Cables to use in transferring: S-Video, Composite, Firewire

Overview When transferring from a VCR to the Canopus to the PC via firewire I tested all the possible configurations such as the following:

VCR -> connection -> Canopus -> firewire -> PC

VCR -> firewire -> PC

Where the connection was: firewire, composite, and s-video.  And the Canopus was Canopus ADVC 100 or 300.  And the Canopus was set to use either IRE 0 or 7.5.  Lots of variables tested and many screens shots of the video and the scopes for each image (see Projects: 14-02-24 TEST s-video vs ieee vs composite from 8mm video, 14-02-26 TEST canopus 300&100 s-video vs ieee vs composite from 8mm video, 14-02-27 TEST canopus 300 - miniDV s-video, composite, firewire.  MiniDV Data: 10-02-27 TEST (Johnson) C300 s-video, firewire, composite).

Summary

Use the Canopus box set to IRE 0 and use the cables in the following order from best to least:

1)  Firewire (through the Canopus it appears that the firewire is only affected by the IRE setting....the other settings do not appear to impact anything)

2)  S-video

3) Composite

When using IRE 0 the top and bottom of the colours are not as crushed when being recorded onto a PC.  This setting would not apply if the VCR is routed to the DVD recorder as it would bypass the Canopus box.

Update

IRE 0 is used in Japan and IRE 7.5 is used in North America.  Now again these a analogue standards and design for output to TV's.  IRE 7.5 looks better and 0 looks a milky color....in fact IRE 0 just does not crush the blacks as much.  If doing a large number of 8mm video tapes and using two inputs (recroom and den) then we MUST use the same settings on the Canopus if we're capturing to PC.   Currently using IRE 7.5 for both.