VHS input scrambled with ati aiw

[Hectic]

well this is lame, i've been attempting to capture home movies from an old vhs tape. when played in on a tv, the image is very acceptable although when connected through composite OR coaxial to my ati all in wonder 9000, the imperfections of the tape really seem to clash with the capture routine. it's like i'm watching a scrambled cable channel during the oldest and most worn out part of the tape. during the not so worn out portion, there is still flickering at the top 1/3 portion of the image. i decided to see how it would record if inputed to my dv camcorder and it worked great. not a sign of the symptoms described. instead of transferring the whole 4 hour tape to dv and then back to the pc, i decided to go borrow a usb capture device from some store. well, the symptoms don't really occur with that either but the capture quality (captured in dv settings) is not very good at all and rather pixelized. so basically, the sony camcorder method worked the best although i really want to avoid using it as a middle man so i'm wondering if there's something i can use as a passthrough device which will provide a solid signal that i can send to the ati card. obviously there's some sort of interference going on. i thought about buying an a/v selector and running it through that but i don't know if that would work or not. any suggestions on what i should do?

thanks for any ideass.

[communist]

Are those commercial movies? You may be seeing the effects of the macrovision protection. A search should yield many results and solutions.

[Hectic]

no, as i said, they are home videos. macrovision produces dimming effects, not scrambling. latest drivers are installed, doesn't matter which capture software i use..

[jggimi]

Can your DV camcorder act as a passthru device without tape? Many can. My Sony DV cam does, for instance.

Your problem with your VIVO capture might be related to the ATI driver -- if so, changing capture software won't make a difference. If its related to capture hardware -- e.g.: sync loss -- then adding TBC hardware may help, but TBC hardware is usually more expensive than a new camcorder.

[Qjimbo]

I've had a similar problem with old videos, basically the bits of snow in the video throw the TV tuner off so it repeats a few frames in this wierd repetative way, like when you're watching a channel on the tuner then change to a random channel. You get parts of the picture that was left before repeated. I don't know what to suggest to cure it though, I don't know if there is a cure.

[Hectic]

Can your DV camcorder act as a passthru device without tape? Many can. My Sony DV cam does, for instance.

Your problem with your VIVO capture might be related to the ATI driver -- if so, changing capture software won't make a difference. If its related to capture hardware -- e.g.: sync loss -- then adding TBC hardware may help, but TBC hardware is usually more expensive than a new camcorder.

unfortunately no, i didn't mention that i tried inputting via composite and using the s-video output to send to the ati card but when both composite and s-video are connected simutaneously to the camcorder, the screen goes blue. i'll eventually figure something out, but not soon enough. this was going to be a christmas gift for my family so i guess it'll have to wait till next year:( thanks for the ideas. of course my 32" sony has a coax output for a duplicate monitor. so maybe i should try that as well..time to go to the mall now though :angry:

[jggimi]

As a passthru device, DV camcorders take analog input (composite, usually) and send DV out via IEEE-1394 (also known as I-Link or FireWire).