Digitizing S-VHS-C casettes, problems with video quality

qualia · 26th May 2011, 02:30

Hello doom9!

A few months ago my uncle and I embarked on a somewhat ambitious project; we decided to digitize his entire library of old S-VHS-C recordings. As fate would have it, his old S-VHS camera was broken, so we got hold of a used JVC HR-S7600EK PAL VCR and an S-VHS-C Cassette Adapter. This is currently our means of playback and output of the cassettes.

On the receiving end is a Pinnacle PCTV 330e USB2 dongle connected to an Intel Core 2 desktop machine with Windows 7 x64 and Virtualdub.

The total setup looks like this:

S-VHS-C cassette in adapter -> HR-S7600EK -> good quality S-Video cable -> PCTV 330e -> Virtualdub

The problem we are facing now is regarding the quality of the captured video. We want to capture the video with the best quality that is feasible with consumer hardware, and because of the volume of cassettes we want to make sure we do it right from the start.

I have uploaded a few clips illustrating the results we get straight from Virtualdub with the current setup. The uploaded files are 20mbps WMV encodes of the raw video (yuy2) from Virtualdub.

http://www.mediafire.com/?9ijlqys237sx579

As far as I can see there is obvious interlacing artifacts (combing?) in the Test1 clip, and in Test2 and Test3 there is some weird noise/moiré present when there should only be a clear blue color. Interestingly enough, when the VCR is connected directly to a TV via S-video the TV displays a clear blue color without the noise seen in Test2 and Test3.

We have tested a second VCR with the same PC/PCTV 330e setup and the same problems were present with both VCR's. When the VCR's are connected to a TV the over all picture quality also appear to be better than the PC/PCTV 330e equivalent.

Based on this information we hope to be able to get some pointers in the right directions as to how we should proceed with this project. Should we try a new capture card? Could an external time base corrector improve the picture quality? And what about deinterlacing, is that best dealt with in post-processing? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

26th May 2011, 02:30	#1 \| Link
qualia Registered User Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 2	Digitizing S-VHS-C casettes, problems with video quality Hello doom9! A few months ago my uncle and I embarked on a somewhat ambitious project; we decided to digitize his entire library of old S-VHS-C recordings. As fate would have it, his old S-VHS camera was broken, so we got hold of a used JVC HR-S7600EK PAL VCR and an S-VHS-C Cassette Adapter. This is currently our means of playback and output of the cassettes. On the receiving end is a Pinnacle PCTV 330e USB2 dongle connected to an Intel Core 2 desktop machine with Windows 7 x64 and Virtualdub. The total setup looks like this: S-VHS-C cassette in adapter -> HR-S7600EK -> good quality S-Video cable -> PCTV 330e -> Virtualdub The problem we are facing now is regarding the quality of the captured video. We want to capture the video with the best quality that is feasible with consumer hardware, and because of the volume of cassettes we want to make sure we do it right from the start. I have uploaded a few clips illustrating the results we get straight from Virtualdub with the current setup. The uploaded files are 20mbps WMV encodes of the raw video (yuy2) from Virtualdub. http://www.mediafire.com/?9ijlqys237sx579 As far as I can see there is obvious interlacing artifacts (combing?) in the Test1 clip, and in Test2 and Test3 there is some weird noise/moiré present when there should only be a clear blue color. Interestingly enough, when the VCR is connected directly to a TV via S-video the TV displays a clear blue color without the noise seen in Test2 and Test3. We have tested a second VCR with the same PC/PCTV 330e setup and the same problems were present with both VCR's. When the VCR's are connected to a TV the over all picture quality also appear to be better than the PC/PCTV 330e equivalent. Based on this information we hope to be able to get some pointers in the right directions as to how we should proceed with this project. Should we try a new capture card? Could an external time base corrector improve the picture quality? And what about deinterlacing, is that best dealt with in post-processing? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Last edited by qualia; 26th May 2011 at 02:37.