MediaPress encoding seems to be working! I don't have enough cables, I tried a few junkers I found and set them aside. This means I can't use my TBC yet. I tested a minute of tape and the results were quite nice indeed. One problem is that the MediaPress encoding is supposed to allow preview through "a compatible MPEG decoder card", which is what the Wired4DVD card is supposed to be for... But I can't enable it, the selections for previewing are ghosted out. Meanwhile I patched a loopback so that I can monitor the VCR output while it streams to my MDD. After encoding my first tape of 44 minutes (GearVision Logic Audio Basics & Techniques Vol.1) I will check out the resulting file for sync issues.

Oh, and I wonder whether or not this stuff will do progressive scan... interlaced might be ok for ripping old tapes, but I since I don't typically use TVs I don't need interlace.