture, and within about 2 minutes I had captured my first movie (with perfectly synched audio). The only oddity I noticed was that I didn't hear audio during the capture preview, even though the audio was perfectly captured when I played back. How it compares: The Canopus is closer to a video capture card than a full blown 'Make your videos into DVDs' product like Dazzle or DVD Express, because the Canopus doesn't include any software. But because the Canopus is a 1394/Firewire device, it's compatible with lots of video software. For example, on my Windows XP system, I already had 3 software packages I could use with the Canopus:
- Windows Movie Maker (came with XP)
- DV Plus 2.0 (came with my 1394 card)
- Nero (came with my DVD burner) By the way, even though the Canopus is similar to a video capture card, it's better -- compared to my ATI TV-wonder, the Canopus has these advantages: it digitizes audio as well as video (so you don't have to hook up extra audio cables and worry about synch), it doesn't care what resolution my screen is set to, it's higher quality, and there's no fiddly driver software. Bottom line: If you don't mind doing a little mixing and matching of components and software, the Canopus will let you put together a reliable and flexible video editing system that will probably work better than any of the 'all-in-one' products out there so far.
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