"ADVC110 accepts SECAM video input only"

[a4alward]

I work with both PAL and NTSC sequences in Final Cut Pro on a PowerBook G4 (titanium). I typically have a Sony DSR 11 deck to interface between the computer and a PAL/NTSC studio monitor, but I am currently on the road in France with no way to link to an external PAL/NTSC television screen to which I have access. The ADVC110 looks like it will do the trick for my PAL projects, but I want to be sure about the "ADVC110 accepts SECAM video input only" disclaimer prior to purchase. Does this mean the unit only accepts PAL/SECAM ANALOG INPUT for conversion to DV? Or does this also include the DV input(s) even if the goal is to use the unit simply as a relay to an external monitor? In other words, can I use the ADVC110 to monitor an NTSC sequence in Final Cut Pro?

Additionally, I like the idea of powering the unit through the 6-pin firewire cable, but I fear that my laptop is old enough that it may have lost (or never have had) that capability. I'm on a bit of a tight schedule, so I don't want to order the unit and lose time simply because I can't power it up. Any clarification on this subject would be appreciated.

[Aristotelis]

Under the ADVC 110 unit there are some dip swithes, one of them is changing between PAL and NTSC. Set it to on and you can preview your PAL FCP project in a PAL monitor, set it to off and you can preview your NTSC FCP project to an NTSC monitor. Capturing follows the same rule.

Also if your G4 powerbook has a 6pin firewire I'm 99% sure that you can power up the ADVC unit, however that will increase power consumption of the battery...

[a4alward]

Thank you Aristotelis, the ADVC 110 looks like a good product, but since I can't put my hands on one and have to order it online, I wanted to be sure what I was getting.

[GrassValley_BH]

As Aristotelis says, the ADVCs support both NTSC and PAL (meaning NTSC DV<->NTSC analog, PAL DV<->PAL analog, it does not convert between NTSC and PAL).

Also, SECAM analog input is accepted. It will be converted to PAL DV, which then would output PAL analog. That's why SECAM is input-only.

So, here is a list of what the ADVC can do:

• SECAM analog->PAL DV
• PAL analog->PAL DV
• NTSC analog->NTSC DV
• PAL DV->PAL analog
• NSTC DV->NTSC analog

[Markus K.]

This means that the ADVC-110 accepts SECAM only as an analog input signal, but it cannot output a SECAM signal to a video monitor, only PAL and NTSC.

The ADVC-110 supports SECAM, PAL and NTSC on the analog inputs and PAL and NTSC on the analog outputs, and it can convert PAL and NTSC from DV to analog and vice versa.

[Markus K.]

Oops, Brandon was one minute faster ;-)