How good is ACEDVio?

[Rikx]

Hello every one,

Can any one tell me how ACEDVio compared to other firewire/video cards with regards to quality. Do I have to purchase this expensive product to edit vidoes? Does video card contribute alot to produce good videos? Thanks.

[shueardm]

Hi there,

The difference between the ACEDVio and a standard firewire card is that it has analog input and output.
The quality of DV will be the same regardless of having a standard firewire card or the ACEDVio. However the ACEDVio has very good analog capture, using the same chip as found in the ADVC 110.

[bobobear]

I'm trying to catch up with the times, I'm confused right now with the products.

I hope someone can help enlighten me.

I went to grassvalley website and found this:

Real-Time Nonlinear Video Editing - Hardware

·
ACEDV®io - Platform-Independent Analog AVF Editing

Is the ACEDVio a realtime-editing card like the DVstorm and the Matrox RTX100 /RTX2?

or is it just an internal analog to digital converter/OHCI Firewire?

Currently I use a Matrox RT2500, and I am planning to migrate to Premiere Pro.

I was looking for a realtime editing card for premiere pro, and it seems that there is no more DVstorm2.

Thanks

[GrassValley_KH]

It differs from the DVStorm series (and other GV editing boards), in that it has no onboard hardware DV codec chip. It's wholly reliant on the system's resources and chosen NLE for realtime output (which most apps support nowadays).

Essentially you are correct - ACEDVio is the merging of an ADVC110 and a FireWire card. Together you get full compatibility with any OHCI-based application/platform, and you get both SD analog and DV input/output.

And no drivers needed to install!

[bobobear]

Thanks Kenneally :)

You're a big help

Kit

[Fred Dwyer]

Kenneally:
You state " it [ACEDVio] has no onboard hardware DV codec chip." That seems to contradict this statement from the GV Canopus product description:
"One card with the world’s best analog and DV technology
At the heart of ACEDVio is the innovative Canopus DV codec chip providing the industry's best picture quality preservation and locked audio support during analog-to-DV conversion and capture. Locked audio ensures perfect audio and video synchronization at all times."
Can you help me to understand this apparent conflict?

[GrassValley_KH]

I meant to say that the chip is only for the analog/DV conversion. This chip differs from the one featured on our realtime editing boards which provide realtime DV output.

With the ACEDVio, the CPU still has to do the work of generating a DV stream for realtime output.

[Fred Dwyer]

Thanks, that helps clear it up. Perhaps you can help me understand even better. I've been using a DV REX RT since it was Canopus top-of-the-line. First with RexEdit then with EDIUS through version 3.5. If I recall correctly there is a setting which allows the selection of hardware CODEC or Software CODEC and the consensus has for a long time been that the software CODEC was faster and the one to use. If I have been using the software CODEC it would seem that switching from REX to the ACEDVio should not diminish my real time capability. Is that logical?

Just fired up the edit system. The settings are in the DVRex Properties drop down under RexEdit. One setting for DV encoding and one setting for DV decoding. Both are set to the software selection. Does this RexEdit setting affect EDIUS also as does the Buffer setting in RexEdit?

[PizzaPete]

Then is it safe to say the ACEDVio would be an excellent replacement for my 3 DVRexes and 2 DVRaptors, using the same Canopus codec?

I have about 4 Terabyte of on-line video that would be such a pain to transcode unless someone can tell me why.

Also, is there a software only codec in case I want to view my video on a computer without the hardware?

[GrassValley_BH]

Then is it safe to say the ACEDVio would be an excellent replacement for my 3 DVRexes and 2 DVRaptors, using the same Canopus codec?

I would go with the EDIUS NX or SP boards as a replacement for the DVRexes, definitely.

Remember that ACEDVio is only a DV converter as far as the system is concerned. Any analog input will only come in as DV format, and only DV format video output will be decoded to the analog output.

With an EDIUS hardware board and the included EDIUS software, you can use all sorts of clips and get the decompressed (and not recompressed to DV) output via the analog outputs of the board.

Also, is there a software only codec in case I want to view my video on a computer without the hardware?

You can download the Canopus playback-only DV codec to install on a machine without EZDV/DVRex/DVRaptor/DVStorm hardware.