At the moment I'm using my recently bought ADVC300 to transfer VHS tapes to DVD, running it with all switches off (the default) except for SW1-6 for PAL. Results so far have been pretty good with the exception of volume level. But the audio is not a big problem as my workflow is to immediately transfer audio into Magix Audio cleaning Lab for normalisation, cleaning and sharpening and then importing back to PRE7.
What I'm mostly frustrated with is the feature set of the ADVC300 and could I make my transfers even better This is because the ADVC300 manual describes all the switches and connections, but doesn't really give much end-user guidance concerning the effect of the switches and when they might be appropriate.
A case in point:
SW2-1 'Video-Audio adjust mode'. If left at default 'off' does the unit do anything at all to enhance the incoming clips If so, in what circumstances may it be necessary to set it to 'on
SW2-4, SW2-5 re Aspect ratio - does this have to be set to have Premiere Elements recognise an incoming 16:9 feed Or is it down to PRE to interpret the incoming signal if a Widescreen preset has been used
When using the Picture Controller software to control the device settings are the defaults sensible or not For example the default setting for 'black expansion' is 'off' and showing 'weak' - but in the margin it says 'We recommend setting this to [middle] or [strong]". If this is so, then why isn't it the default
Some other questions:
Does the ADVC300 'TBC' feature work automatically
What are 'Colour Bars' used for
Why aren't the Edge Adjustments defaulted to ON