I get grainy noise when I capture from an LaserDisc player

[leonid_makarovsky]

Hi,

My capture card is FlyVideo 3000FM which has Philips SAA7133 encoder. The card works perfectly fine when I capture from VHS source be it S-Video or composite in. The capture program I use is Fly2000 from http://auzol.narod.ru which was specifically designed for this card.

However, when I capture from LaserDisc source, the picture looks grainy. Here's the example:
http://us.geocities.com/leonid_makarovsky/Maiden/maiden.JPG

The interesting thing is that when I plug my LaserDisc player to a TV, the picture looks just fine. So there's something between the LaserDisc player and my capture card. I'm using Composite input (not S-Video). And also I boost sharpness all the way up. If anyone has experienced such grainy noised, please shed a light. Thanks.

--Leonid

[rfmmars]

http://www.avisynth.org/warpenterprises/index.html#snapshot.

It's best not to multi post a problem. See your first posr in this forum.

richard
photorecall.net

[leonid_makarovsky]

Originally posted by rfmmars
http://www.avisynth.org/warpenterprises/index.html#snapshot.

It's best not to multi post a problem. See your first posr in this forum.

richard
photorecall.net

The cause of the problem might be the same, but the solution is different. In one forum I asked how to clean the grain using software methods. Meaning I'm not going to be re-capturing video but deal with what I already have. Here I'm asking more about the hardware/software solution to prevent grain in the future. I'm not mentioning AVISynth here, am I?

--Leonid

[rfmmars]

Sorry for my quick judgement on the double post issue. The noise you see is thre all the time but you are seeing it better on the capture than on the TV.

Which way to go, capture sharp or smooth?........ Doing 8mm film capture I have found that sharper is the way to go. You can always smooth it down later. You should capture S-Video always.

However clips with grain present blocking issues in capturing. For me I capture 20m bps I frames only CBR and this keeps the blocking to a minium.

So there really only one thing that you could add to your analog capture link, and that a timebase corrector, this really helps with chroma noise.

richard

[FlimsyFeet]

I think all laserdisc players have some form of time-base correction built-in, but a separate dedicated box might help.

Do you get this graininess when the sharpness is turned down? I found that a too high sharpness setting was giving me "chroma line noise" on my caps, but if it was set to "auto" then this disappeared.

[Arachnotron]

Perhaps superfluous to mention, but anyway: especially for composite, use good cables. Short, well shielded and with all metal connectors.

As to always using s-video: laserdisk is the exception to this rule. Laserdisk stores the signal as composite. If you cap composite, the capture device does the Y/C separation. If you cap s-video, the laserdisk does the separation. It all depends on which device has the best circuit for this.

In general the capture devices are more recent than the laserdisk player and probably have the better filters for this. But do try both to find out.

But as rfmars already mentioned, there is always noise and when you look at a single frame it looks worse than it actually is. Try playing back a short sequence on TV and see what it looks like.

[tedkunich]

Originally posted by leonid_makarovsky
And also I boost sharpness all the way up. If anyone has experienced such grainy noised, please shed a light. Thanks.


You might want to keep the sharpness setting neutral, as all this does is amplifiy the noise present in the source. As mentioned by others, using quality cables is a must, as well as ensuring that the LD player and your capture device share a common ground (same outlet or power strip).

T