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View Full Version : VHS to DV-AVI: Original and Subsequent Transfer Connection Standard

DonR
7th June 2006, 05:11
In the years before digital video (consumer level anyway) I used to transfer my Sony Handycam 8mm footage to VHS cassettes via composite connection, the only one available at the time. I'm now looking to digitise those VHS tapes. I understand that S-Video is a better connection standard than composite however it's not available to me. All things being equal am I likely to see a picture quality improvement by investing in a capture card with S-Video input in view of the original transfer from 8mm to VHS being done with composite?

Rgds,

Don
Qjimbo
7th June 2006, 12:17
Someone posted pictures on here a while ago comparing a VCR SVideo connection to a Composite one, and the difference between the two was very slight (I can't remember who, but the pictures were from stuart little). However I'm guessing your current capture card is quite old if it has no SVideo, so you might want to upgrade to get better picture quality. Older TV tuners can have quite a lot of ghosting.
DonR
9th June 2006, 02:44
I understand that S-Video is a better standard but that's not my query. As this is a one-off job I don't want to invest if an S-Video capture card won't show any improvement (or less degradation) over composite.

Rgds,

Don
Qjimbo
9th June 2006, 08:50
How did I not answer that question in my previous post? I wasn't talking about the standard, I was talking about it in relation to VCR capturing, to which the answer is "No you probably won't get much improvement unless upgrading your tv tuner card gives an all round improvement".
bb
16th June 2006, 16:58
Just in case one of the following options matches your requirements:

1. Use a DVD Recorder to record your video from VHS to MPEG-2 DVD. This can be a good choice, especially if you have many cassettes to convert.

2. Provided that you still have access to the original Hi8 tapes, I'd like to recommend a transfer from a Digital8 camcorder via firewire to your PC. This way you'd get pretty good quality, and you can use all the NLE programs out there to add fancy stuff to your video.

bb