Svhs Vcr

[BloodyAztec]

I'm thinking into buying a SVHS VCR, because I want to record tv shows and encode them easily. This seems to be a quick and easy way for me, plus I'll be able to record shows with great quality.

How's the quality of SVHS recordings on SVHS tapes? How does it compares with DVD and VHS playback? Is there a site where I could see some pics of the playback?

Thanks!

[jbod666]

I am currently eliminating all of my S-VHS tapes and replacing them with DVDs. The quality of S-VHS is superior to VHS but it still is no where near the quaility of dvd. For just recording tv shows and watching them at a later time video tape works fine, but for archiving of material DVD seems to be the way to go.

[bb]

Why not buy a TV card and capture digitally?

bb

[jbod666]

I have a WIN-Tv 2000 (poor quality) Capture card that I have replaced with a ATI all-in wonder capture card (much better quaility). I use the new card for transferring of laserdiscs to the HD then to DVD. The problem with capture cards are that (unless you are very forgiving) the quality is no better than VHS. Although you are capturing digitally the end quality will be no better than the original source. When capturing from Laser the quailty is acceptable, however using DTV or Dishnet the quality is fair to shit because of the quality of compressed digital video. If you chose to capture from C-Band satellite then your quality will be closer to Laser quality, and if using cable, again as good as the source. (same with off air antenna).

[theReal]

The problem with capture cards are that (unless you are very forgiving) the quality is no better than VHS.

I agree - I also have a WinTV and the capture quality from cable is not good. Then a friend bought a Vidac VMagic mpeg2 capture card and I saw the quality wasn't better at all. He has to capture at about 2500kbit mpeg2 in 384x288 (PAL) to reach VCR quality. And with VCR quality I mean standard cheap VCR quality, not S-VHS...

I guess a real expensive external hardware capture device would be the only way to go for really good captures. All PCI cards seem to have too much interference with all the high frequency stuff inside modern computers (I guess that's one reason for the bad quality of many capture cards).

[DJ Bobo]

I don't think it has anything to do with interferences and such.
WinTV cards and common TV-cards generally have BT chips, which aren't the best in video quality matters.

1) S-VHS is very good, but you'll need a very good reception and a very good (ideally fresh) tape. Keep in mind that it is an analogue system, so you'll have to filter anyway. S-VHS has generally a 60% higher sharpness than VHS and has much less noise.
2) The best would to be capture directly on the computer with capture-only cards connected through S-Video with a S-VHS VCR (without going through a tape). I recommend Pinnacle DC10+ (or better). Those have the best quality.

[theReal]

I don't think it has anything to do with interferences and such. Maybe a bit - I can monitor my 5V line with the TV window. If there's no distortion under full processor load, then it's ok. As soon as it gets to 4.9V or below, the image is getting quite a lot of distortion when the cpu is under load.
(I have a very voltage-dependent board (Epox 8K7A+) - it draws all current from the 5V line and doesn't work at all with some PSU's, especially with older Enermax)

[Ookami]

Tsk,tsk,tsk...

> The problem with capture cards are that (unless you are very forgiving) the quality is no better than VHS.

Simply not true! Not better than VHS when doing what?

If you even capture with a hyped DC 10, it will be certainly better than VHS.

And even if you capture at full resolution (full PAL or NTSC) with a crappy Win TV + huffyuv, I highly doubt that it can be called "no better than VHS".

I personaly use a SVHS VCR as a tuner + a Asus 3800 and must say that the quality is amazing. Simple as that. Altough some people said that such hardware should be banned because it's "illegal doping" :D .
BTW, it hasn't a BT/whatever the name today is chip...

Pictures of SVHS capture (tuner). I can upload a veeery short (dial up) huffyuv clip, altough my picture could be better (many ghosts) ,you should still see the quality difference.

I recommend you to buy a Panasonic SVHS VCR (I bought a Philips VR1100, it was recommended to me and I'm more than satisfied).

Last thing: In the capture forum you can find quite a few threads about this! Do a forum search...

Cheers,

Mijo.

[TheDigster]

mind: all Panasonic svhs recorders that I had were like heat-boxes (they must get 50 degrees (c) on the outside... (I didn't had any problems with them tho... just so bloddy hot)...

[BloodyAztec]

Originally posted by Ookami
Tsk,tsk,tsk...


I personaly use a SVHS VCR as a tuner + a Asus 3800 and must say that the quality is amazing. Simple as that. Altough some people said that such hardware should be banned because it's "illegal doping" :D .
BTW, it hasn't a BT/whatever the name today is chip...

Pictures of SVHS capture (tuner). I can upload a veeery short (dial up) huffyuv clip, altough my picture could be better (many ghosts) ,you should still see the quality difference.

I recommend you to buy a Panasonic SVHS VCR (I bought a Philips VR1100, it was recommended to me and I'm more than satisfied).
Mijo.

Could you post some capture pics of what svhs quality looks like, or point me to a site where I could find such a thing? I can't find any! Would be very nice! ;)

[Ookami]

Originally posted by BloodyAztec


Could you post some capture pics of what svhs quality looks like, or point me to a site where I could find such a thing? I can't find any! Would be very nice! ;)

Hello...

I will do some capture for you this weekend. Like I said, I have a crappy modem connection, so it will be very short. Pictures cannot tell you what quality it is.

A few additional notes:

- My picture has many ghost and is graduately getting worse (antenna moved?)
- Sometimes I have some interferences, I should buy a special insulated coax cabel, but I'm too lazy and broke
- I have not connected my VCR directly to my GPU, the SVHS cabel goes over the Asus tuner TV box (I didn't noticed any difference, but there is probably one :) )
- I'm not a video pro and/or fanatic, I've stopped to do HQ captures (time/motivation) and I even don't have the motivation to adjust the contrast properly

So, even if you see the captures this weekend and are satisfied (or not), be asured that it can be improved.

Last note: I would not recommend you to use the analog - digital way (SVHS cassette then capture), but to capture directly to the PC. With e.g. Picvideo MJPEG you can save alot of HD space (min. qual setting, IMO 17) and the difference is noticable.

And if you buy a SVHS VCR that is capable of TBC and picture improving stuff you don't need to use any filters (except deinterlace if you make AVIs), because the quality is very good.

Enough of the talk.

But, do some research for yourself (google, capture forum), don't believe what someone writes on the net :) .

Cheers,

Mijo.

[gooki]

Scrap the idea of getting a s-vhs vcr.

Here's what I recomend.

Get a Sony or other brand DV camera that has analouge video input and capture direct to DV then encode to either DVD or divx for archival. Works very well for me and saves the bother of having to get a capture card when you want to digitise you svhs tapes.

This method is so much easier that the SVHS route i recently sold my panasonice svhs vcr.

My next mission is to streem dvb transmission directly to my hdd to kepp the entire process digital.

Anyone know if mpeg2 dvd streams can be converted to .vob files without re-compression?

[Ookami]

Sorry for the delay, I was working on the freeware list.

http://ookami.iwebland.com/SVHS.html

Just try the first upload, the second is not uploaded correctly...

I could not manage to download the file, hope you'll manage it (maybe you need a download manager?).

BTW, the files are raw, so you'll have to apply your favorite conversion method to see the difference (if any :) ).

If the first file is uploaded ok, I'll upload the SVHS capture these days.

Cheers,

Mijo.