VHS Capture Via DV Camcorder

[GKDaniels]

I am capturing VHS by patching the VHS source through my DV Camcorder (as DV avi). How does this method compare (quality wise) to other methods of capturing analogue sources?

[Valky]

And what about interlacing parameters using KernelDeint or TomsMoComp? Same as the post below or and DV-source general?

Same script is also good as it is like in the post below or does it need something else?

[trevlac]

@GK

Here is a test I ran. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80033

I only tested color and luma capture quality. There are other issue like audio sync. Read to the end because I made (and corrected) some mistakes in the test.

[theReal]

I haven't done any real tests, but I have the feeling that captures through my Sony PC100E always look better than captures through my BT based WinTV card (even when the latter is uncompressed HuffYUV).

Also if you capture through a DV firewire device you have: 1.)perfect compatibility with NLE programs and 2.)relatively small file sizes (compared to HuffYUV, MJPEG is about the same)

[mustardman]

@GK

I compared a DC30+ with the ADVC100.

In brief:
ADVC100 had superior abilities as far as locking to unstable sync (eg: camcorder source).

DC30+ had better S/N ratio by about 3dB.

DC30+ gave poor results with multi-burst (it thought BW lines were colour).

Never had a problem with audio sync with either device.

However, a JVC camera I had gave absolutely woeful results for passthrough. It was an expensive (though crap) camera too. Sound quality was poor. Picture quality was less than Hi8. After sales service was aweful. New canon camera is great in both areas, but after sales support is also lacking.
Moral : Don't buy JVC.

Back to your issue, be a bit more specific about what your camera is, and what your alternate is.

MM

[GKDaniels]

Thanks for your feedback. I am currently capturing from VHS tape by utilizing the pass through feature of my Sony DCR-TRV27, and am experiencing a noticable drop in sharpness and colour saturation (my ultimate aim is to copy the vhs source to DVD before the tape has degraded beyond recognition).

I was just wondering if I might get better results from a dedicated capture device (such as Plextor's new M402U, or some other device)?

[Shubin]

I never tried capture cards. I'm using Panasonic NV-DS30.
The quality is not very good, but with SVHS sources is almost
satisfactory. The biggest problem is poor quality of analog
video tape which causes line drops. After clipping - sharpening-
contrast adjustment - resizing the image is OK.
But it could be better...

[mustardman]

@Shubin
I have never tried that device myself. If you can, borrow a DV camera that can do passthrough and compare them.

Yes, VHS material is pretty bad. The most important ingredient, at least according to others on this forum, is a good playback deck. If you start with crap, then it is really hard to improve it. Start with something even a little bit better, and it becomes much easier.

I too need to crop, and end up with an 8 pixel border all round. But I don't do any of the other steps you say - sharpening/contrast/resizing. I save that copy, then afterwards I can fool around with colour balance, etc, to my hearts content.

By the way, when you resize, what are you doing about interlacing?

MM.