Canopus ADVC-110

I tour a show which is an evening of my films. I've been showing the films using video tape. But it would seem that it might be better to use a MacBook Pro and go Firewire out from FCP into a Canopus ADVC-110 and on to a projector. It's certainly more cue-able.

My question: If I got the Canopus ADVC-110, do I need the power supply or can I just let the bus power it. My primary concern in a performance setting is reliability. Nothing can go wrong. So if the power supply somehow makes a crash or hiccup less likely, I'd do it. If it's completely redundant... why bother.

I guess this would force me to use the S-Video connection to the projector. Most theaters probably run a VGA cable from their projector to the booth, which the Canopus doesn't have. Hmmm.

Thanks very much.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]

What kind of tape are you currently using?

My ADVC-100 (previous generation) won't even power up without the power supply. I assume the 110 is the same (I can't imagine this device being bus powered).

Seems to me that tape would be more reliable than quicktime -> firewire -> ADVC -> component -> projector. If you were going to go that route, why not use DVI out, or a VGA or HDMI converter, and play the vid fullscreen in quicktime -- skip the ADVC?

Make sure you play through the whole show a few times and look for dropped frames. Sounds risky.

Thanks, Mike. I've been putting each film on a DVCam tape. The thing is, my DSR-11 deck that I bring with me doesn't have an LCD display to show TimeCode, so you can't cue the tape very accurately. I have each film start at 10 seconds into a tape, but there can be a 3 second variance when you cue the tape, then eject it, then put it back in. So I thought the direct-out of FCP would be more controllable.

The films are all DV, so I can't play them out of QuickTime Player. QTP sucks at DV. The films have too much motion in them and there is too much blur of the interlacing. Believe me, I have done hours of experimentation with this. The films look best from tape, or over FireWire from FCP.

I've heard that a lot of the presenters at LAFCPUG use the Canopus from FCP solution so that's why i was asking here.

Yes, the Canopus ADVC-110 is bus powered but says "The ADVC-PSU5V AC Adaptor Kit is required when connecting ADVC110 to a 4-pin IEEE 1394 FireWire port." I just wanted to know if somehow using the power supply would add some degree of reliability by not taxing the Mac.

Thanks, again.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]

>>The films are all DV, so I can't play them out of QuickTime Player. QTP sucks at DV. The films have too much motion in them and there is too much blur of the interlacing.<<

Try deinterlacing the video before export to Quicktime. This cleans up a lot of combing in the motion in DV when displayed on computer screens.

I have tried that. Doesn't do it. But thanks.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]

Have you got 'use high quality video' ticked in the preferences in QT?

If so, I would be wondering why your results are so bad - this is not normally a problem area.

What are you exporting for QT to play?

Yes I did.

There's one film of mine which is particularly bad because of how much lateral movement there is. (You can see the beginning of LEARN TO SPEAK BODY on my website.) Other films aren't THAT bad. But I make dance films. If I can see that films with a lot of movement are bad, then I know that any film with movement is not as good as it can be.

Believe me, a number of FCP experts (Ken Stone, are you monitoring this?) have experimented with the footage and agree that QT exports are not as good as tape or Firewire streaming DV.

Also, when I've used QTP or QLAB to play QT movies, it's been problematic going into a theater and getting the second Display configured properly.

Thanks again.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]

When you take demos on the road you need to keep it as simple as you can to keep the demo Gods off your back. That means if you must hook up a deck then do so directly to the projector. Forget some Canopus device. You are asking for trouble.

That may mean you have no control over your video as the guy running the projector must hit the play button, but you can at least hook up your computer via DVI as well and have control over that. Assuming the projector is not a great distance from your computer. I just don't get the fact that you cant get a good picture from a QT export though. DV or not.

Michael Horton
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FYI, the Canopus 110 is powered by firewire when you connect the cable. Also, whatever you send in via firewire can be outputted through the RCA/Svid connectors.

Happy New Year.

i'm pretty sure the 110 has TWO FW ports.

if you use the larger 6-pin port, you can get power from your computer.
if you use the smaller 4-pin port, you cant.


nick

Yeah Mike, I think you might be wise about provoking the wrath of the demo demi-Gods.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]

If your interested, Western Digital has a device, the WD HD TV which enables you to play back multiple formats from a hard drive or USB drive.

We use it to show samples of our work at trade shows and meetings. It displays HD via HDMI, we use H264 but it can also display MPEG 2 and 4 and other formats that we have not bothered to check.

It has a remote like a TV with fast forward and rewind etc. Very slick, easy to use and as about as fool proof as it can be. However I did have a producer who dropped the remote and then re-installed the batteries incorrectly and got upset that it didn't work.

No matter how simple you make things there's always someone with an aversion to technology that will find a way to screw it up.

KISS!

Stepping aside from how you get the signal to a projector, why not author a DVD, instead of tape? There will be no problem "cueing" up to the next clip.

I've done that and had DVD players screw up in theaters. I find them very unreliable. Plus, I don't think they look very good. Throwing away 90% of your information, it's no surprise. I see banding in gradients and other artifacts.

But thanks.

Mitchell Rose
[www.mitchellrose.com]