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Old 11th March 2019, 00:58   #7  |  Link
rarend
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Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 9
Thanks again for your input LemMotlow, FranceBB and StainlessS. And sorry for not responding sooner, I was preoccupied with some personal stuff.

The main point I got from your posts is that I should improve my way of doing the initial capture. I should do it in a lossless format like LemMotlow suggests (which makes total sense) and I should perhaps take into account more the manufacturer of the camcorder with respect to the used codec. When done right issues such as the chroma bleeding, color shifting and illegal luma that you point out might become less prominent.

I still have the analogue VHS-tape and I'm very willing to capture the footage again to get better initial results. As for the filters suggested, I will surely check them out for situations in which I can' recapture.

For capturing directly to a lossless video format, is there open source / community software that you can recommend? I'm not familiar with any, nor am I with doing so using any of the programs I use.

For this VHS-capture via a DV camcorder I used Pinnacle because I had it installed and because it is very easy to use. I figured that since the source was DV avi, using DV avi also as the capture format within Pinnacle made sense. But indeed, it is not lossless. Afaik Pinnacle can't capture in a lossless format directly.

Would capturing to raw AVI perhaps also be a better alternative still?

As for the hardware I use to capture, I would very much like to stick to the camcorder setup instead of a capture card. I find the visual output quality very good when compared to the analogue source and I find the setup very convenient. Also, the output resolution is higher than the native resolution of VHS so with regard to the resolution the setup is more than sufficient.

And while this particular troublesome footage is from a private VHS recording, I have had excellent results with capturing retail VHS-tapes this way. I got the idea for using a camcorder from VideoHelp.

The hardware specifics of my setup are as follows:
  • VCR: JVC S-VHS HR-S6711
  • Camcorder used for digitizing via analog-to-digital passthrough: Sony DCR-PC120E PAL
  • PC firewire card: VIA 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
  • OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (Intel Core i7-2700K @ 3.5 GHz / 16GB RAM)
  • VCR to camcorder video cable: Vivanco PROFIGOLD Interconnect Cable (S-VHS)
  • VCR to camcorder audio cable: Vivanco High Performance Interconnect Cable (L/R tulips to mini jack)
  • Camcorder to PC firewire cable: VW-1 80⁰C 30V SPACE SHUTTLE-D IEEE 1394 (USB mini to 1394 firewire)

I use a Vivanco cleaning cassette before each run.

Might there be a specific Sony codec preferred to capture and do you know where I might find it?

And as for the chroma, luma and color issues, do you think capturing in a lossless format with better software and perhaps using a Sony codec would prevent such issues? Or might they perhaps partially be caused by other factors as well?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Last edited by rarend; 11th March 2019 at 01:01.
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