What are folks using to capture VHS? Must replace my Canopus ADVC 100.

Hi everyone,

For years now I've been tolerating using my Canopus ADVC 100 for digitising VHS tapes.

I need something affordable and reliable to replace it. What are folks out there using which plays nice with Mac
(my OS is presently Mojave but really, I'd rather something which is known to work well with Mac so I don't have to endure a new purchase if I upgrade my OS). I'd prefer something which uses more modern connectivity than Firewire if possible. I don't want auto deinterlacing (yuck) or any auto compression etc applied, just what is best and doable for as raw and clean a signal as possible.

My rig is basically: VHS machine(s) > Panasonic ES10 (very cheap but effective for tolerance of timebase issues) > ADVC100 via thunderbolt to firewire > iMac / FCPX .

Background as to why I have given up on the ADVC 100:

The canopus is incredibly temperamental. There is no rhyme or reason to why and when it decides to transmit a signal to my mac, or put another way, why and when my mac decides to accept and recognise a signal. Doesn't matter which order I do things. Under 3 different Mac OS, using two identical ADVC 100's a a test, I have consistently had to turn the ADVC 100 off, wait for its connection to be lost, turn it on, wait for the connection to come up, unplug and replug video cables, in a loop up to, I guess around 40-50 times until the Mac or ADVC decides "ok, NOW I'm going to work." It's been diabolical. It can take up to 45 minutes of plugging, unplugging, switching on, switching off...

I'm over it. No more troubleshooting, the ADVC does not play nice with Mac (whether it be via iMovie or FCPX, no difference) for me. It never has. So I'm not asking for advice on that, just want to know what y'all are using which is working well and reliably.

So VHS doesn't have firewire, unless you have some special device. So you simply need to get an analog video source into your Mac. There are many of those little things. Elgato has one a friend uses often.
www.corsair.com/us/en/elgato-redirect?re...2Fen%2Fvideo-capture

No, VHS doesn't have firewire of course! A Canopus ADVC 100 does, though, which is why I mentioned it. Looks like you missed the bit where I described my conversion chain.

I'm aware of the Elgato - thanks for mentioning. I've sent the company some questions. I'm a little worried about the lack of mention of deinterlacing and blocking artifact correction at their website. I don't want to pick up something like this only to find that it's auto-deinterlaced / "smoothed" everything with no way of turning such a function off.... although I am impressed that it auto detects PAL vs NTSC. Maybe it's a winner, I'll have to see what they say in response to my queries.

The ADVC 110 works just fine with my Mac Mini and my PC. Not sure about the ADVC 100. The cheap USB capture devices can be a pain in the ass and a lot of times result in poor video quality. I agree with you that you should not de-interlace the video at capture. The BMD Intensity Shuttle will require a TBC in order to capture old VHS tapes.

Thanks!
Well, here in Oz it's pretty hard to find any Canopus gear these days and to be honest I am put off. Neither of my ADVC 100's have been reliable. Looks like there's only cheap, cruddy $20 converters or super expensive Blackmagic boxes at the other end of the spectrum, not much in between. I'll keep hunting...

Wow, amazing what happens when you search for "VHS capture" vs "VHS converter".

Didn't realise Blackmagic made this more affordable device:

www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/intensity

No TBC but I use a Panasonic ES10, no probs at all. I'll probably pick one of these up.

FCPX works with the Intensity Shuttle for playback only. That being said Premiere Pro is easy to use for capture as is Media Express.

I just ordered a BM intensity / USB3, locally for under AU$400 and it should be here next week.
I only need the device for reliable capture at high quality, and the BM is fine with software such as OBS. Not fussed if I capture within FCPX or other software. I just don't want to be faffing about with an unreliable device anymore. My Panasonic ES10 has been a great little TBC component, so fingers crossed I've solved the problem. I'll report back!

I was hoping for the last 4 years BMD would make the Intensity Shuttle 2 with Thunderbolt 3. Kind of like the Intensity Shuttle but with 4K support and the ability to capture VHS tapes without at TBC.

Ok, the BM Intensity Shuttle US3 works just fine with OBS!
Was easy to set up, and it worked straight away once I had installed the requisite software. OBS saw the BM device readily and setup was easy. Extremely happy. Recommended!

I am glad to here that the Intensity Shuttle/Panasonic ES10 worked out for you. That being said why can't BMD revamp the Intensity Shuttle? It is 2020.