I am afraid to say that from the nature of some of your questions at least, you appear to have some fundamental misunderstandings about some of the basics...
'Capture', whether from analogue or digital sources, always involves some hardware interface, combined with software, to transfer the video from a source to a target. In many cases, including all analogue transfers, the video is also converted to a digital format that the editing software can recognise.
For analogue video, you can use a dedicated device such as your Adstech device, which will normally capture and convert the analogue signal to digital mpeg-2 (and some other formats) sending it to your computer via the USB set-up. Or you might have an expensive device such as a Plextor or Canopus which uses a Firewire interface at both ends to send a (preferable) DV signal to the computer. Or you can use a digital mini DV camera as a passthrough device, again using Firewire to capture in DV format. Or you can use a Digital 8 camera (which has the facility -- not all do) to be used as a passthrough device or which can even play back analogue 8mm or Hi8 tapes directly and convert them to DV via Firewire.
For digital source video, capture also means 'transfer' and in some cases 'conversion' as well. With DV video, it means transfer only, as you are merely transferring video in real time from a camera DV tape to the computer and the transfer is done using exactly the same digital properties. Nothing is changed. In some cases, though, people like to 'capture' from a mini DV camera directly to DVD-compatible mpeg-2, so that involves conversion as well. In this case, the 'capture' device is a combination of the camera itself and the Firewire interface, plus of course the software.
With hard disk cameras, capture involves transfer via the USB transfer interface, sometimes in DVD compatible format, but sometimes in an mpeg-2 format (such as the JVC .mod/.tod format) which also requires some conversion to readable form for the editing program. In the latter case, though, it is the software that does that conversion. This applies, AFAIK, to both standard and high definition hard disk cameras.
For mini DVD cameras, the USB interface can also be used, with the camera in effect being seen as a DVD drive. But it is easier to 'capture' or 'import' or 'transfer' the contents of the mini DVD by simply putting it into your computer's DVD optical drive (which thus becomes the 'capture/import' interface) and using a software package which can see those contents (sometimes the disc has to be 'finished') and convert them from .vob format to usable mpeg-2.
Standard H.264/mpeg-4 or high definition AVCHD cameras, which use a mini SD card as their storage medium, are not dissimilar to the mini DVD idea. You can either connect the camera via the USB interface and transfer the cards contents in its original format. Or you can use a card reader, either external or internal to your computer, and read the contents of the SD card that way, and transfer them as you for any file from one drive to another.
Some high definition cameras use mini DV tapes, but film in HDV format which is high definition mpeg-2. Capture is via the Firewire interface. It can be either 'transfer' only using exactly the same properties as in the camera (i.e. 'capture' to HDV format). Or you can use a down-convert utility in the camera (if it has one) to transfer and convert on the fly from HDV to standard definition DV format; or use software later to down-convert transferred HDV.
That just about covers it, I think, albeit in brief and simplistic form. But essentially, capture can mean transfer alone or transfer plus conversion. And a 'capture device' is one which facilitates this transfer and, sometimes, conversion.
As to your questions:
1. Is VS11+ a recommended capture tool, or should I be looking for an alternative?
In general, yes. But as DVD Doug has already suggested, it depends on what you are capturing from and in what format -- plus what equipment is involved. Firewire? USB? Some other device? In general, VS does a good job for most types of captures. But there are a variety of specialised capture programs out there which might, because they are specialised, do a (slightly) better job. For instance, for my standard definition DV captures, I tend to use the freeware program WinDV. And for my high definition HDV I use another freeware program called HDVSplit which, as its name suggests, will capture and split by scene -- something VS cannot do with HDV.
2. If VS11+ is a recommended capture tool, is there a pointer to a recommended workflow?
For our suggested workflow, see
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... 512#101512
3. Can I use my Sony DVD/CD Rewritable Drive as my capture device?
An external drive is just that -- a drive, in this case used for reading/burning discs. At most it can be the target drive for storing captured files. At a stretch, it could be called a capture device if you are 'capturing' from a mini DVD camera as described above.
4. Are there any recommended settings changes when capturing digital vs. VHS?
Again, there can be just as many differences in capture properties for digital video as there are for analogue. But equally, that all depends on exactly what format of digital you are talking about. Some may be Upper Field First, some may be lower, some may even be 'progressive' which is akin to Frame Based. Then, depending on what you are going to do with it, or how worried you are about quality, you will obviously select (for anything except DV or high def formats) a bitrate which will ensure a higher quality or conversely more video per DVD.
With analogue source material, some people say it is a waste of space to use a bitrate higher than 4000 or 4500 kbps. However, I use my Digital 8 for such captures, and the quality is excellent, so I use a higher bitrate -- usually around 7000 kbps -- to preserve that quality. Ditto when I use my mini DV camera as passthrough from, say, my VCR.
By the way, Adstech Capture Wizard (CapWiz) is a software capture program, not the capture device itself. That would be the hardware which the software came with e.g. the Adstech DVD Xpress 2 capture device...
